Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Hosted by Steve Bromage and in partnership with the University of Maine Alumni Association; Recorded April 12, 2021 - On April 12, 1979, Ronald F. Banks, University of Maine professor and author of Maine Becomes a State: The Movement to Separate Maine from Massachusetts , was shot and killed outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sixteen-year-old Isaac Knapper was arrested, tried as an adult, and wrongly convicted of the murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola. In 1992, Isaac's conviction was overturned and in 2015 he met Dr. Bank’s daughter, Amy. It was an emotional meeting, and in the years since Isaac and Amy have maintained a strong friendship and healing connection and have worked to educate people about the impact that wrongful convictions can have on both the wrongfully convicted and the family of murdered victims. Their book, Fighting Time , will be available in the Fall of 2021. This discussion hosted by MHS Executive

Recorded April 8, 2021 - First published in 1840, the poem The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow describes a craftsman, his work, his daily life, and the role he plays in his community. In the more than 100 years since its publication, the poem has inspired readers, musicians, and filmmakers alike. This book by John Babin is the first in a series that introduces Longfellow's poetry to a new audience of young readers. Learn the story of the poet's inspiration that led him to not only write this timeless classic, but also From My Arm-Chair , a poem written to the children of Cambridge, Massachusetts in gratitude for their gift of a chair. The chair was made from the spreading chestnut tree that sheltered the blacksmith shop referenced in the poem. Purchase the book from the MHS Store.

Recorded March 25, 2021 - Only a few sportsmen went to Maine to hunt and fish before the advent of railroads. After the coming of the railways, thousands of hunters and fishermen came to Maine each season, creating a need for hotels, sporting camps and guides to accommodate them. Learn from author Steve Pinkhham about how they got here and how the Rangeley Lakes and Moosehead Lake became the favored sporting resorts of Maine.

Recorded November 19, 2020 - In this recording a panel of experts discuss the topics covered Maine Historical Society's exhibit REDACT: Obscuring the Maine Constitution. The panel examined the redaction of Maine's 1820 Constitution in 1875 and the ramifications that ceasing to print sections 1, 2, and 5 of Article 10 had upon Wabanaki communities and public lands. Panel Moderator: Darren Ranco (Penobscot) - Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Native American Programs at University of Maine, exhibit co-curator. Panelists: Dr. Catherine M. Burns – exhibit co-curator; Michael-Corey F. Hinton (Passamaquoddy)–attorney; Donna Loring (Penobscot)–tribal elder and author; Sherri Mitchell (Penobscot)–attorney, author, and educator.

Recorded November 16, 2019 - Listen to historian James E. Francis Sr. (Penobscot) who shared stories about the origin and meaning of geographic place names in what is now known as Maine, from a Wabanaki perspective. Wabanaki, part of the Algonkian language group, is the first language of Maine, and each tribe has a distinct language that expresses worldview. The original words of this land – Casco, Katahdin, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Pemaquid – surround us. As settlers colonized Maine with a dominant English language system, they named towns after their founding fathers or English homelands, resulting in a situation where Wabanaki people are now living in a deeply familiar place populated with foreign words.

Recorded November 7, 2019 - Listen to editor William C. "Chuck" diGiacomantonio as discuss a fascinating book that features a selection of letters, writings, and remarkable anti-slavery speeches by George Thatcher (1754-1824). Many of the letters are drawn from Maine Historical Society's manuscript collections. Copies of the book are available for purchase in our Museum Store. George Thatcher served as a U.S. representative from the Maine District of Massachusetts throughout the Federalist Era (1789-1801) which was the most critical and formative period of American constitutional history. A moderate on most political issues, he was a maverick in matters relating to education, the expansion of the slave interest, the rise of Unitarianism, and the separation of church and state. Following Thatcher's journey as a New England Federalist, abolitionist, religious dissenter, and pedagogical innovator can add depth to our understanding of the early American Republic. Written over his 40-year career as a country lawy

Recorded October 2, 2019 - There's something irresistible about an anniversary. Maine's Bicentennial, the Centennial of women's suffrage, the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence -- all invite public commemoration. But what are we doing when we mark these anniversaries? Celebrating our past? Interrogating it? Something else entirely? Listen to National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jon Parrish Peede, on the purpose of historical commemoration in our current age. Presented in partnership by the Maine Humanities Council, Maine Suffrage Centennial, and Maine Historical Society.

