Maine's Historical Societies
Photo: Maine Historical Society
Maine is home to a dense network of local, regional, and statewide organizations dedicated to preserving the state's cultural history. The flagship institution is the Maine Historical Society (MHS), founded in 1822 and headquartered in Portland, one of the oldest continuously operating historical societies in the United States. MHS maintains a major research library, an extensive collection of manuscripts, photographs, and maps, and operates the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, as a museum.
Beyond the statewide society, nearly every county and many of Maine’s 400 towns maintain their own historical societies, typically run by volunteers and housed in old town halls, churches, sea captains' homes, or purpose-built archives. Notable examples include the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, focusing on local art, history and culture; the Old York Historical Society, one of the oldest in the country, tracing York's colonial and maritime past. The Pejepscot History Center highlights the legacy of Joshua Chamberlain, the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society focuses on granite quarrying and island fishing history, and Aroostook County Historical & Art Museum showcases the vibrant history of agricultural life and art in the northern Maine.
These organizations collectively preserve records touching on Maine's defining historical threads: shipbuilding and maritime trade, the timber and paper industries, Franco-American and Native Wabanaki communities, agricultural life, and the state's role in early American settlement following its 1820 separation from Massachusetts. These places house deep memories and capture innumerable stories of this exceptional place.
