This project was a part of pilot effort by Maine Historical Society, under funding from a private foundation, to support community partnerships in the first few years that Maine Memory Network, which was unveiled in 2001, came into existence.
This innovative program promoted collaboration between local schools and historical societies through the exploration, celebration, and digitization of local history. The work produced by Skowhegan, and its sister communities in the project (Mt. Desert Island and New Sweden) laid a foundation that allowed MHS to then develop the Maine Community Heritage Project, a program funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services to support 16 communities around the state during 2008-2010.
Partnering with the Maine State Library, MHS increased the partnership team in each community to include the public library, a crucial participant, and intensified the overall structure and requirements of the program--but it was the work of these original three pilot communities that paved the way.
In late 2010, MHS was awarded a second IMLS grant to continue the work of the MCHP and the original pioneer communities in yet a further statewide dissemination of the program.
All this work grows out of the Maine Memory Network, Maine Historical Society’s nationally recognized statewide digital museum. Maine Memory Network features a constantly growing online collection of nearly 19,000 historical items contributed by more than 200 historical organizations around Maine; more than 100 online exhibits that explore a diverse range of themes and topics in Maine history; lesson plans; a gallery of student history projects; online tools that allow site visitors to create and share their own albums; and much more.