Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Speaker: Wallace Scot McFarlane; Recorded July 22, 2014 - Based on original research from an honors project completed at Bowdoin College in 2009 and a subsequent article published in Environmental History , Scot McFarlane explores the birth of the environmental movement in Maine by focusing on the heavily polluted Androscoggin River. Scot McFarlane’s honors thesis was a co-winner of the 2009 Bowdoin History Department's Class of 1875 Prize in American History; he conducted some of his research in the MHS Library. In 2011, he received a master of arts degree in teaching from Tufts University while simultaneously teaching humanities at Codman Academy Charter School in Boston.

Speaker: Chandra Manning, Associate Professor of History, Georgetown University; Recorded May 8, 2014 - How did the relationship between former slaves and the United States government change during and after the Civil War? Georgetown University Associate Professor of History Chandra Manning shares her research on this complex and evolving relationship, and how it affected the relationship between the federal government and all individuals in the United States. Manning is the author of What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War (Knopf, 2007), which won the won the Avery Craven Prize awarded by the Organization of American Historians and earned Honorable Mention for the Lincoln Prize, the Jefferson Davis Prize.

Speaker: Jane Schultz, Professor of English and the Medical Humanities, and Director of Literature, at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis; Recorded April 24, 2014 - Maine state relief workers like Harriet Eaton and Isabella Fogg were less certain than Frederick Law Olmsted—who, thanks to his administrative skill overseeing the creation of Central Park, was asked to head the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War—that federal benevolence was the best way to care for Maine's boys in blue. For the 2014 Olmsted Lecture, Professor Jane Schultz shows how and why Mainers resisted the sweep of a national relief structure, preferring instead to put the interests of the state ahead of federal bureaucracy. Schultz is the author of Women at the Front (University of North Carolina, 2004), a study of gender and relief work in American Civil War military hospitals; it was a finalist for the 2005 Lincoln Prize. In 2010 Professor Schultz published This Birth Place of Souls (Oxford), an annotated edition of the diary of Portlander Harriet Bacon Eaton, one of the last extant Civil War nursing diaries.

Speaker: Penelope Niven; Recorded April 10, 2014 - Although Our Town , which turned 75 in 2013, was set in a small New Hampshire village and written in 1938, its universality has made it a favorite of theater companies and schools for decades. Wilder biographer Penelope Niven shares the story of his life (and his Maine ancestry), how Wilder came to write the play, and the special appeal of its themes of the passage of time and small-town life. Penelope Niven's 2012 biography of Wilder ( Thornton Wilder: A Life , Harper), was deemed “the best kind of literary biography” by the Washington Post. Niven, who passed away in 2014, was also the acclaimed author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography and Steichen: A Biography . She was the recipient of the North Carolina Award in Literature.

Speaker: Gary Libby; Recorded March 4, 2014 - Attorney, amateur historian, author, and former MHS trustee, Gary Libby, talks about his long history of researching and publishing on Maine's Chinese community, as part of special programming relating to Maine Restaurant Week . Gary shares history and collection highlights from the variety of Chinese restaurants that have existed in Portland over the years. Gary is the author of "Historical Notes on Chinese Restaurants in Portland, Maine" (2006), published in the journal Chinese America: History and Perspectives , as well as the book They Changed their Sky , about Maine's Irish Community. This program was made possible by funding from Rabelais: Fine Books on Food & Drink, in Biddeford and online.

Speaker: Matthew Jude Barker; Recorded February 11, 2014 - The Irish have influenced the city of Portland since it was first established in the 17th century. Today's vibrant Catholic community owes its origins to Irish immigrants in Portland's earliest days, when beloved leaders like Father French provided solace to souls far from home. Portland resident Matthew Jude Barker, genealogist and historian at the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland, talks about his new book, which explores the triumphs and challenges of Portland's Irish community prior to the twentieth century.

Speaker: David Sanderson; Recorded January 14, 2014 - As a complement to the MHS Shettleworth Lecture Hall exhibit "Dear Old Maine I'm Coming Back:" Home & Hearth Reflected in the MHS Sheet Music Collection traditional music enthusiast and fiddler David Sanderson offers an account of the life and musical career of Norway Maine fiddler Mellie Dunham. Mellie Dunham was among the most famous figures in America during 1925 and 1926. A local farmer, snowshoe maker, and dance fiddler, Dunham was propelled to notoriety when he was invited to visit and play for Henry Ford; he then spent six months performing on the Keith Vaudeville circuit. This talk includes original 78 rpm recordings played on Sanderson's 1914 Victrola.

Speaker: Lincoln Paine; Recorded December 12, 2013 - Portland resident Lincoln Paine takes us on a monumental tour of human history through the lens of the sea. The 2013 book reveals in depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways. Lincoln Paine is the author of four books and more than fifty articles, reviews, and lectures on various aspects of maritime history.

Speaker: Christoph Irmscher; Recorded November 7, 2013 - Indiana University-Bloomington Professor of English Christoph Irmscher speaks about his most recent book, Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science . A Longfellow contemporary, Agassiz bridged the gap between specialist and amateur in 19th century America, changing ordinary people's relationship with science forever. But he also racist viewpoints that led Americans to expect scientists to comment on race policy. The Christian Science Monitor calls the biography "a groundbreaking book" and the New York Times Book Review praised Irmscher as a "richly descriptive writer with an eye for detail [and the] complexities and contradictions of character." Irmscher, a native of Germany, has taught at the University of Tennesse-Knoxville, Harvard University, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

Speaker: Andrew Barton; Recorded October 22, 2013 - Using a diverse range of historical and ecological evidence, University of Maine at Farmington Professor of Biology Drew Barton discusses the past, present, and future of the Maine Woods. Drew reads narrative selections from his recent book, The Changing Nature of the Maine Woods , and discusses the natural and human-caused changes over the past 15,000 years. He peers into the future to assess how key ecological forces such as climate change, insects and disease, nonnative organisms, and changing land use are likely to further alter the forests of Maine.