Program Feature: Community History

Talk a little bit about the focus of the Community History pilot series with Maine MILL. What’s it been like to be involved in a first-of-its-kind program for Maine Humanities?

It’s really invigorating to start something new, especially because people’s interest in local history has been so apparent. Some of our most popular talks requested in the Maine Speaks program focus on local history, and through our grants program we’ve supported some fascinating projects that bring unique local history to a broader audience. Maine has so many interesting stories and a lot of people who care deeply about collecting and sharing them. Finding ways to cultivate that sharing while encouraging reflection on what these stories mean is exciting. There’s so much possibility. 

“…we wanted to explore how people thought about these old factory buildings and their contents collected in the museum. Not just as a fact of history, but as a part of daily life—something that interacts with their own personal histories.”

– Harper Batsford

For the series with Maine MILL, they hosted three evening programs where we invited community members to get together with a facilitator and have a conversation prompted by different tangible reminders of history. The goal was to see the way different subjects and questions lead people to share personal experiences and perspectives on the connection between art and the history of industrial manufacturing in the Lewiston area. We used a variety of things like hand-painted designs from the Bates Mill, tools and belongings of different generations of people in what we now call Lewiston, and even the architecture of Bates Mill No. 1, where Maine MILL is currently located as renovations on the museum’s new home are completed. Manufacturing history is such a visible and present part of Lewiston, and efforts by the MILL and other local organizations to create spaces for art and culture add a lot to the community. So we wanted to explore how people thought about these old factory buildings and their contents collected in the museum. Not just as a fact of history but as a part of daily life there – something that interacts with their own personal histories. 

Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor (Maine MILL) is a history and culture museum in downtown Lewiston, Maine, that celebrates extraordinary stories of work and industrial ingenuity. The museum invites visitors to explore how life, labor, and culture shape the present and influence the future.

What was it about Maine MILL and their work that made them such a strong community partner?

Maine MILL is a dynamic organization that does a lot to support their community in both remembering the past and connecting with each other in the present. From their early work as Museum LA, collecting important materials being discarded as mill buildings were repurposed, to their more recent work archiving artifacts and engaging artists after the October 25 tragedy, it’s an organization that places a great deal of importance on reflecting the people who live here as they collect and interpret their shared past in creative ways. Throughout the planning process and in the programs, their Director, Rachel Ferrante, and Collections Manager Clayton Bessire, offered great insight into the community as well as ideas of items from the collection to help tailor the program to the community. Having learned about the multifaceted relationship they have with their community, both through their previous partnerships with Maine Humanities and as a resident of the Lewiston-Auburn area, Maine MILL seemed like a great place to try something a little different.      

You mentioned the group facilitator—what was the impact of that role?

Facilitators are important to so much of our work at Maine Humanities. Even in the very early stages, I knew I wanted facilitated conversation to be part of Community History. I’d seen the way facilitators help people in book groups delve into complex and important themes and wanted to explore how they could foster those same interactions while experimenting with different points of focus that come from a historical context like oral histories, objects, and meaningful places. 

Joe Hall was the facilitator and the perfect candidate for this experimentation; he teaches as an Associate Professor of History at Bates College, knows the history of Lewiston, has been a facilitator with Maine Humanities for years, and is currently on our Board as Secretary. Once we started planning, I was encouraged by his willingness to go beyond his comfort zone of academic history to incorporate questions about art and architecture as well. I really appreciated his flexibility and eagerness to try different ways of getting people to talk about history, and that he was looking at things in a new light alongside the people in our programs. We agreed from the early stages that he’d be less like a teacher and more of a guide to the conversation, offering structure and encouragement, while making sure people know that the knowledge they have from living their lives is a level of expertise that we can all learn from.   

Facilitator Joe Hall, center, discusses the exterior of Bates Mill No. 1 in Lewiston.

It seems like there was good community turnout. What was the response from participants and what perspectives did they bring?

It was great to see that people showed up eager to share and learn. I was really encouraged by how quickly people who were initially hesitant to talk opened up after opportunities to break into smaller groups to observe something.   

Combining Maine Humanities’ audience with Maine MILL’s, and doing some additional outreach, led to a great variety of people who showed up. In addition to people who had attended programs with each organization, we had folks come from other towns who were relatively unfamiliar with Lewiston, local students, new residents, and even generations-long residents. It wasn’t just people already interested in history, either. People came because they wanted to talk about the artistic aspect of textile design, because they care about how their city’s historic buildings are used, or because they wanted to think about what life was like for their family members who worked in the mills. We had people who had worked at the mills in multiple sessions, and others whose family members had, which offered an interesting personal perspective.

“People came because they wanted to talk about the artistic aspect of textile design, because they care about how their city’s historic buildings are used, or because they wanted to think about what life was like for their family members who worked in the mills.”

– Harper Batsford

After such a strong and impactful pilot, what’s next for Community History?

I’m hoping that future programs can continue to bring in a broader variety of people than traditional history programs, helping expand the perspectives that are considered when communities talk about who they are and how they came to be. Next year we will be working with two partners to continue exploring how this program works in different contexts. We’ll continue to use facilitated community conversations, looking at how that format works with different elements that fit each group’s goals and environment. For example, how does this type of program look when we move between historic sites? How do we make these conversations feel intimate and encouraging if we look at a community that is spread across the state? Working with new groups will give us insight we’ll need to offer programs for a greater variety of communities in the future.  

Is there anything else you’d like to add?  

We’re thrilled to continue exploring programming that engages people with stories from the past. They’re core to how we understand ourselves and the world around us—whether it’s a story from a grandparent, a place that holds a special memory, or an idea that’s evolved over time, everything and everyone has a past. The exploration of those stories through shared observation and reflection can add so much richness to our relationships with others, ourselves, and the place we live.

Photos by Maine Humanities
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