History of the Maine Historical Society
The Maine Historical Society was incorporated on the 5th of February 1822, the third oldest state historical society in the U. S. The first meeting of the Society was held in the old State House at Portland, 11 April 1822, Gov. Albion Keith Parris presiding. The Library and Museum "Cabinet" were located at Bowdoin College until 1881. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the Society's fourth Librarian.
The relocation of the Society to Portland was brought about through the energetic efforts of a number of prominent Portland citizens who became members shortly after the Civil War. At first, the Collections were housed on the third floor of the old City Building. When the new (now old) Portland Public Library in the Baxter Building was completed in 1889, they were moved to rooms provided by James P. Baxter. Finally on February 27, 1907, the one hundredth anniversary of the Longfellow's birth, the Society opened its doors at 485 Congress Street. Located on the property of the historic Wadsworth-Longfellow House (received through the bequest of Anne Longfellow Pierce, the poet's sister) the building was constructed specifically to house the Society's large collection of books, manuscripts and Maine memorabilia. It is currently undergoing an $8 million dollar Centennial Renovation to transform the building into a state-of-the-art archival storage facility with improved patron services, to re-open in early 2009.
In August 2007 the Research Library completed the retrospective conversion of its card catalog to an electronic catalog searchable via the Internet. Now cataloging for all books and most manuscripts is available from the convenience of patrons’ computers, facilitating awareness of our Library holdings, the richest source anywhere for the study of Maine history.
Adapted December 2007 by Nicholas Noyes from a 1972 document probably written by Gerald E. Morris.