Maine's Governors

Since William King was inaugurated as Maine’s first governor on June 2, 1820, the state has been led by 70 men and one woman. The position held today by Janet Trafton Mills has been occupied by such notable figures in our history as Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president; Abner Coburn, generous benefactor to Maine educational institutions; Joshua L. Chamberlain, Civil War hero at the Battle of Gettysburg; Percival P. Baxter, donor of Mount Katahdin to the state; and Edmund S. Muskie, champion of Federal environmental protection legislation.

Only two governors are not represented by pictures. Of the balance, four are shown in portraits and the rest in photographs. Photographic images dating back to the 1840s enable us to study with complete clarity the faces of the men who governed Maine during the first decades of statehood before the Civil War as well as their more recent successors. These pictures come from three sources, the Maine State Archives, the Maine Historical Society, and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

These pages are based upon research which I initially undertook in 2001 assisted by the Commission’s summer intern Adam M. Crowley of the University of Maine at Orono, now an Assistant Professor of English at Husson College in Bangor. At that point, the project was envisioned as a publication, but the ever expanding use of the internet during the last decade has led me to offer this information to a broader online audience. I want to thank the Friends of the Blaine House for hosting this information. 

Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.
Maine State Historian

 

Governor Kenneth M. Curtis

Kenneth M. Curtis

DATE OF BIRTH:  February 8, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH:  Curtis Corner
PROFESSION:  Merchant Marine Seaman, Lawyer
POLITICAL AFFILIATION:  Democrat
TERM IN OFFICE:  January 5, 1967 – January 2, 1975
FIRST LADY:  Pauline Brown

QUOTE: Our long-range objective must be free education beyond high school for every boy and girl who has the desire and talent to use this education.

Inaugural Address, January 5, 1967

OTHER ELECTED OR APPOINTED OFFICES: State Coordinator for the Area Redevelopment Administration, Secretary of State, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, U. S. Ambassador to Canada, President of the Maine Maritime Academy

FURTHER READING:

Lipez, Kermit.  Kenneth Curtis of Maine: Profile of a Governor.  Brunswick: Harpswell Press, 1974.

Pease, Allen G., Editor.  The Curtis Years, 1967-1974.  Augusta: Office of the Governor, 1974.

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