Sunday, May 23, 2010

52 Weeks of Online American Digital Archives and Databases: Maine

This is the 20th post in a weekly series of Online American Digital Archives and Databases found for free at state, county, municipal, college and university history, library, and archive websites, as well as public and private library and museum sites, and historical and genealogical society sites.


Maine Memory Network - http://www.mainememory.net/ - Maine's statewide digital museum "provides access to thousands of historical items belonging to over 200 organizations from across Maine. Search for or browse these items, explore online exhibits, or create your own collection of images from the database." Links to the Maine Historical Society, Longfellow, Maine History Online and Vintage Maine Images websites.

Maine State Archives: Researchers - http://www.maine.gov/sos/arc/research/index.html - in the left-hand margin, you'll find useful resources. The Archives Interactive is a search engine for several databases. While it gives results, no images or records are available online. Tributes, camps, and photos are available in the Civilian Conservation Corps database. There are also a state marriage (1892-1967, 1976-1922) and death (1960-1996) databases. Additionally, you can download various databases including a divorce index (1800-1891), courts (1696-1854), maps, military, photos, government documents and more.

Maine State Museum Collections - http://mainestatemuseum.org/collections/explore_the_collections/ - photo database of the museum's collections from clocks and watches to toys

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Bates College Edmund S. Muskie Library Archives and Special Collections - http://abacus.bates.edu/muskie-archives/ - includes digital collections; honors theses, transcriptions of oral histories, historic photos

University of Maine System Libraries Digital Collections - http://www.maine.edu/libraries/index.php?section=8 - includes the University of Maine at six campuses, the School of Law, the University of Southern Maine, and the University College. There are links to the libraries collections (regular, special and digital) on this page. I originally had a link to their Mariner-Gateway to Library Resources (http://libraries.maine.edu/gateway/ or http://libraries.maine.edu/mariner) but can no longer access this page. It was supposed to lead to a searchable database of all the campus libraries' digital collections. I am leaving this information in this post with the hope that it will eventually work. You can view a cached version here.

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Abbott Memorial Library Town of Dexter Obituary Database - http://www.abbott-library.com/obitindex.html - 1900-present

City of Bangor Public Works  - http://www.bangormaine.gov/cs_inf_publicworks.php - see right-hand menu for Cemetery Internment Listing, which is a .pdf file. Also see the link for the Mount Hope Cemetery website, which has a searchable database.

Curtis Memorial Library Snow Index to Brunswick Newspapers - http://www.curtislibrary.com/research/snowsearch/ - indexes microfilm of the Brunswick weekly newspapers from 1853 through December 1960

Georgetown Historical Society - http://www.georgetownhistoricalsociety.org/B%20Todd%20History.html - history, genealogical name index, photos

McArthur Public Library Biddeford Area Biographical Resource - http://www.mcarthur.lib.me.us/biddbioindex/bidd_area_biogs.htm - "The information in the Resource comes from the hundreds of index cards written and maintained by McArthur Librarians since the 1930’s. Some of the resources, especially the very early newspapers, are no longer in existence—or if they do exist may be quite difficult to obtain. Some of the resources, such as the Scrapbooks, can only be accessed inside the Library. We will continue to add to the Resource, and shall continue to add links as more resources are available online."

Penobscot Marine Museum Photography Collections - http://www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org/photo-collections/index.html - fascinating slideshows of historic photos

Portland Public Library Maine News Index Online - http://mni.portlandlibrary.com/ics-wpd/mniquery.htm - see list of titles and years covered here

Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland - Maine Catholic Cemetery Committee's Online Database - http://www.portlanddiocese.net/genealogy_main.php

Westbrook Historical Society - http://www.westbrookhistoricalsociety.org/ - photo archives with history, transcription of 1850 Federal Census and Mortality Schedule of Westbrook, and an online newsletter
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Check out my Maine Online Historical Directories and Maine Online Historical Newspapers pages.

2 comments:

Claudia said...

You have spent so much time and effort on this project, it is truly appreciated.

How do you find all of the sources? I find sources for PA but not anywhere close to the number you find for the states

Miriam Robbins said...

Hi, Claudia,

I do a lot of Googling for state archives, libraries, universities, genealogical and historical societies, plus use various online lists of archives, repositories and vital records.

I have a long bookmarked list that I refer to when I do each state, also.

Happy Hunting!