The Longfellow House Then & Now

It’s May and that means the Wadsworth-Longfellow House is once again open for the season! Whether you’ve never been on a tour or taken several, we invite you to visit us this spring or summer. Be sure to spend some time in the gardens behind the house, one of the hidden gems in downtown Portland.

There’s something special about a historic house, especially the oldest one in a modern city. If the walls of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House could talk, imagine what they’d say about the changes they’ve seen.

Wadsworth-Longfellow House, Portland, ca. 1920

While this ca. 1920 image doesn’t look so different from today in some ways — the house is largely the same, the gate remains, passersby and cars still congregate along the street — very little about this moment in time remains. The elms succumbed to disease and were replaced by flowering trees, the library has since been heavily renovated, and the MHS administration building now sits on the house’s right.

And that’s just the aesthetics of one small street corner. We live in a city, a state, a world that would be entirely foreign to our fore-mothers and fathers if they were to return for a tour.

Fortunately, we have great images like this one to keep their world in mind as the changes continue on.

The New Crop of Grantees

The latest–and last–round of Maine Memory Network Community Mobilization Grants has been awarded. The program began in fall of 2011 under a three-year National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and has gone through five cycles.

This final cycle consists of seven grants to fund digitization and online exhibit projects. The grantees are:

Bird’s-eye view of Boothbay Harbor, 1885. MMN #71154. Contributed by Boston Public Library.

Boothbay Region Historical Society, to digitize 70+ images, including 10 glass plate negatives, from the Society’s extensive photograph collection.

Leeds Historical Society, in partnership with Leeds Central School, to create an online exhibit about multi-faceted 19^th century Leeds farmer, John Merrill, based in part on his diaries.

Penobscot Marine Museum, in Searsport, to create online exhibits about Washington and Hancock Counties using photographs from the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. Collection. The Museum will consult with a number of historical societies in the communities to assist in captioning the images.

Rockland Historical Society, in conjunction with Rockland Public Library, to digitize stereoptic images of Rockland and create an online exhibit about Rockland after the Civil War.

Annie Louise Cary, ca. 1870. MMN #15644. Contributed by Durham Historical Society.

Vaughan Homestead Foundation, in Hallowell, to create an online exhibit about the original Vaughan family and its five succeeding generations.

Waldoboro Public Library, in conjunction with the Waldoboro Fire Department and the Waldoboro Historical Society, to create an online exhibit about the fire department’s 175 years in existence.

Wayne Library Association (Cary Memorial Library), in conjunction with Wayne Historical Society, to create an online exhibit about opera singer Annie Louise Cary, who was born in Wayne. The exhibit will feature selected images of bookplates from a collection amassed to honor Cary.

The Community Mobilization program has funded a total of 46 projects around the state. Sixty-seven organizations–and hundreds of individuals–have been involved in those projects, including historical societies, libraries, and schools. Visit Maine Memory for a full list of past grant recipients.

George Shepley: Lawyer, Soldier, Administrator

Our country is in the midst of a four-year sesquicentennial anniversary of the Civil War. Mainers are particularly focused on 2013 because 150 years ago this July was the iconic Battle of Gettysburg, during which Maine’s own Joshua Chamberlain, and the men he led, made history at Little Round Top.

Plenty of other Mainers made their mark in significant ways during the War, including the subject of the new online exhibit, George Shepley: Lawyer, Soldier, Administrator, created by Maine Memory Network Curator Candace Kanes.

Portland resident George Shepley achieved renown as a lawyer and as U.S. Attorney for Maine when, at age 42, he formed the 12th Maine Infantry and went off to war. He became military governor of Louisiana early in 1862 and remained in the military for the duration of the war.

The document-rich exhibit includes nine separate slideshows of Shepley’s role in the war, including military issues, requests from and about soliders, Louisiana and Maine politics, slavery, and Shepley’s post-war life.

Meanwhile, there’s much more to come on the Civil War throughout the year–including a day-long symposium on April 27 (details below) and This Rebellion, a new MHS museum exhibit opening on June 28.

Maine Memory Workshops

Time for another round of 21st century Skills Workshops around the state!

We’ve been running these workshops–which include an in-depth and interactive demo of Maine Memory, a case study of a local history project, and activities to assess your organization’s goals and how Maine Memory might help fulfill them–for the past two years under a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The workshops are free, three hours long, and held in libraries. They are open to library and historical society/museum staff, members, and volunteers, as well as interested community members.

