July 6 - 11, 2009 ~~~ Hanover, NH
The Classical Association of New England (CANE) Summer Institute brings people interested in ancient cultures together with New England’s most accomplished scholars for a six-day collegial program of lectures and mini-courses on the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. The emphasis of the 2009 program, “Expanding the Map,” is on cultural exchange between the Greco-Roman Mediterranean and the peripheries of the classical world, and on the reception of classical ideas in Europe, America, Africa, and Central Asia. Support from the Council provides scholarships for Maine teachers to attend the Institute. For information, please visit www.dartmouth.edu/~classics/cane09.html.
Back to the TopJuly 13 - August 22, 2009 ~~~ Thomaston
Revolution & Evolution: Federal Period Clothing is a public exhibition of historic costume at the General Henry Knox Museum in Thomaston. Opening night, July 13, will feature a lecture by the exhibition’s guest curator, Mary Doering. Doering is a professor in the Corcoran College of Art and Design’s Masters of Decorative Arts program and a private collector of 18th-century clothing. Specialized tours led by costume historian Julie Stackpole run on July 25 and August 21. Participants in the Knox Museum’s 2009 summer teacher institute exploring everyday life in early American history will attend Doering’s lecture and use the exhibition as a hands-on resource. For more information, please call (207) 354-8062 or visit http://www.knoxmuseum.org.
Back to the TopJuly 14 & 15, 2009 ~~~ Bar Harbor
The Bar Harbor Music Festival holds the proud distinction of being the only summer music festival north of Boston to feature the work of “new composers.” In 2009, guest composers Douglas Anderson and William Dickerson will visit the Festival for a forum on July 14 and a concert on July 15. Anderson teaches at Manhattan Community College and conducts for the American Chamber Opera Company. Dickerson is on the faculty of the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City. The concert features the flute, viola, and cello ensemble “Eight Strings and a Whistle.” For information, please call (207) 288-5744 or visit www.barharbormusicfestival.org.
Back to the TopJuly 14, 22, 25 & 29, 2009 ~~~ Hinckley
As part of a series of programs promoting the Living the Good Will Idea exhibition at the L.C. Bates Museum, alumni of the Good Will-Hinckley facility will give tours to the public. The exhibition explores the lives of the orphan children who lived at Good Will and were guided by The Good Will Idea, George Hinckley’s philosophy of child care. Other public programming will include handouts, children’s materials, and family programs. For details, please call (207) 238-4250 or visit www.gwh.org/html/lcbatesmuseum.htm.
Back to the TopJuly 18 - August 9, 2009 ~~~ Lewiston
In conjunction with the 2009 Bates Dance Festival, dance writer Debra Cash will conduct a residency from July 18-August 9. Cash will write in-depth program notes, provide pre-performance lectures, and moderate post-performance discussions on the work of contemporary choreographers Robert Battle, Tania Isaac, and Bebe Miller. She will also offer a course, “Dance in Context,” that will analyze current dance practice through dialogue and writing. For details, please visit www.bates.edu/dancefest.
Back to the TopJuly 19, 2009 ~~~ Parsonsfield
As part of the group’s fifth annual Victorian Tea and in honor of the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the Friends of the Parsonsfield Seminary will present reenactors Phillip Chetwynd and Sally Mummey. Since 1991, Chetwynd and Mummey are known for their portrayals of President and Mary Todd Lincoln, during which they speak on personal experiences with slavery and the Underground Railroad. Parsonsfield Seminary, formerly known as the Free Will Baptist Seminary in the United States, was a stop on the Underground Railroad in the first half of the 19th century, and it is decorated to recall that era on the occasion of the Victorian Tea. Many attendees will dress in period attire, and a local harpist will accompany the light repast that follows the Lincoln presentation. For tickets, please call (207) 625-4449 or visit www.parsonsfieldseminary.org.
