LOCALITY · REGION OR STATE · UNITED STATES
Maine
A state of the United States, named in a historical source recorded by SmellBook.
What SmellBook records here
2 smells are linked to Maine by checked sources, all historical. Each says what one source studied or wrote, not what Maine smells like today.
Snow / Cold Air Historical source
In her 1926 memoir Adobe Days, Sarah Bixby Smith names the smell of snow in the air among the odours she learned on childhood visits to Maine, together with pine trees in winter, a woodshed and barn and a long-lived-in old house.
- The claim’s words for the place
- “childhood visits to Maine”
- When
- a source published 1926; that is the latest time it can describe. Not a statement about today.
- Source
- Adobe Days (book), p. 35
- Checked claim
- The smell of snow in a 1926 memoir
Old Basement Historical source
In Adobe Days (1926), Sarah Bixby Smith writes that on childhood visits to Maine she came to know the smell of a cellar holding apples, butter, vegetables and preserves, and remembers that it was cold and damp.
- The claim’s words for the place
- “childhood visits to Maine”
- When
- a source published 1926; that is the latest time it can describe. Not a statement about today.
- Source
- Adobe Days (book), p. 35
- Checked claim
- A Maine cellar remembered in a 1926 memoir
A smell is linked to a locality or tradition only when a VERIFIED claim, resting on a registered scientific or historical source, names that place or tradition in its own words. A link from a historical source is bound to the time its passage describes and says nothing about the place today. How a place or festival is commonly said to smell is cultural description, not evidence, and is not shown as a link.
Traditions recorded here
No tradition is recorded for this locality yet.
Open research questions
What a source would need to answer before SmellBook can connect smells here. These are questions, not findings.
- Historical and archival record. Which smells in Maine are described in checked historical records besides the 1926 memoir of childhood visits, and from which periods? Evidence sought: historical.
First source survey (2026-10-03): Partly answered: a memoir published in 1926 recalls the smells of snow in the air and of a cellar on childhood visits to Maine (CLM-SNOW-001, CLM-CELLAR-001), linked to Snow / Cold Air and Old Basement as historically documented in Maine, at the latest in 1926. No wider search has been made yet.
For researchers and citation
Identity references
- Wikidata item Q724 · checked against the public record on 2026-10-19 by an automated SmellBook check
Permanent identifier smellbook:locality:maine · Graph record (JSON)
Cite as SmellBook. (2026). Maine (locality). SmellBook knowledge graph, dataset release of 2026-10-25. smellbook:locality:maine. https://smellbook.com/localities/maine
Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the dataset release of 2026-10-19.
Localities and traditions are recorded with references to public records. A smell is connected to them only through a registered source; descriptions of how a place or festival is commonly said to smell are not presented as evidence. Reference checks marked unchecked have not yet been fetched and saved by a SmellBook check run.