Maine Memory Network

The division between English and social studies has always seemed odd to me. After all, English is a social study in the most basic sense -- the purpose of reading literature is to get a view of how people interacted in other times and places. With this in mind, many of the exhibits online at the Maine Memory Network could be used in an English classroom. Reading primary sources is an essential part of studying literature of the time. Also, because the Maine Memory Network focuses on Maine, students will be able to have more of a connection to the material. For instance, while reading a book that takes place around the time of the Civil War, we could access documents pertaining to what things were like in Maine at that time. We could then compare and contrast these two accounts.