Recorded July 26, 2019 - A gift to MHS, donated through the Grime family descendants of Capt. William G. Kair (Kjar) and his wife Rebecca Orde, offers a glimpse of Scandinavian families new to Maine during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Kair gift includes a sublime painting by Portland artist George M. Hathaway of The Bark Alice , Capt. Kair's vessel. Created by one of Maine's foremost marine artists, the painting speaks to both her Danish-born captain and his family life in Portland. The Kair collection is one of many fine examples of Scandinavian heritage within the MHS collections. This talk by MHS Research Historian William Barry featured exhibited highlights within a companion mini-exhibit "Recreating Hygge: Scandinavians in the Pine Tree State."

Tilly Laskey; Recorded May 16, 2019 - Listen to Tilly Laskey for a fascinating talk of her book PRECIOUS AND ADORED: The Love Letters of Rose Cleveland and Evangeline Simpson Whipple, 1890–1918. Co-edited with Lizzie Ehrenhalt, with a Foreword by Lillian Faderman, the book presents captivating letters, published in their entirety, that document nearly 30 years of love between two women of the Gilded Age. In 1890, Rose Cleveland, sister of President Grover Cleveland, began writing to Evangeline Simpson, a wealthy widow who would become the second wife of Henry Whipple, Minnesota's Episcopal bishop. The women corresponded across states and continents, discussing their advocacy and humanitarian work—and demonstrating their sexual attraction, romance, and partnership. In 1910, after Evangeline Whipple was again widowed, the two women sailed to Italy and began a life together. After Rose Cleveland's death, Evangeline Whipple described her as "my precious and adored life-long friend." This collection, rare in i

Carol Gardner; Recorded May 23, 2019 - Author Carol Gardner will discussed the lives of some of Maine's earliest European settlers: prisoners of war who were sent to Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts against their wills, in 1650 to 1651. As forced laborers and later, as free men, these soldiers left their marks on early New England society, and evidence of their existence is with us today. Dr. Gardner's latest historical narrative, THE INVOLUNTARY AMERICAN: A Scottish Prisoner's Journey to the New World , chronicles the life and times of Scottish foot soldier Thomas Doughty. Captured at the Battle of Dunbar, Doughty was shipped to Boston, sold to a Puritan industrialist in New Hampshire, and eventually established his own milling operation on the Saco River in Maine.

with Maine Farmland Trust; Recorded November 15, 2018 - No matter how many seasons they have been with their soil, farmers develop a strong connection with their land. For each farmer, this relationship is unique and therefore, manifests differently into the food we eat and the communities we live in. Maine Farmland Trust hosted three farmers for a live storytelling night at the Maine Historical Society to explore these relationships.

Recorded September 13, 2018 - In conjunction with MHS's yearlong Maine Eats exhibition and in recognition of National Hunger Awareness month, we are pleased to partner with Full Plates Full Potential to present a forum exploring pathways out of Maine's unsavory history of childhood food insecurity. The discussion was moderated by MHS's Executive Director, Steve Bromage and panelists included Jean LaPointe, School Food Service Director for RSU 10, David Turin, Chef at David's Restaurant and hunger advocate, Mike Norton, Director of Community Relations at Hannaford and Justin Alfond, Former President of the Maine State Senate and Co-Founder of Full Plates Full Potential.

Tom Huntington; Recorded July 12, 2018 - The story of Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry on Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg has entered into legend. But there's much more to Maine at Gettysburg than that one regiment. The state's soldiers made their presence felt all over the Pennsylvania battlefield during three days of fighting in July 1863—and during the two years of war before that. In a talk about his book, Maine Roads to Gettysburg , author Tom Huntington tells stories about soldiers from the Pine Tree State who made their presence felt during the Civil War's biggest battle.

