[2] On February 21, 1878, Governor Selden Connor signed an act establishing a teachers' school in the northern border region of the state (then known as the Madawaska territory) in an effort to Americanize the French settlers of the area.

In 2004, during the tenure of Lisa Ornstein, the founding director, the Archives moved to larger premises on the UMFK campus.

[6][7] The Archives document the language, culture, and history of the borderland communities of the Upper St. John Valley as well as a larger, transnational Acadian story.

Collections include an array of English- and French-language manuscript materials kept in a climate-controlled space: rare newspapers like the Journal du Madawaska, nineteenth-century maps, scrapbooks, the ledgers and corporate documents of local businesses, songbooks, diaries, and more than 20,000 photographs.

The college is a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA), primarily competing as an Independent since the 2011–12 academic year.

The varsity "Lady Bengals " women's soccer team won the USCAA National Championship in 2010 and 2011, and then every year from 2013 to 2017, and again in 2019.

In 2002, UMFK signed an agreement with the United States Biathlon Association allowing the USBA to nominate up to five biathletes for a UMFK scholarship program which allows them to attend the university at the Maine in-state tuition rate and gives them access to the university's training facilities.