NAFOH: Place Based/Community Histories

Here we have finding aids for collections of accessions focused on place based and community histories. As some of these collections were created around a theme (rather than based on a single donation or class), there is some overlap in the collections.

Related: If you find the finding aids on this page interesting, you may want to check out some of the following resources.

• Acadian related Maine resource: University of Maine Fort Kent’s Acadian Archives.
• Franco-American related Maine resources: University of Southern Maine’s Franco-American Collection and the Franco Center. 

 

New Sweden/Sweden
Number of accessions: 31
Description: Accessions relating to New Sweden and Swedish heritage in the region.

MF004 Aroostook Oral History Project
Number of accessions: 126
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1971-1972
Time period covered: 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: Helen K. Atchison
Finding aides: catalogs
Access restrictions: none
Description: Aroostook Oral History Project. 1971-1972. Project conducted under the auspices of the Cary Library in Houlton, Maine, which resulted in a collection of 119 cassettes, totaling 73 hours, with interviews of more than 150 people covering a wide range of topics; i.e., early county history, early farming and machinery, the Aroostook War, railroading, lumbering, potato farming, maple sugar making, folksongs, folklore, folk medicine, politics, town meetings, cross-border migration, smuggling, Indians, sporting camps, schools and schooling, tall tales, superstitions, and many other aspects of the county’s cultural heritage. Tapes in French (20) and Swedish (2) have not been abstracted and have only brief descriptions of contents; a general index for the collection by subject and town is available in house. This collection was put into public domain by the Cary Library (Houlton, Maine).

MF007 Canada Road Survey
Number of accessions: 19
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1994 – 1998
Principal interviewers: Barry H. Rodrigue
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: NA2393, NA2394, NA2527
Description: Series of interviews by historian Barry H. Rodrigue on immigration into Maine from Quebec along the Canada Road.

MF010 Cowing’s Tavern Collection
Number of accessions: 3
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1976
Time period covered: 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: Linda Madden
Finding aides: catalogs/transcripts
Access restrictions: NA1066, NA1067
Description: The collection consists of three interviews about the history of Cowing’s Tavern in Lisbon Falls, Maine.

MF015 Curran Family Homestead Project
Number of accessions: 18
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1996
Time period covered: early to mid-20th century
Principal interviewers: Tosca DeVito, Megan Foreman, Dena Winslow York, Shawna Chesto, NAncy Dudley, Barbara Sumner, Robin Fre, Melissa Johnson, Angela Herbert, Brandon Portwine
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of student interviews done for Edward D. “Sandy” Ives’ class focused on the Curran Family Homestead, a living history museum in Orrington, Maine. Interview topics include: memories of Alfred, Eddie, and Catherine Curran; dairy farming in East Orrington during the first half of the twentieth century; MA Crook and Sons Hillside Dairy; relationship between the Kimball family and the Currans; swimming in the Fields Pond in the summer; tobogganing on the Curran property in the winter; a genealogy of the Curran family; growing up in Orrington and spending time on the Curran farm; daily management of the farm; food preparation during the winter; an ice house; farm livestock; making alcohol during prohibition; working on the Curran farm; Alfred’s younger years; farming practices; life in Orrington in the early part of the 1900s; the layout of East Orrington in the 1920s – 1930s; East Orrington’s saw mill; and the Audubon Society.

MF023 “Hancock County Elders” Hancock County Cooperative Extension Service/ Roberta Chester
Number of accessions: 9
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1983
Time period covered: late 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: Roberta Chester
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: NA1706
Description: A series of interviews by Roberta Chester sponsored by the Hancock County Cooperative Extension Service.

MF026 Islands and Bridges: Communities of Memory in Old Town, Maine/ French Island Collection
Number of accessions: 31
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1992-1993
Time period covered: 1880-1990
Principal interviewers: Adeline (Connie) St. Louis, Yvonne Ouellette, and Betty Maderos, Amy Bouchard Morin, James J. Bishop, Alan Comeau, Carol Nichols, Albert Michaud, Barbara Ouellette
Finding aides: Abstracts and transcripts
Access restrictions: None
Description: A 1992 community based oral history project co-sponsored by the Maine Folklife Center and the Franco-American Center at the University of Maine generated a series of 35 interviews focusing on the culture and history of the French Canadian immigrant community located on French Island, Old Town, Maine. The project also resulted in a book of photographs, interview excerpts, and articles, Nos Histoires de I’lle: History and memories of French Island, Old Town, Maine (1999).

