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Maine History: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Maine Memory Network, Maine Historical Society.
Maine's Statewide Digital Museum

DigitalMaine Repository. "The DigitalMaine Repository is a partnership of the Maine State Library, Maine State Archives and community institutions around the state. Together, we are committed to providing access to Maine history, ensuring transparency in government, and sharing the stories of the people and places of the Pine Tree State."

Maine History Web Resources, Maine State Library.

DigitalCommons at UMaine. "provides access to the scholarly, educational, and creative works of the University of Maine community".

Sanborn Maps: Maine, 1867-1970
Available both online and in microfilm, the Sanborn Insurance Company's maps from the 19th century depict homes, businesses, farm fields and other features of towns.

Ancestry Library
Census schedules, vital records, directories, photos, and more of individuals from North America, Europe, Australia, and other countries. (Sources for Census Schedules (including names) at Bowdoin.)

Documentary history of the state of Maine (Some volumes available online from HathiTrust.)
Published by the Maine Historical Society, aided by appropriations from the state, 1869-1916.

Brunswick Region Resources, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives

BIW Legacy Vault, Bath Iron Works, an "archive of photographs, plans and ephemera that chronicles our contribution to American shipbuilding".

Historical magazines and journals

American Periodicals Series Online
Full text of American Magazines and Journals of the Nineteenth Century

American Periodicals Series
Coverage: 1740-1900

Poole's Index To Periodical Literature (print)
Main Per Index
Online via HathiTrust.
Subject index to British and American periodicals of the nineteenth century. Bowdoin Library owns many of these nineteenth century periodicals in its collections. Coverage: 1802-1906

Nineteenth century readers' guide to periodical literature, 1890-1899, with supplementary indexing
Primarily American
Main Per Index

Readers' Guide Retrospective , 1890-1982 (online)
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, 1983- (online)
Main Per Index, 1900-2012 (print)
Index to a broad range of U.S. general interest magazines and journals.

Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective
This bibliographic database covers some of the best known scholarly journals and numerous lesser known specialized magazines in a broad array of humanities and social sciences topics. Coverage: 1907-1984

Federal documents

U.S. Congressional Serial Set (online)
Gov Docs Y1.1/2: (Print volumes)
The U.S. Congressional Serial Set is comprised of thousands of sequentially numbered volumes containing congressionally-produced reports and documents. In the 19th century, many executive agency documents were published in the Serial Set as well, making it an extraordinarily rich source of primary documents for American History and culture.

Historical Statistics of the United States.
Comprehensive, searchable collection of statistics, including 37,000+ data sets that can be downloaded. A historical supplement to the Statistical Abstract of the United States. A great place to start looking for data. Footnotes to tables lead you to more detailed or more current data. The introduction to each section provides a helpful summary of major sources. Previous editions are available from the Census Bureau, HathiTrust, and elsewhere online and in print.

Digital Collections, Library of Congress (formerly American Memory)

Maine and local documents

Public Documents of the State of Maine, 1840-1940
Governor's message and executive agency reports--Agriculture, Health, Transportation, etc.
To identify and locate these documents, use our guide on Maine Documents.

Maine register, state yearbook and legislative manual
Main Libr JK2831
Lists state and town officials, town populations, businesses and information on local and state agencies. Some volumes are also available via HathiTrust, Internet Archive, and Google Books.

Maine Town Annual Reports
The Library has a collection of paper annual Maine town reports (town government's accounting to the taxpayers of the spending of tax money) in the Govt Doc Maine collection. Some date from as early as 1846. The University of Maine at Orono has digitized a portion of the Maine town reports. Both the Library's and UMO's collections are incomplete. Check Compass, MaineCat, and Maine Town Documents online.

Archives of the Legislature of Maine : legislative index series 1820-1825
Govt Doc Maine A70.22 820-825

Archives of the Legislature of Maine : legislative index series 1826-1830
Govt Doc Maine A70.22 825-830