Back to the TopJuly 19 - August 2, 2009 ~~~ Machias
For two weeks each summer, young people gather at the University of Maine in Machias to experience community and creativity through Shakespearean theatre with the Maine Youth Theatre Institute (MYSTI). First envisioned and sponsored by a professor at the university, this program is now run under the auspices of Stage East, a nonprofit community theatre group based in Eastport. MYSTI’s 30 young actors (ages 12-19), most of them from Washington County, produce a full-length Shakespearean play at the end of their session. In 2009, they will present two public performances of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Machias Performing Arts Center. For details, please call (207) 853-7154, or visit www.stageeast.org/mysti.
Back to the TopJuly 24, 2009 ~~~ Eastport
The Tides Institute & Museum of Art in Eastport will host a symposium called “The Architecture of New England and the Atlantic Provinces,” to include three presentations by leading architectural historians on the architectural and cultural ties between Maine and New Brunswick. The program will also include a walking tour to view Eastport’s downtown architecture. To reserve seating, please call (207) 853-4047.
Back to the TopAugust 7, 2009 ~~~ Bethel
The Bethel Historical Society’s 2009 Lecture Series, “Celebrating Western Maine’s History,” continues during Sudbury Canada Days, when H. Draper Hunt celebrates the bicentennial of Hannibal Hamlin’s birth on Paris Hill with a discussion of the Civil War Vice Presidency. Thomas Desjardin will build on this talk at the society’s September 10 annual meeting, when he discusses Oxford County during the Civil War. Randall H. Bennett’s October 10 lecture will interpret 19th century White Mountain tourism through Starr King’s The White Hills. Finally, an oral history night on November 12 will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sunday River. For details, please call (207) 824-2910 or visit www.bethelhistorical.org.
Back to the TopAugust 7 - 9, 2009 ~~~ Whitefield
To help celebrate Whitefield’s Bicentennial, artist Natasha Mayers will lead Whitefield social studies students in the creation of an 8x12-foot mural depicting historic landmarks and events on a map of Whitefield. Rachel Hamlin will conduct two tile-making workshops with the wider Whitefield Community to create a tile border for the mural. A document of all participants from the school and the general public, along with photographs of the process taken by students, will be archived at the Whitefield Historical Society. The mural will be unveiled during the major Whitefield Bicentennial Days celebration, August 7-9, and will endure as a permanent installation in the Whitefield School. For more information, please call the school at (207) 549-7691.
Back to the TopAugust 17 - 22, 2009 ~~~ Lubec
The bicentennial of the town of Lubec, in 2010, provides an opportunity to reflect on the past and what makes Lubec unique. During the week of August 17, 2009, artist Natasha Mayers will supervise the creation and installation of a mural on an exterior wall of the Lubec Historical Society. The mural will depict landmarks, events, people, and scenes from historic photographs preserved in the Maine Memory Network and stories told by Lubec Historical Society members. Families, local leaders, and town leaders will be supported in the painting process by members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists in residence for their own project, “Arting-up Lubec.” For more information, please call (207) 733-2274; to see sample historic images of Lubec, visit lubec.mainememory.net.
Back to the TopAugust 23, 2009 ~~~ Newfield
The second annual Newfield Old Home Days celebration will build on the success of the 2008 event, which drew over 1,000 participants. On the second day, August 23, a historical program will be presented at the Newfield Historical Society’s new building to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. The program will include presentations by Steve Wood from the Association of Lincoln Presenters, as well as Civil War re-enactors Toby Stinson and Carolyn Lawson, followed by a discussion comparing and contrasting the issues and concerns of the Civil War era with those of today. For details on this free program, please call (207) 793-2784 or visit www.willowbrookmuseum.org.
Back to the TopSeptember 25, October 16, and November 20 ~~~ Freeport
The Freeport Historical Society recently acquired an oil painting of the merchant ship Tam O’ Shanter, which sailed out of Freeport in the 19th century. The painting will be exhibited in 2009 alongside artifacts and documents tied to the experiences of Maine mariners and their families, and especially to Tam O’Shanter. In addition, the Freeport Historical Society has planned a series of public events, “Lessons from the Tam O’Shanter,” to engage a broad audience in maritime history. After a summer break, the series picks up again on September 25 with a talk entitled “Yankee Shipmasters: Swashbuckling Middle Class Guys…Or Were They?” (suggesting that in fact, most captains were responsible businessmen). Two more lectures, on October 16 and November 20, will address the China trade, both old and new, and the specific voyages that are on record for the Tam O’Shanter. For more program details, please call (207) 865-3170 or visit www.freeporthistoricalsociety.org.
