Maine

Maine

Did you know Maine (the only one-syllable state!) used to be part of Massachusetts? No, really. It became its own state in 1820, though state archive records go back even earlier.

The Maine Archives Interactive site is a master index to (mostly offline) archived materials such as photos, maps, court cases and the usual arcana of state archives. There's a hodge-podge of items and records here:

• Marriage records, 1892-2009. Search on the surname of either spouse.
• Death records, 1960-2009
• A list of Revolutionary War land grants and pensions with links to some document images. There is also a list of names of those in the index.
• Indexes of Civil War records, including narrative histories, photos, muster rolls and burials. There is an index listing the names of Civil War officers and other soldiers, with occasional links to photos. An online exhibit in honor of the Civil War Sesquicentennial
• A small collection of photos of Civilian Conservation Corps activities.

You can download databases of the archives indexes. Materials include indexes of photos, legislative sessions, land grants, soldier rolls, town records and so on. Remember, these are indexes rather than actual archived materials.

Elsewhere, the Maine Historical Society has a large and diverse collection of more than 100 online exhibits with (thankfully) a good search tool for finding items of interest:

• A Brief History of Colby College
• A Celebration of Skilled Artisans
• A City Awakes: Arts and Artisans of Early 19th Century Portland
• A Craze for Cycling
• A Day for Remembering
• A Focus on Trees
• A Handwritten Community Newspaper
• A Parade, an Airplane and Two Weddings
• A Riot of Words: Ballads, Posters, Proclamations and Broadsides
• A Soldier's Declaration of Independence
• A Tale of Two Sailmakers
• A Tour of Sanford in 1900
• Amazing! Maine Stories
• Aroostook County Railroads
• Art of the People: Folk Art in Maine
• Atherton Furniture
• Auto Racing in Maine: 1911
• Away at School: Letters Home
• Back to School
• Biddeford, Saco and the Textile Industry
• Blueberries to Potatoes: Farming in Maine
• Bowdoin College Scientific Expedition to Labrador
• Canning: A Maine Industry
• Cape Elizabeth Shipwrecks
• Capturing Arts and Artists in the 1930s
• Chinese in Maine
• Civil Defense: Fear and Safety
• Clean Water: Muskie and the Environment
• Colonial Cartography: The Plymouth Company Maps
• Debates Over Suffrage
• Drawing Together: Art of the Longfellows
• Early Fish Canneries in Brooklin
• Educating Oneself: Carnegie Libraries
• Enemies at Sea, Companions in Death
• Eternal Images: Photographing Childhood
• Evergreens and a Jolly Old Elf
• Extracting Wealth
• Fair Season: Crops, Livestock, and Entertainment
• Farm-yard Frames
• Father John Bapst: Catholicism's Defender and Promoter
• George W. Hinckley and Needy Boys and Girls
• Gifts From Gluskabe: Maine Indian Artforms
• Giving Thanks
• Great War and Armistice Day
• Guarding Maine Rail Lines
• Hannibal Hamlin of Paris Hill
• Harry Lyon: An Old Sea Dog Takes to the Air
• Hermann Kotzschmar: Portland's Musical Genius
• High Water
• Hiking, Art and Science: Portland's White Mountain Club
• History in Motion: The Era of the Electric Railways
• How Sweet It Is
• Hunting Season
• Ice: A Maine Commodity
• In Canada During the Civil War
• In Time and Eternity: Shakers in the Industrial Age
• Independence and Challenges: The Life of Hannah Pierce
• Indians at the Centennial
• Indians, Furs, and Economics
• Irish Immigrants in Nineteenth Century Maine
• J.A. Poor and the Portland-Montreal Connection
• John Bapst High School
• John Dunn, 19th Century Sportsman
• La Basilique Lewiston
• La St-Jean in Lewiston-Auburn
• Laboring in Maine
• Land Claims, Economic Opportunities?
• Le Théâtre
• Les Raquetteurs