This spring, workshops are being held at:

• Cherryfield Free Public Library, on April 29, from 9:30AM-12:30PM
• Skidompha Public Library, Damariscotta, on May 2, from 1-4PM
• Bangor Public Library, on May 21, from 1-4PM

To register, visit the Training page on Maine Memory, download the simple registration form, and send it in. Deadline is three business days prior to the workshop date.

An abbreviated version of the workshop–basically, just the demo–is offered every other month at MHS in Portland. The next session is on Wednesday, May 15, at noon. To register for that, send an email to info@mainehistory.org. For more details on the workshop, and additional dates throughout the year, visit the Ongoing Programs section of the MHS website.

Just the Stats, Ma’am

A month ago, we posted accessions statistics for the library and museum on our MHS blog. Now it’s Maine Memory’s turn.

Steamer Katahdin on Moosehead Lake, Maine. One of the many items added in February by Moosehead Historical Society, a new Contributing Partner.

How much traffic does the database see in a month? Well, as with accessions, it varies depending on how many Contributing Partners are active at a given time. February was a relatively active month, but not necessarily the most active.

Here’s the breakdown for the period 2/1/13 to 3/1/13, during which a total of 250 new items went online. Many of the organizations contributing items are participating in a current grant project or have received a grant in the past couple of years. (Links will take you to that contributor’s total to date number of items in MMN.)

• Maine Historical Society collections: 38
• Friendship Historical Society: 38
• Greater Rumford Area Historical Society: 40
• Mexico Historical Society: 24
• Norway Historical Society: 23
• Princeton Public Library: 20
• Bridgton Historical Society: 19
• Moosehead Historical Society: 10
• Dixfield History Society: 6
• Topsham Historical Society: 5
• Franco-American Collection: 5
• And, an additional 20 items from 14 other organizations, each of whom put up less than 5 items during that time period.

To see what’s even newer than that — having been added in just the past few days — visit our New Acquisitions page.

Historical E-Greetings

One of the nifty features of Maine Memory (as well as Vintage Maine Images) is the ability to send any individual item on the network as an e-card. With a couple clicks and the insertion of a friendly message, you can turn the historic treasures in the database into unique greetings to friends and family.

Just click on the envelope graphic beneath the image–next to the Facebook and Twitter icons–and follow the instructions. Your message and a link to the item will be sent to the addressee. Send them for fun and to trigger memories–I remember shopping at this store with you! or Look how much Main Street has changed!–or to mark special occasions.

Here are a few examples of the latter to whet your appetite.

St. Patrick’s Day. Why not try out the email feature right off with this bright, cheery, and timely postcard (MMN# 6744) dating to before World War I. What to write for a message? “Top o’ the morning!” of course.

Happy Birthday! Send this 1898 children’s party photo from Lubec (MMN #36872) to someone with the greeting, “Hope your birthday bash is as wild and woolly as this one!”

Love/Valentine’s Day. “From my heart, I wish you happiness” reads the inscription on this card (MMN #4130), from Captain Alonzo Soule to “Wify” Deborah Soule. Send it to the one that you love best.

Friendship. With a nod to the Civil War Sesquicentennial (2011-2015), you can send along this image (MMN #61515) with the note, “Friends stick by each other through thick and thin. Thanks for being my buddy.”

Happy Holidays. Wish someone a Merry Christmas with this Presque Isle tree (MMN #17346). The 70-foot white pine stood in front of the White House in 1959 emblazoned with 3,800 lights.

Thanks. This eye-catching sign (MMN #74886), created during the 1998 ice storm, could carry any number of appreciative messages, from “Thanks for everything” to “I am grateful for all you’ve done” or even “You light up my life!”

This Day in Maine Memory Network

If you search in Maine Memory for a particular date on the calendar — February 22, for example — chances are you’ll come up with something intriguing.

Androscoggin River flood, Rumford, February 22, 1981

Even if you don’t get exact matches for the day in question, you’ll certainly find items near that date. Among the numerous ways you can search on Maine Memory, it’s one of the more casual and entertaining ways to discover some of the gems on the network.

Pick a date and give it a try. Let us know what you find!