Back to the TopOctober 10 & 11 ~~~ Orono
The United Nations has designated 2009 the “International Year of Natural Fiber,” and Maine is responding with Fiber Maine-ia, a year’s worth of events culminating in a statewide conference. The conference celebrates our state’s textile heritage and the place of fiber in the cultural economy. A variety of formats, including lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on experiences, will expose participants to fiber arts and economy both current and historic. Teachers will be able to select from a strand that provides them with resources for incorporating fiber study into standards-based social studies, mathematics, science, art, and literature curricula. The conference is coordinated by the Friends of Dr. Edith Marion Patch and the Page Farm and Home Museum in Orono; to learn more and to sign up for the conference, please visiwww.umext.maine.edu/fibermaine-ia/conference.htm.
Back to the TopOctober 22, 2009 ~~~ Portland
Joan Hedrick, the 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life, will speak at the University of Southern Maine on October 22, 2009. Her lecture, “Writing a Woman’s Life,” will explore the challenges and choices (often shaped by gender) involved in writing biography. The topic is intended to appeal to the general public as well as scholars writing about Ellen Harmon White, co-founder of the Seventh-Day Adventists, who will convene for a working conference in Portland, October 22-25. Hedrick teaches at Trinity College in Connecticut. For more information about her lecture or the Ellen Harmon White conference, please contact the American & New England Studies program at USM, (207) 780-4920.
Back to the TopThrough October 18, 2009 ~~~ Portland
The Portland Harbor Museum celebrates the May 20 opening of its new space at 510 Congress Street in Portland with three new exhibits. Along with two photography shows, the multimedia Good Work, Sister: Women Shipyard Workers During World War II exhibit will tell the story of local women who worked in the WWII shipyards, filling jobs formerly held only by men. The museum’s abundant collection of photographs, artifacts, and archives will explore the impact of this change on every aspect of wartime culture. The exhibit complements the Museum’s new online educational unit on the same topic. For hours and other details, please visit www.portlandharbormuseum.org.
Back to the TopThrough November 29, 2009 ~~~ Bath
The Maine Maritime Museum’s new exhibit, Net Worth: the Rise and Fall of Maine’s Fin Fisheries, runs from May 2 to November 29, 2009. It illuminates the various strands of history, economics, politics, and technology that have shaped the fishing industry in Maine. Since fishing was one of the first livelihoods for both Maine Indians and European visitors, the exhibit explores the impact of European exploration on the livelihoods of indigenous people. In a public program, Native American historian and Penobscot Tribal Elder Reuban Phillips and reenactor and historian Gus Konitzky will appear together for the first time to demonstrate historic Native and European techniques for catching and preserving fish. Tentative dates for this program are July 23 and August 20. For details, please call (207) 443-1316 or visit www.mainemaritimemuseum.org.
Back to the TopThrough 2010 ~~~ Augusta
Uncommon Threads is a 2,000 square foot exhibit developed by the Maine State Museum presenting the cultural history of the four Native American tribes comprising the Wabanaki. The exhibit introduces approximately 100 artifacts, mostly from the collection of the Maine State Museum, to the public. Ornate ceremonial attire, utilitarian apparel, embellished accoutrements, and ornamentation will be complemented by photographs, period paintings, texts, and other interpretive aids. The exhibit opened on May 23, 2009, and will remain in Augusta for at least a year before traveling to such venues as the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Connecticut, the New York State Museum in Albany, and the McCord Museum in Montreal. It will close at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine. For exhibit details, please contact the Maine State Museum at (207) 287-2301 or www.mainestatemuseum.org.
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Notes from an Open Book welcomes feedback from its readers. Please contact Diane Magras by email at diane@mainehumanities.org or by phone at (207)773-5051 ext. 208 (toll-free 1-866-637-3233, ext. 208) to respond.