Maine Humanities Council

Home of the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book
“In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its veracity.”

— Time Regained
Marcel Proust

1. As Maine Grows...

Many Mainers will remember Taxing Maine, the award-winning play about the history of state taxes that toured 34 Maine sites in 2006. Now The Theater at Monmouth’s David Greenham and Dennis Price are back, this time to tackle the many issues facing our state as we move into the future in an audience-engaging performance/discussion that will surely bring chills and thrills (and perhaps raise hackles) across the state.

Using different historical characters, humor, little known facts, thought-provoking stories and current material gathered from the general public, the play will explore the issues of growth and development in Maine. The performance will encourage the audience to consider how history, customs and attitudes influence the way we think about change and growth in our state, and about individual preferences in relation to the common good. Following each performance, the actors will engage the audience in a discussion of the ideas raised in the play, giving audience members an opportunity to reflect on and share their thoughts about the issues that were examined in the performance and what they have heard and seen.

The play and the discussion will last one hour. The program is flexible enough to work in a wide variety of public settings, and is appropriate for teenagers and adults. The Maine Humanities Council is offering this program to interested communities at no charge. For more information about how to bring “As Maine Grows . . .” to your town or organization, please contact the Maine Humanities Council at 207-773-5051 or 1-866- 637-3233 or visit. “As Maine Grows...” is made possible by the Dorothy Schwartz Opportunity Fund.

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2. MHC News

Your Hometown

Fox Television’s local affiliate just produced a five-minute segment for their “Your Hometown” series about the MHC. In it, a program participant and scholar discuss the MHC experience, and Executive Director Erik Jorgensen gives a concise description of what the humanities are all about. This “Your Hometown” segment will be shown on local Fox stations in Maine throughout the year.

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Going British: The Anglicizing of American Hunting with Hounds, 1865-1930

Charles Calhoun, the MHC’s scholar-in-residence, has been awarded a one-month John H. Daniels Research Fellowship at the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia. He will be engaged in a project this August researching a history of fox hunting in North America. He will be exploring how the sport of hunting evolved from a rustic sport to a more stylized one during the period of 1865 to 1930, reflecting the growing popularity of other British values among a privileged U.S. society during that period. Charles is the author of Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life.

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Endless Forms: Archaea, gel pen on paper
Dorothy Schwartz

“From So Simple a Beginning: My Darwin”

On June 4, 2009, Dorothy Schwartz’s “So Simple a Beginning: My Darwin” will open at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland, running through June. This enormous project engaged much of the MHC’s former executive director’s time after her retirement in 2007, engaging her in study in New York, Cambridge (England), and Darwin’s home and laboratory at Kent. Deedee wrote in her artist’s statement:

Long before the 2009 bicentennial celebrations of Charles Darwin’s birth, and the recent battles over teaching so-called “intelligent design” in America’s schools, Darwin has been on my mind. He inhabited my earliest etchings of fossils, spiders, and monkeys, and he still haunts my imagination. Two years ago, I set out to embody his ideas symbolically in a new series of prints and drawings, little suspecting that the whole world would soon have to confront evolution through the reality of a rapidly changing virus.

The works in this exhibition are about our links to each other and to endlessly evolving forms. I do not pretend to understand fully the scientific complexities of Darwin’s work: it is his hypothesis on the coalescing of tiny elements that came together to make the beginnings of life, which inspires and astonishes me.

For more information on this show, contact the June Fitzpatrick Gallery.

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The Born to Read book list for May features friendships between people of different ages, focusing on the wonderful things that older people share with children, from books, flowers, to a love of and eagerness for learning.

 

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Former Maine Governor Angus King reads Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address to close the Lincoln Symposium

Podcast Update

New podcasts include talks at the Maine Festival of the Book from Bill Roorbach and Hannah Holmes (in conversation, too ), as well as talks from the MHC’s Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium: Bruce Chadwick on Lincoln’s early political years, Elizabeth Leonard on the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination, and more.

 

 

 

 

 

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3. Grants and Events


Grant-Funded Events

Events funded by MHC grants include a lecture series in Bethel celebrating Western Maine’s history; a presentation in Portland on the behind-the-scenes creation of the book Designing the Maine Landscape; a public program at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle by writer-in residence Akiko Busch; and more.


Recent Grants

$1,000 to the Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, for Fisheries Past: A Hands-On Look at 17th Century Native American and European Fishing on the Maine Coast
Reuban Phillips, Native American historian and Penobscot Tribal Elder, and 17th century reenactor and historian Gus Konitzky, will demonstrate historic Native and European techniques for catching and preserving fish, one of the earliest livelihoods for both Maine Indians and early European visitors, with programs open to the public.

$1,000 to the Association to Promote and Protect the Lubec Environment, Lubec, for Promoting the Art and Culture of the Lubec/Campobello Area
The grant would cover dissemination of cultural information (including history, art, and music) to visitors through printed and electronic media and a live exhibit to promote community and tourists’ knowledge and use.

$1,000 to the Passamaquoddy Tribe, Princeton, for Passamaquoddy Language Revitalization Project
Will utilize master Tribal linguist David Francis, 93 years old, in describing the tribal language system. Recording his description of the different word sounds and spelling methods will be used in the computer sound file system to be developed by UMaine.

$1,000 to the Portland Harbor Museum, Portland, for Women Shipyard Workers During WWII Exhibit
Through artifacts, photographs, and documents, this exhibit examines the impact of women shipyard workers during World War II.

$1,000 to Greater Portland Landmarks, Portland, for Flag Day at the Portland Observatory Museum (1807)
GPL will present a community celebration on Flag Day, at the Portland Observatory Museum, a National Historic Landmark, to promote public appreciation of the unique history of Portland through free tours of the Observatory & Munjoy Hill area, flag making & art activities for children & families, and sea shanty music by local musician David Peloquin.

$600 to the Friends of Par Sem, Parsonsfield, for Bringing History to Life
As part of the group’s Fifth Annual Victorian Tea and in honor of the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, a program is planned for July 19 at the Parsonsfield Seminary that will feature enactors portraying President Lincoln and his wife. They will speak on personal experiences with slavery and the Underground Railroad.

$500 to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, for Akiko Busch, Writer-in-Residence
Award-winning writer Akiko Busch will be an artist-in-residence at Haystack from 6/14-26, 2009 as part of the school’s Visiting Artist Program. This grant is funding a public presentation by her.

$500 to Stage East, Inc., Eastport, for Maine Summer Youth Theatre Institute - A Midsummer Night’s Dream
In August 2009, MYSTI will present two performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the UMaine Machias Performing Arts Center. This grant is funding an educational component of this project.

$200 to the Maine Olmstead Alliance for Parks and Landscapes, Portland, for The Making of a Book: Designing the Maine Landscape
Theresa Mattor and Lucie Teegarden, co-authors of Designing the Maine Landscape, will discuss the process of turning the results of the Olmsted Alliance’s extensive survey of Maine’s designed landscapes into a definitive, richly illustrated book.

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4. What We’re Reading

This list of book recommendations from MHC staff includes Pink and Say, Ecotopia, After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance, So Long a Letter, and La Princesse de Clèves.

 

 

 

 

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5. Quote of the Month

“I have a deeper awareness of my colleagues’ empathy and appreciation for the complexity of our work. This has contributed to my efficacy when helping patients with complex needs or health conditions.”

—from a participant in Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care®

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