Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Rob Sneddon, journalist and sports historian; Recorded May 25, 2016 - Journalist and sports historian Rob Sneddon discussed the infamous Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston fight of May 25, 1965, which ended in chaos at a high school hockey rink in Lewiston, Maine. Sneddon dug deep into the fight's background and delivered new perspective on boxing promotion in the 1960s; on Ali's rapid rise and Liston's sudden fall; on how the bout ended up in Lewiston--and, of course, on Ali's phantom punch. That single lightning-quick blow triggered a complex chain reaction of events that few people understood, either then or now. The following clip was shown at the lecture: Muhammad Ali Vs Sonny Liston II | Full Match 1965.

Recorded March 10, 2016 - Orson Horchler, aka Pigeon, discusses the exhibition Pigeon's Mainer Project: street art meets history , his process, and inspiration behind his work. He leads a discussion about immigration, questioning and debunking the notion of who gets to call themselves a "Mainer."

Speaker: Michael Dekker; Recorded October 20, 2015 - For eight decades, an epic power struggle raged across a frontier that would become Maine. Between 1675 and 1759, British, French and Native Americans clashed in six distinct wars to stake and defend their land claims. Author Michael Dekker, a former trustee on the Lincoln County Historical Society board of directors and a member of the Boothbay Region Historical Society, shares his extensive research on the wars.

Speaker: John Babin, MHS Visitor Services Manager; Recorded October 27, 2015 - Maine Historical Society Visitor Services Manager John Babin—who has led tours in the Wadsworth-Longfellow House for more than a decade—talks about his new book on Longfellow. You'll feel as though you've stepped back in time to the poet's early days and landed in 19th century Portland—the bustling seaport town that so heavily influenced his life and work. Other speakers include Kathy Amoroso, Maine Memory Network; Alan Levinsky, co-author; and Herb Adams.

Speaker: Libby Bischof, Associate Professor of History, USM; Recorded January 31, 2015 - In addition to wearing only black apparel for up to a year, mourners in 18th and 19th century New England abided by fashions and customs that demonstrated intense grief. Libby Bischof, Associate Professor of History at the University of Southern Maine and a board member of Spirits Alive, the friend's group of Portland's historic Eastern Cemetery, explored these practices, utilizing examples from Maine Historical Society's collections.

Speaker: Matthew Edney, Osher Professor in the History of Cartography, University of Southern Maine; Recorded January 22, 2015 - Matthew Edney, Osher Professor in the History of Cartography at the University of Southern Maine, uses the collections of the Maine Historical Society and USM’s Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education to analyze urban maps as cultural documents and interpret Portland’s spatial history from the colonial era through the nineteenth century. Early maps of Portland manifest the duality of Portland, as a conventional city and a port city. View Slides (PDF) as you listen to podcast .

Speaker: Emerson "Tad" Baker; Recorded January 8, 2015 - Author Emerson "Tad" Baker explores the catalog of explanations that have been put forward over the years to solve the mystery of what happened during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Behind the events in Salem and surrounding towns was a unique convergence of conditions, including a new charter and government, a grim and bloody frontier war in Maine, and sectarian and political power-struggles. Baker is a professor of history at Salem State University and the award-winning author of many works on the history of early Maine and New England.

Speaker: Richard Judd, Professor of History, University of Maine; Recorded December 9, 2014 - After more than a decade of extensive research, the Historical Atlas of Maine presents in cartographic form--maps, paintings, graphs, and text--the historical geography of Maine from the end of the last ice age to the year 2000. Organized in four chronological sections, the Atlas tells the principal stories of the many people who have lived in Maine over the past 13,000 years. Dr. Richard Judd, professor of history at the University of Maine, spoke about co-editing the Atlas with Stephen J. Hornsby.

Speaker: Matthew Jude Barker; Recorded December 2, 2014 - Did you know that the second-youngest recipient ever of the Medal of Honor was 14-year old John Anglin, son of Irish emigrants who grew up near Gorham's Corner? Or that Colonel Patrick R. Guiney, leader of Boston's Fighting Irish Ninth, also hailed from Portland? Hundreds of Irishmen and boys from Portland fought in the war, and more than 90 were killed or died from their wounds or disease. Fascinating facts like these are being unearthed by historian and genealogist Matthew Jude Barker as he works on his second book.

Speaker: Lee Webb; Recorded November 18, 2014 - A PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Maine, Webb has been researching and writing extensively about Maine politics and culture during the war. He shared his research in this talk relating to the traveling exhibition, Lincoln: The Constitution & the Civil War , which was on display in the Brown Library from November 12 to December 20.