MF029 “Our Life, Our Work” Lewiston Western Older Citizens Council/ Marcella Sorg & Stefan Duplessis
Number of accessions: 34
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1977, 1980, 1981, 1982
Principal interviewers: Raymond Pelletier, Marcella Sorg, Mark Silber, and Stephan Duplessis
Finding aides: transcript
Access restrictions: none
Description: The project “Notre Vie, Notre Travail – Our Life, Our Work” was initiated by the Lewiston Western Older Citizens Council by Diane Brown who worked there. Funded by the Maine Humanities Councel, this project involved a series of bilingual interviews utilizing family albums to stimulate discussion about Franco-American culture, particularly as it pertained to work. That is, it concerned the following: how work reflected cultural values; work ethic; work/occupation patterns; how work was integrated with family life (or interfered with it); the history of work patterns in the Lewiston area, and about Franco-American culture and family life in general. We interviewed elderly persons identified by the Western Area Agency. The interviewers included Raymond Pelletier (professor of French at UM), Marcella Sorg, Mark Silber, and Stephan Duplessis. The products of these interviews included: (1) a filmstrip with bilingual audio tape using reproduced family photos which illustrated themes from the ethnography and excerpts from the tape-recorded interviews; and (2) a bilingual traveling photo exhibit using selected family photos and captioned with quotes (with translations).

MF030 Lincoln County Project/ Leighton Photo Collection
Number of accessions: 10
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1978, 1979
Time period covered: 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: Michael Chaney
Finding aides: some catalogs/transcripts
Access restrictions: NA1150
Description: Images from the E. Joseph Leighton photograph collection owned by the Lincoln County Cultural and Historical Association were exhibited at the University of Maine’s Memorial Union, May 10-30, 1979. The exhibit was curated by Michael Chaney with a youth grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Text panels to accompany the photographs were derived from oral history interviews conducted by Chaney with residents of Lincoln County, Maine, in 1978. The Lincoln County Project Collection includes the tape recorded interviews, copy prints of photos from the Joseph Leighton Collection, and paper documents pertaining to the exhibit and the tapes. Copy prints of images from the E. Joseph (“Joe”) Leighton Photograph Collection are found in the Northeast Archives as P1922 – P2238. [Permission to use these photos must be obtained from the Lincoln County Cultural and Historical Association.]

MF043 Northeast Harbor Library Oral History Collection
Number of accessions: 11
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1972, 1973, 1979, 1984
Time period covered: 20th century (esp. the early period)
Principal interviewers: Northeast Harbor Library
Finding aides: catalog
Access restrictions: Permission to copy or publish must be obtained from Northeast Harbor Library.
Description: These accessions were brought to the Northeast Archives by Pamela Dean. They are copies of tape-recorded interviews about the history of Northeast Harbor, Maine, and are from the Northeast Harbor Library’s oral history collection. They provided part of the source material for Dean’s M.A. Thesis, Us and Them: An Oral History of Life on the Summer Estates in Coastal Hancock County, Maine. University of Maine, 1984. See also MF 119 “Us and Them” Summer Estates Collection.

MF046 Eastport History/ Hugh French Collection
Number of accessions: 17
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1979-1980
Time period covered: 1890-1920
Principal interviewers: Hugh French
Finding aides: transcripts/indexes
Access restrictions: NA1465
Description: In 1979-80 Hugh French received a National Endowment for the Humanities “Youth Grant” to curate an exhibit on the history of the Eastport, Maine, waterfront, 1890-1920. Edward D. “Sandy” Ives of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History (now Maine Folklife Center) at the University of Maine acted as academic sponsor for this project. French subsequently worked with SALT, a documentary program in Portland, Maine, and founded the Tides Institute in Eastport, Maine. This collection includes twenty-eight interviews with thirteen Eastport residents, plus manuscript material collected as part of French’s research. In addition to the general history of Eastport, major topics discussed include the sardine industry and community holiday celebrations.

MF048 Penobscot Bay Islands interviews
Number of accession: 7
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1975
Time period covered: late 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: John Bannon, Lisa Schneider
Finding aides: catalogs
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of interviews with residents of the Penobscot Bay Islands. Interviewees discuss local history; economic aspects of island life; food supplies; summer people; fishing; farming; sail, steam, and motor boats; health care; and schools. Specific islands discussed include: Hog Island, Pond Island, Western Island, Pickering’s Island; Eagle Island, Opechee Island, Bear Island, and Butter Island.

MF056 Skinner Settlement Project
Number of accessions: 6
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1974
Time period covered: 1880s – 1920s
Principal interviewers: Ford Reiche, Jolene Walker, Ilka List, Jolene Walker, Alison Bishop, Celeste Beaulieu, Edward D. “Sandy” Ives, Galen Beaulieu
Finding aides: indexes, transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of interviews about farm life in Maine at the turn of the twentieth century, conducted by students in AY 125 (Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork, except AY wasn’t introduced at UMaine until 1980) in the fall of 1974. The interviewees discuss life at the Skinner Settlement in East Corinth, Maine; including house layouts, furnishings; farm buildings; machinery; clothing; and social customs.

