February is Black History Month. Here are a few items from the Library’s Portland Room, the place to delve into the city’s many-faceted history. Out collections include books, maps, periodicals, manuscripts, and photographic archives.
African-American history- in the city of Portland and the state of Maine- dates back to the early years of this city’s settlement. The Portland Freedom Trail accentuates the city’s role in the anti-slavery Underground Railroad (see below). One of the markers is just a few steps east of the Library on Monument Square, along Congress Street.
Above: A new book, which includes a chronicle of the Civil Rights Movement, as it manifested here in Maine.
Above: An item from our Archive, recently donated by the Portland NAACP.
In the above image, the family of a World War II veteran is posing for a Portland Press Herald photographer, in 1949: Mr. and Mrs. James L. Perry, with daughter Lanetta
Another newspaper image. This one was taken in 1937. At left, Emery Dodge, Jr;
at right, Beverley Dodge.
Above: This group photo was printed in the Press Herald in 1957.
Note the sheet music to a very famous song!
The above archival item advertised a sermon given by the Pastor of the Abyssinian Church of Portland,
in 1853. The Reverend Green had survived and escaped slavery.
The photo below shows the Green Memorial A.M.E. Church, on Munjoy Hill.
This church building was built in 1914, and is still prominently at the corner of Sheridan Street and Monument Street. (The photo was taken in 1961.)
