Project Members at a Team Meeting
The Maine Community Heritage Project (MCHP), a partnership between the Maine Historical Society and Maine State Library, is an innovative program that promotes collaboration between local schools, historical societies, and public libraries through the exploration and celebration of local history. The MCHP grows out of the Maine Memory Network, the Maine Historical Society’s nationally recognized statewide digital museum.
The Maine Memory Network features a constantly growing online collection of nearly 18,000 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. This project is supported by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum & Library Services.
This website is devoted to serving as a resource for all those interested in learning about the history and heritage of Blue Hill. It is a collaborative project of many institutions and individuals in our community.
The project team was organized by the Blue Hill Historical Society, an all-volunteer organization devoted to working with other groups and institutions in Blue Hill to preserve and celebrate the town's heritage. Other partners in the construction of the website were:
The Blue Hill Public Library . The Blue Hill Library serves children and adults of all backgrounds and circumstances who seek information and the pleasure that comes from the life of the mind. The library serves as a cultural center, preserving the past while exploring the future.
Bay School Students Look Through Photos at the Holt House
The Blue Hill Consolidated School . The Consolidated School is committed to providing students from Kindergarten through 8th grade a well-rounded education that prepares them to be responsible, creative, self- motivated, and thoughtful citizens of our community, nation, and world. The students in Mrs. Della Martin's 8th grade class contributed the exhibit on Shipbuilding and Seafaring in Blue Hill. Students from Mr. Cole's and Ms. Snow's 7th grade social studies classes contributed to the John Horton Civil War exhibit.
The Bay School . The mission of The Bay School, rooted in the Waldorf tradition, is to provide students from Kindergarten through 8th grade an education that engages and nurtures the whole child. The School seeks to create a community of children, alumni, faculty, parents, friends, and neighbors imbued with reverence for others and the natural world. The students in Mr. Scott Springer's 8th grade class contributed the exhibit on the Blue Hill Fair.
The George Stevens Academy . George Stevens is an independent high school grounded in a commitment to serving the area's small towns and invested in meeting the needs of each student. The Academy offers a challenging, comprehensive program of studies that fosters intellectual inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge, inspires creativity, develops self-reliance, and prepares its graduates for a purposeful life in an ever-changing world. Students from GSA contributed the exhibits on Blue Hill's summer colony, its history as a center of music education and performance, and its history as a town that provides outstanding educational opportunity.
The Jonathan Fisher House . The Fisher House seeks to perpetuate the memory, spirit, works and teachings of the Reverend Jonathan Fisher, the first settled minister at Blue Hill, and to preserve his home and belongings and artifacts of the period in which he lived in order that his life may serve as an inspiration to others.
In addition to these primary partners, many other members of the Blue Hill community contributed to the construction of the website through donation of their time, ideas, artifacts, and photographs.
Students Photographing a 19th Century Sampler
The contributing partners to the construction of this website are grateful for the support and guidance of the Maine Historical Society through its Community Heritage Project program and see the website as a living document that will be updated and expanded in the years ahead through joint efforts by the partners and other members of the community. In this spirit, the Blue Hill project team welcomes comments and suggestions from visitors to the website. Comments may be directed to the Board of Directors of the Blue Hill Historical Society at info@bluehillhistory.org.