Maine Newspapers

United States U.S. Newspapers  Maine  Newspapers

History
Newspapers have been published in Portland, Maine, since 1785. Many cities and towns first published newspapers in the 1820s or 1830s. Other towns began publishing in the 1870s. Some indexes to marriage notices and obituaries in newspapers have been published.

Resources for Maine Newspapers
Libraries and Archives The University of Maine's Fogler Library has the state's largest newspaper collection and indexes to several papers. The Portland Public Library has indexes to 16 Portland newspapers for 1785 to 1845. The Maine Historical Society also has indexes to several papers. The Family History Library has very few Maine newspapers but does have: Young, David C. Young. Vital Records from Maine Newspapers, 1785-1820. Two Volumes. Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1993. (Family History Library  ). This is an alphabetical list of notices of births and marriages; death notices which include cause of death; miscellaneous notices of runaways and thieves.  Newspaper Directory The U.S. Newspaper Directory, 1690-Present is a national directory from the Library of Congress of over 140,000 newspaper titles. The directory provides a list of libraries from around the country that have the newspapers in their collections.

Digital Issues Online
Maine Newspaper Archive $ (GenealogyBank $) Twenty-two early Maine 18th and 19th century newspapers, 1785-1898 online. Indexes (free); digital images ($). These newspapers are from Augusta, Bangor, Belfast, Brunswick, Castine, Eastport, Falmouth, Hallowell, Kennebunk, Portland, Saco and Wiscasset.

Web Sites

 * University of Maine Special Collections
 * Portland Public Library
 * Info Maine
 * http://bit.ly/h5Hnp4 $ Maine Newspaper Archives - GenealogyBank