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In 1929, a group of Maine Antiques Dealers decided to form an association to promote themselves by organizing an annual show. That first fifty-nine dealer show was held in the Mayfair Room of the Lafayette Hotel in Portland, Maine; by 1936 this show was a successful annual event.  

On November 10, 1943 the members of the Maine Antiques Dealers Association held a meeting in the main ballroom of the Eastland Hotel in Portland where they ceremoniously voted to organize into a corporation to promote fair trade practices & relations within the antiques business, to promote & maintain a standard of ethics designed to inspire the confidence of the public, to disseminate valuable trade information, and to accomplish these things for the advancement of its membership.   

Thus the Maine Antiques Dealers Association, the nation’s oldest organization devoted to the antiques trade, was born. This 79-year-old organization was the first to establish an annual antiques show, to promote fair and honest trade practices within the antiques business, and ethical dealings with its members’ customers. These practices and standards of ethics continue within our membership’s obligations to this day.