Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Recorded August 19, 2021 - Prejudice and discrimination in Maine against immigrants dates back to at least the mid-1700s, when Pope's or Pope Day (Guy Fawkes Day in Britain) was celebrated in Falmouth (Portland); effigies of the Pope and the Devil were carried around town to loud cheers and slurs. Protestants had been taught since birth to hate Roman Catholicism. After all, French Catholics had be...

Recorded August 10, 2021 - Community cookbooks: you know them and you probably have at least one in your kitchen! Collections of home cooked recipes put together by church groups, synagogues, school groups, political organizations, band boosters, and even biker gangs, these cookbooks are endlessly interesting and rich with stories. Existing at the intersection of technology, home economy, food saf...

Recorded July 20, 2021 - Wherever we are in Maine, we are on Wabanaki homeland. In this talk, Dr. Darren Ranco describes how issues of racial injustice have shaped State of Maine Indian History and Policy and provides a broad historical and rights context to contemporary issues related to Wabanaki Tribal Sovereignty and Treaty Rights.

Recorded July 17, 2021 - For generations, the Ulster Scots were a people on the move. From their home in the Scottish Lowlands, these Presbyterians ventured first to Ulster, and then across the Atlantic, where they carved out lives in Britain’s North American colonies, including what became the state of Maine. By the American Revolution, 200,000 Ulster Scots had crossed the sea. In North America,...

Recorded July 22, 2021 - In September 1826, a group of six African American men addressed a letter "To the Public" on behalf of about six hundred of their brethren in Portland, Maine, in which they announced their intention to "erect a suitable house for public worship" to serve their community. Their plan came to fruition in the construction of the Abyssinian Meeting House, built in 1828, which b...

Recorded July 7, 2021 - Author and history teacher Michael Trapani discusses how Andrew Jackson changed the nature of the United States presidency through his war against the Second Bank of the United States, and how his Whig opponents in the Senate tried to stem the tide of change. Jackson's novel use of his removal and veto power, coupled with anointing himself the direct representative of the p...

Recorded June 24, 2021 - Jews have a long history in Maine, with thriving communities across the state. They came to Maine for the same reasons as so many others: to live well and raise their families within the state's appealing natural and cultural environment. The experiences of Jewish Mainers, however, have also been distinctive on account of their occupational choices and traditions as well a...

Recorded June 21, 2021 - Hear Michael Connolly read excerpts from and discuss his newest work, Murky Overhead . A work of historical fiction, Murky Overhead tells the story of a day in the life of an Irish-American working-class family, the Folans. Follow the Folans though the streets and docks of their new American home in maritime Portland, Maine, at the turn of the 20th century; Coleman shovels...

Recorded June 17, 2021 - In 1952, Toy Len Goon, a modest widow and mother of eight, was selected as Maine Mother of the Year, and then for the national title, by the J.C. Penney Golden Rule Foundation. An immigrant from China, she came to the U.S. in 1921 as the wife of Dogan Goon, a WWI veteran and laundryman. After Dogan became disabled and unable to work, passing away in 1941, she and her child...

Recorded June 15, 2021 - This program was recorded on June 15, 2021. Each year thousands of men and women and families recreate on Maine's Public Reserved Lands. Most of these visitors know only that the large green areas on the map promise them access to some of the state's most magnificent places, but few know just how Maine acquired them. The story of the state’s Public Reserved Lands and how w...

Recorded June 10, 2021 - They came in waves on waves. They were in the background on the steel roads that snaked deep into the interior. While not being unnoticed, they were invisible. And before you knew it, Maine had a vibrant albeit small Black population. Hear Bob Greene as he describes the histories of the Black people of Maine whose lives and work have made Maine what it is today and have la...

Recorded May 26, 2021 - In Life of a Klansman: A Family History with White Supremacy , Edward Ball returns to the subject of his classic, Slaves in the Family: the mechanisms of white supremacy in America , as understood through the lives of his own ancestors. This time, he tells the story of a warrior in the Ku Klux Klan, a carpenter in Louisiana who took up the cause of fanatical racism during t...

Recorded June 7, 2021 - Holding an integral place in Maine's community, the story of its early taverns and tea rooms is an important account of commerce and political and social life. From famed Revolutionary War incidents to Civil War generals, stagecoaches and the story of rum, the history of Maine's early taverns is captivating. The tea rooms of the early 1900s were just as interesting and impo...

Recorded May 20, 2021 - Known to be a convener of conversations and debates, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. takes care to engage fellow citizens of all ages and backgrounds – from young activists, to fellow academics, journalists and commentators, and followers on Twitter in dialogue about the direction of the nation. His scholarship is driven by a commitment to think carefully with others. In this talk...

Recorded May 12, 2021 - Co-curators Anne Gass, Tilly Laskey, Darren Ranco, and Krystal Williams discuss topics covered in Maine Historical Society exhibition and initiative Begin Again: reckoning with intolerance in Maine . The panel reviews the structures of systemic racism and discrimination that have perpetuated inequity and intolerance in Maine for the past 500 years and talk about how they ca...

Recorded March 3, 2021 - This panel discussion explores Black History in Maine with panelists sharing their family's history and experience in Maine dating back to the 18th century. This program was a partnership between Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, GPCOG, United Way of Greater Portland, the Portland Public Library, and the Maine Historical Society.

Recorded March 11, 2021 - Maine Historical Society Executive Director Steve Bromage leads a conversation with award-winning author and journalist Colin Woodard and our Executive Director Steve Bromage as they look back on Maine’s commemoration of the Bicentennial and the profound ways in which history shapes the state and its people today. Purchase Union - The Struggle to Forge the Story of United...

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, tri...

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...

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 favor...

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 (Pe...

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...

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 serv...

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 Endow...

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 mar...