Beyond Borders: Mapping Maine and the American Northeast Boundary, 1625-1893

FAIN: PW-269341-20

Maine Historical Society (Portland, ME 04101-3498)
Jamie Rice (Project Director: July 2019 to November 2023)

Providing access to three archival collections that document Maine’s history from 1625 to 1893 through the Maine Memory Network website. The project would provide more than 21,000 images with metadata, as well as some transcriptions and contextual essays.

The Beyond Borders: Mapping Maine and the American Northeast Boundary, 1625-1893 project seeks to create an engaging online space where scholars, students and the general public can find, access, and explore three collections which relate to Maine’s land use, natural resources, economic distribution and Wabanaki sovereignty. These collections document the settlement and establishment of northern New England, specifically coastal and interior Maine and along the Canadian border. Using our digital history platform Maine Memory Network (www.MaineMemory.net) as a base, we will create a rich historic narrative and online presentation for each collection that puts material in context. From this narrative, visitors can access a finding aid for each collection and dig deeper into fully-digitized content, which will provide an internet user anywhere in the world with the ability to browse each page of the collection in the same fashion as one would approach the collection in person.

Associated Products

Beyond Borders: Mapping Maine and the American Northeast Boundary,1625-1893 (Web Resource)
Title: Beyond Borders: Mapping Maine and the American Northeast Boundary,1625-1893
Author: Maine Historical Society
Abstract: The Beyond Borders: Mapping Maine and the American Northeast Boundary,1625-1893 project provides insight into colonial era and Early Republic American identity, Indigenous relations and obligations, international diplomacy (U.S./Canada/ Great Britain) and the Northeast frontier. The project provides free online access, through the Maine Memory Network, to nearly 35,000 manuscript documents and maps, grouped at the volume or archival box level, alongside diverse scholarly essays and resources to contextualize the original documents. The contents pertain to what is today the state of Maine and the American / Canadian borderlands, with a specific focus on land distribution, colonial settlement, along with Indigenous, American, and Canadian-British relations.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://beyondborders.mainememory.net
Primary URL Description: A Maine Memory Network "featured collection" sub-website, offering full-text access to nearly 35,000 manuscript pages, printed materials, ephemera, and maps, contextualized by companion essays, and offering keyword and advance search capabilities, high resolution digital files, and enhanced image viewing.

MHS Historian’s Forum: Investing in Empire: The Pejepscot Proprietors and their World (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: MHS Historian’s Forum: Investing in Empire: The Pejepscot Proprietors and their World
Abstract: MHS Historian's Forum featuring a round table discussion about the Pejepscot Proprietors, one of the largest companies of elite land speculators that played an outsized role in colonizing the lands in what became the State of Maine in 1820. In the early eighteenth century, a handful of wealthy Boston families acquired the deed to a tract of land encompassing much of the state. The original proprietors and their descendants spent the next century luring colonists onto company towns to in order to improve the value of their claim. At the same time, the proprietors struggled to convince Indigenous Wabanakis, rival land companies, and even many of their own colonists to conform to their vision for mid-Maine. In their quest to amass a fortune from their enterprise, the Pejepscot Proprietors left a rich trove of documents now held in the Maine Historical Society. Historians and other scholars from a wide range of disciplines have since made use of this collection to learn more about not only the proprietors themselves, but also Wabanaki people and colonists from all backgrounds.
Author: Maine Historical Society
Author: Ian Saxine (Bridgewater State Univ.)
Author: Darren Ranco (Penobscot) (Univ. of Maine)
Author: Sara Damiano (Texas State University)
Author: Alexandra Montgomery (Mount Vernon)
Author: Michael Blaakman (Princeton University)
Date: 08/20/2021
Location: Online, via Zoom.
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-griMgAVNWA
Primary URL Description: MHS Historian’s Forum: Investing in Empire: The Pejepscot Proprietors and their World via Maine Historical Society's YouTube channel.

MHS Historian’s Forum: Ulster Scots Migrations in Early America (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: MHS Historian’s Forum: Ulster Scots Migrations in Early America
Abstract: For generations, the Ulster Scots were a people on the move. From their home in the Scottish Lowlands, these Presbyterians ventured first to Ulster, and then across the Atlantic, where they carved out lives in Britain’s North American colonies, including what became the state of Maine. By the American Revolution, 200,000 Ulster Scots had crossed the sea. In North America, the Ulster Scots had a profound influence in shaping the culture and politics of the British colonies and their borderlands. Their story is one of rich contrasts. This special Historian’s Forum features a conversation with two eminent historians of the Ulster Scots experience in Early America. Host Ian Saxine (MHS Coordinator, Historian’s Forum) speaks with Patrick Griffin (University of Notre Dame) and T.H. Breen (University of Vermont) about the Ulster Scots migrations, with a particular focus on what brought them to Maine and New England, and what their experiences can tell us about religion, community, war, empire, and globalization in the colonial era. This is part of a program series for the MHS Beyond Borders project.
Author: Maine Historical Society
Author: Ian Saxine (Bridgewater State Univ.)
Author: T.H. Breen (University of Vermont)
Author: Patrick Griffin (University of Notre Dame)
Date: 08/18/2021
Location: Online, via Zoom
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c888KXK358w
Primary URL Description: Online via Maine Historical Society's YouTube channel.

Beyond Borders: Mapping Maine and the American Northeast Boundary (Article)
Title: Beyond Borders: Mapping Maine and the American Northeast Boundary
Author: Jamie Rice
Abstract: Newsletter article announcing the award, the project, and expected outcomes.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.mainehistory.org/documents/10/newsletter_CIRCA_Fall2020.pdf
Primary URL Description: link to online PDF
Access Model: open access online via instiutional website, hard copy mailed to organizational membership.
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CIRCA newsletter of Maine Historical Society
Publisher: Maine Historical Society

From Papers to Pixels: Digitaizing Collections for Public Access (Article)
Title: From Papers to Pixels: Digitaizing Collections for Public Access
Author: Henry Caiazzo
Abstract: An overview of project logistics and process.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://www.mainehistory.org/documents/13/newsletter_CIRCA_Spring2022.pdf
Primary URL Description: online PDF of newsletter article.
Access Model: open access online via instituional website, hard copy mailed to organization memebers
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CIRCA newsletter of Maine Historical Society
Publisher: Maine Historical Society

Make Your Mark on History: help trnascribe historical documents (Article)
Title: Make Your Mark on History: help trnascribe historical documents
Author: Henry Caiazzo
Author: Tiffany Link
Abstract: Promoting the Zooniverse crowd sourcing project, and inviting volunteers.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.mainehistory.org/documents/12/newsletter_CIRCA_Spring2021.pdf
Primary URL Description: link to online PDF
Access Model: open acces via instituional website, hard copy mailed to organizational members
Format: Other
Periodical Title: CIRCA the Maine Historical Society newsletter
Publisher: Maine Historical Society

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