MF057 History of the University of Maine Oral History Project/ David Smith
Number of accessions: 6
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1971 and 1984
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: David Smith and Shirley Anderson Tardiff
Finding aides: transcript
Access restrictions: NA0586, 0589, 0590, 0595
Description: A series of interviews conducted by Shirley Tardiff for David C. Smith, a professor of history at the University of Maine, in 1971, about the history of the University of Maine in Orono. See Smith’s book, The First Century: A History of the University of Maine, 1865-1965.

MF064 Veazie History and Architecture Project
Number of accessions: 31
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1977 – 1978
Time period covered: 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: various
Finding aides: catalog
Access restrictions: none
Description: This collection consists of a series of interviews about the local history, geography, and domestic architecture of Veazie, Maine. Many of these were the result of a fieldwork course taught by University of Maine professor Edward D. “Sandy” Ives in 1977 and 1978. The collection also includes architectural survey forms, photos, and floor plans of pre-1940 houses in Veazie. In addition, there are twenty-nine interviews conducted by students in the classes. Three earlier interviews with Addie Weed about Veazie history have been assigned to the collection as has one accession (NA 1107) of letters on the same topic.

MF080 Nash Island Light Project Collection
Number of accessions: 2
Dates when interviews were conducted: primarily in 1998
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Anu Dudley
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of two interviews with Jenny Cirone, age 86, done on behalf of a group wishing to restore the Nash Island Lighthouse, by Anu Dudley in October, 1998. The interviews primarily focused on Jenny Cirone’s reminiscences of growing up on Nash Island, Maine, where her father was the lighthouse keeper. Topics include: raising and shearing sheep; fishing; lobstering; clamming; gardening; schooling; tending the Nash Island lighthouse; tourists; ice skating; hurricanes; games; boats; clothing; social life; storms; and wrecks.

MF097 Frank Spizuoco Dexter Town History Collection
Number of accessions: 6
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1963, 1964, 1965, 1970
Time period covered: late 19th and first half of 20th century
Principal interviewers: Frank Spizuoco
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews conducted by Frank Spizuoco from 1963 to 1970 of two residents of Dexter, Maine. Albert “Bert” Call, a retired Dexter photographer, talks about local history and about his working life before and after moving to Dexter, Maine in 1886, and Erma Bentley, a long-time resident of Dexter, records her memories about early Dexter residents and town history.

MF113 Isle Au Haut Oral History Project Collection
Number of accessions: 7
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1980s – 1990s
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: John Dudley and Jane Dudley
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: Series of interviews with longtime residents of Isle Au Haut concerning the history of the island community.

MF 115 Alexander-Crawford Historical Society Oral History Collection
Number of accessions: 1 (NA2606), 38 interviews
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1980-1991
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: John Dudley and Jane Dudley
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: Accession consists of 38 cassette recordings of interviews with residents of the towns of Alexander and Crawford, Maine, conducted under the auspices of the Alexander-Crawford Historical Society between 1980-1991. Topics range widely but cover aspects of the history and lifeways of the area; Townsend House; School in the Woods; mills; stage routes; blueberries; Princeton (community); Pembroke (community); woods work; lakes; Alexander Frost; ghosts; and other topics. Deposited by John Dudley for the Alexander-Crawford Historical Society, Alexander and Crawford, Maine, deposited October, 1998.

MF116 Jameson Family Collection
Number of accessions: 1 (NA2620), 13 interviews
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1960s – 1970s
Principal interviewers: Ellen Jameson, William Jameson
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: C1897 and C1898 are restricted
Description: William Jameson, a graduate of the University of Maine, recorded these open reel taped interviews with residents in the Waldoboro area during the 1960s and 1970s. The reels were loaned to the Maine Folkife Center for copying in June, 1998 by his daughter Ellen Jameson of Cushing, Maine. Original reels and a set of cassette copies were returned to Ellen Jameson July 14, 1998. A set of cassette copies was retained for deposit in the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. The checklist describes the complete set of 13 reels (14 cassettes), but note that a few items were designated by Ellen Jameson as private family information, thus they are RESTRICTED.

MF117 Frye Mountain Interviews/ Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen
Number of accessions: 6
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1991 & 2002
Time period covered: 1930s – 1950s
Principal interviewers: Jeffrey “Smokey” McKeen and Fred Nehring
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews done by Jeff “Smokey” McKeen concerning the farming community of Frye Mountain in Waldo County and its acquisition by the federal government in the 1930s.