Lisa Brooks; Recorded March 22, 2018 - In Our Beloved Kin , Lisa Brooks recovers a complex picture of war, captivity, and Native resistance during the "First Indian War" (later named King Philip's War) by relaying the stories of Weetamoo, a female Wampanoag leader, and James Printer, a Nipmuc scholar, whose stories converge in the captivity of Mary Rowlandson. Through both a narrow focus on Weetamoo, Printer, and their network of relations, and a far broader scope that includes vast Indigenous geographies, Brooks leads us to a new understanding of the history of colonial New England and of American origins. Brooks’s pathbreaking scholarship is grounded not just in extensive archival research but also in the land and communities of Native New England, reading the actions of actors during the seventeenth century alongside an analysis of the landscape and interpretations informed by tribal history.

Patricia Q. Wall; Recorded February 10, 2018 - Through her new book, Lives of Consequence: Blacks in Early Kittery & Berwick in the Massachusetts Province of Maine , author Patricia Q. Wall reveals new startling information about the era of slavery in Maine's earliest settled region. Based on six years of intense research, Mrs. Wall’s wealth of findings not only banish the old myth of slavery's scarcity in Maine, they clearly point to significant impact of the labor, skills, and knowledge of hundreds of enslaved Blacks (i.e. Africans, Native Americans and people of mixed African, white and/or Native American heritage) on slave-owning families and on early economic development of communities and towns. Patricia Wall's book is available in the MHS Museum Store or online here .

Richard Rubin, author; Recorded April 20, 2017 - In The Last of the Doughboys , Richard Rubin introduced readers to a forgotten generation of Americans: the men and women who fought and won the First World War. But he soon came to realize that to get the whole story, he had to go Over There , too. So he did, and discovered that while most Americans regard that war as dead and gone, to the French, who still live among its ruins and memories, it remains very much alive. Based on his wildly popular New York Times series, Back Over There is a timely journey, in turns reverent and iconoclastic but always fascinating, through a place where the past and present are never really separated.

Jacqueline Field, adjunct curator; Recorded February 23, 2017 - Costume historian and adjunct curator of MHS, Jacqueline Field, discusses the economic implications of world war. Prior to World War I, Germany provided the world’s supply of textiles dyes. As the war began, embargoes were imposed and trade routes disrupted. The lack of dyes forced American industries to scramble and figure out to create their own dyes effectively. White became very fashionable in the meantime. Hear about the impact of this economic shift and visit us to see the beautiful fashions on display in the World War I and the Maine Experience exhibition.

Recorded January 12, 2017 - Listen to a conversation between Lucas St. Clair, the man behind the newly named North Woods national monument, and Steve Bromage, MHS Executive Director. The Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine’s northern woods region came by the determination and grit of St. Clair. This federally protected land promises to revolutionize the region’s economy, but it did not happen without controversy. Questions about its future still remain. Guests learned about this vast area of land given to the American people, and had an opportunity to ask their own questions. Audio quality is faint at times but it's worth a listen!!

Dr. Ronald Epp, author and historian; Recorded October 26, 2016 - Author and historian Dr. Ronald Epp speaks about his important book, documenting Dorr's pivotal role in the creation of Acadia National Park. The first biography of George B. Dorr ever written, Creating Acadia National Park: the Biography of George Bucknam Dorr is based on painstaking research both in the US and abroad, including federal, state, and private archives. Newly-discovered and uncatalogued sources are supplemented by in-person interviews.

Mount Desert Historical Society Executive Director Tim Garrity; Recorded September 22, 2016 - George Dorr intended for Acadia National Park's "noble granite masses" to "become true historic documents that will record forever to succeeding generations the human background of the Park." However, no history lasts forever. The French historian Fernand Braudel taught that "History is the child of its time." The names that Dorr gave to Acadia's mountains tell us as much about the time of the park's founding as it does about the more distant past. In this illustrated lecture, reprized from the MHS Annual Meeting in 2016, Tim Garrity reflects on the history of the park as we understand it now and as the founders understood it a century ago.