Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Speaker: Jared Peatman; Recorded November 14, 2014 - Historian Jared Peatman, author of The Long Shadow of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (2013), spoke at the opening reception of the traveling exhibition, Lincoln: The Constitution & the Civil War . His talk revealed the interconnected history between the United States Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, and constitutional theory around the world.

Earle Shettleworth, Vin Verioneau; Recorded September 30, 2014 - Each year MHS recognizes an individual in Maine who has made significant contributions to the community through the Maine History Maker Award . This award honors contemporary citizens who are shaping Maine today. In 2014 we honored Vin Veroneau of J.B. Brown & Sons. Listen to the presentation and the history of the Brown family in Portland presented by Earle Shettleworth.

Speaker: Nicholson Baker, Author; Recorded March 15, 2012 - In 2001, writer Nicholson Baker published Double Fold , a book about libraries, paper science, and lost history. In it he documented his efforts to save a large collection of beautiful and exceptionally rare newspaper volumes, which were being scrapped in favor of microfilmed replacements. Baker's forceful case served as a seeming coda to the era of print, and presaged issues and arguments that organizations like MHS face in the digital age. Why, we are asked, do we need to keep all this ephemeral stuff now that it can be digitized? Baker revisits the intellectual underpinnings of his newspaper crusade, shares tales of research recently done in the MHS library, and reminds us of the essentialness of real, physical things.

Speaker: Nicholas Bunker; Recorded October 2, 2014 - Written from a strikingly fresh perspective, this account of the Boston Tea Party and the origins of the American Revolution shows how a lethal blend of politics, personalities, and economics led to a war that few people welcomed but nobody could prevent. Publishers Weekly says, “A nuanced global analysis of Britain’s failure to hold onto its American colonies. . . riveting. . . With a sharp eye for economic realities, Bunker persuasively demonstrates why the American Revolution had to happen.” Nick Bunker is the author of Making Haste from Babylon . He was a journalist for the Liverpool Echo and the Financial Times, and then an investment banker. He lives in Lincolnshire, England.

Speaker: Kathleen M. Brown, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania; Recorded September 18, 2014 - The author of Foul Bodies: Cleanliness in Early America imagined what body care and hygiene may have been like in the Wadsworth-Longfellow House. Nineteenth century Americans were not the first people to read the body for telltale signs of virtue or moral weakness, but they came to these judgments in the context of new standards and practices of body care. Kathleen Brown is a historian of gender and race in early America and the Atlantic World. She is also the author of Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia (Chapel Hill, 1996), which won the Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association for best book by a junior scholar.

Speaker: James Witherell; Recorded September 16, 2014 - The arc of Edmund "Ed" Muskie's life from modest beginnings 100 hundred years ago to future greatness was singular and unpredictable-an American story that looks plausible only in hindsight. Author James L. Witherell's biography of Muskie traces the son of an immigrant tailor through his two terms as Maine's governor. Witherell is also the author of Bicycle History (2010), L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company (2011), and When Heroes Were Giants: 100 Tours de France (2013).

Speaker: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt; Recorded September 4, 2014 - During this Special Evening with Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the granddaughter of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt shared anecdotes, talked about Ken Burns's PBS series "The Roosevelts," and discussed family legacy.

Speaker: Allan M. Levinsky; Recorded September 2, 2014 - Retired Maine Historical Society Visitor Service Coordinator Allan Levinsky is also an accomplished historian with several books under his belt. In this book talk, he shares the first-person stories and dramatic events surrounding the infamous Portland fire of 1866.

Speaker: Morgan Rielly; Recorded August 19, 2014 - Westbrook High School graduate Morgan Rielly's lifelong passion for history and stories motivated him to interview and record the personal histories of local World War II veterans. Throughout his four years in high school, Morgan researched, tracked down, and talked at length to numerous men and women, many of whose experiences and memories are collected in Neighborhood Heroes , published by Down East Books. The author shares some of these compelling stories, and how he was inspired to begin the project in the first place.

Speaker: Kate McCarty; Recorded July 24, 2014 - Portland's vibrant food scene boasts more than 300 restaurants, as well as specialty food businesses, farmers' markets, pop-up dinners, and food trucks. How did it evolve over the past several decades into the city that regularly makes national "best of" lists today for its foodie culture? Dig into Portland's bounty, and its historical rise to food prominence, in this talk by local food writer Kate McCarty, author of the new book, Portland Food .