MF119 “Us and Them” Summer Estates Collection
Number of accessions: 21
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1980 – 1983
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Pamela Dean
Finding aides: indexes
Access restrictions: none
Description: This collection was created in 1980-84 by Pamela Dean in the course of doing research for her masters thesis in history at the University of Maine, 1984, entitled “Us and Them: An Oral History of Life on the Summer Estates in Coastal Hancock County, Maine.” The period covered by the interviews is approximately 1880-1980. The major focus is on the relations between the summer people who owned estates in Northeast Harbor and Blue Hill, Maine, and the native Mainers who worked for them on the estates. Dean’s grandparents and aunts and uncles had worked for summer people in various capacities and her interest in the topic began with interviews with her aunt, Ethel Anthony, conducted for Sandy Ives’ fieldwork course in the fall of 1980. See also Collection 043 Northeast Harbor Library, which includes several interviews with summer people copied from the holdings of the Northeast Harbor Library.

MF134 AY 125/ Burwash and Lakenwild Project
Number of accessions: 7
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1981
Principal interviewers: Margaret Owings
Finding Aides: catalogs
Access Restrictions: none
Description: A series of interviews by Margaret Owings conducted in 1981 for Ay 125 Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork taught by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives at the University of Maine. The interviews focus on Burwash and Lakenwild, lakeside developments and recreational areas on Big Lake in Washington County. Accessions include research notes, correspondence, and Owings final paper for the course.

MF138 Yankee Moderns: Folk Regional Identity in the Sawmill Valley of Western Massachusetts, 1890-1920/ Michael Hoberman
Number of accessions: 14
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1992
Time period covered: 1890-1920
Principal interviewers: Michael Hoberman
Finding aides: some transcript
Access restrictions: none
Description: Series of interviews done for Hoberman’s book, Yankee Moderns: Folk Regional Identity in the Sawmill Valley of Western Massachusetts, 1890-1920 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000).

MF139 South Bristol Oral History Project
Number of accessions: 11
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1997
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Ellen Vincent
Finding aides: some transcripts/partial transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: This collection consists of 10 interviews for an exhibit, “Down on the Island, Up on the Main: A Recollected History of South Bristol, Maine,” assembled by Ellen Vincent, as well as newspaper and newsletter articles, exhibit text, plans for the exhibit, and exhibit text. The purpose of the exhibit was to display the heritage of coastal South Bristol.

MF140 Victoria Society Portland History Series
Number of accessions: 36
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1984-1988, 1992
Time period covered: 19th century and beginning of 20th century
Principal interviewers: various
Finding aides: indexes and some transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of 51 interviews about the history of Portland, Maine with index and partial and full transcripts. The Victoria Society, fall 1992. Interviews concerning life in Portland during the 1930s to the 1940s, most interviewees are 75 years old or older.

MF143 Lovell Historical Society
Number of accessions: 17
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1973-1976 and 1990-1994
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewer: Jo Radner
Finding aids: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: Series of interviews done primarily by Jo Radner in conjugation with the Lovell Historical Society about the history of Lovell.

MF146 Mary Ellen Barnes Collection
Number of accessions: 11
Dates interviews were conducted: 1996-1997
Time period covered: late 20th century
Principal interviewers: Mary Ellen Barnes
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of eleven interviews conducted by Mary Ellen Barnes in 1995 and 1996, mostly about the Chatham and Conway areas of New Hampshire.

MF166 Swan’s Island Oral History Collection
Number of accessions: 27
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2009-2011
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewer: Meghan Vigeant and Kate Webber
Finding aides: some transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews about Swan’s Island.

MF178 Unity Oral History Project/ Anu Dudley
Number of accessions: 4
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2000
Principal interviewers: Anu Dudley
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews conducted by Anu Dudley about Unity, Maine.

MF189 Hancock Historical Society
Number of accessions: 56
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1970-1990s
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Sandford “Sandy” Phippen
Finding Aides: none
Access Restrictions: no release forms yet
Description: Recordings from the Hancock Historical Society and pertaining to Hancock, Maine.

MF 192 Climate Change Institute 40th Anniversary Oral History Project
Number of accessions: 31
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2013-2015
Principal interviewers: Pauleena MacDougall and Adam Cilli
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: 31 interviews done in 2013-2015 by Pauleena MacDougall and Adam Cilli for the 40th anniversary of the UMaine Climate Change Institute. Note: in the MF192.pdf files the following items can be found: a final paper “’Between People and Nature’: The Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, 1973-2013” by Adam Lee Cilli and Pauleena MacDougall, notes on an unrecorded interview with Kristin Sobolik October 14, 2014, and the IRB application form which includes contextual information for the project.

MF201 Isleboro Interviews
Number of accessions: 4
Dates when interviews were conducted: December 2014-January 2015
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Andii Pendleton
Finding aides: written summaries
Access restrictions: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: Andii Pendleton interviews long-time inhabitants of Islesboro, Maine about their experiences on the island.