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 been their enemy since the 1690s during the French and Indian Wars. When large numbers of Irish Catholics started to immigrate beginning in the 1820s, Protestant anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant and anti-Irish groups were formed all over, including Maine. The large influx of Irish people who came during and after the Great Hunger (the Great Irish Potato Famine, 1845-51) only accelerated these groups, culminating with the formation of the Know Nothings (also Know-Nothings), a secret anti-Irish, anti-Catholic political party who gained political power throughout the United States in 1854-55. Their poster child in Portland was Mayor Neal Dow. In Maine, they burned down three Catholic churches (in Bath, Lewiston, and Ellsworth). In 1854, they tarred and feathered Father John Bapst, a Swiss Jesuit, in Ellsworth. The issue of slavery, as well as their excesses, finally doomed the Know-Nothings and they disappeared. But the hate and suspicion of foreigners resurfaced again in the 1870s and in the 1890s, when the American Protective Association was in their heyday. This group was, of course, followed by the KKK in the 1920s. Matt Barker explores this history in Maine.

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 safety, advertising and marketing, they bring more than 150 years of American history to life. Authors Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz, together with Don Lindgren of Rabelais Books in Biddeford, collaborated on publishing the Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook in 2020 and now they continue to explore and share their love of these unique publications with their podcast "Cooking is Community." Don has been collecting and researching community cookbooks for more than a decade, and in 2019 published volume one of a multi-volume exploration of the American community cookbook, titled UnXld: American Cookbooks of Community & Place . Each episode of the podcast looks at a single community cookbook from Don's collection and examines it as a physical object, a reflection of community, and as a source of recipes from a very specific time and place. Season one is all about community cookbooks from Maine! In this program Don, Margaret, and Karl discuss their podcast and the fascinating stories they’ve come across researching this delicious local history. Purchase their book from the MHS Store.

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, the Ulster Scots had a profound influence in shaping the culture and politics of the British colonies and their borderlands. Their story is one of rich contrasts. This special Historian’s Forum features a conversation with two eminent historians of the Ulster Scots experience in Early America. Host Ian Saxine (MHS Coordinator, Historian’s Forum) speaks with Patrick Griffin (University of Notre Dame) and T.H. Breen (University of Vermont) about the Ulster Scots migrations, with a particular focus on what brought them to Maine and New England, and what their experiences can tell us about religion, community, war, empire, and globalization in the colonial era.

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 became the epicenter of Maine abolitionism and African American politics. The original Meeting House building still stands in Portland and is a focal point for ongoing research and preservation efforts. The meetinghouse campaign represents one of the most visible moments of activism for these Black Mainers, but their activities and influence extended into almost every aspect of nineteenth-century American history and politics. Black Mainers held political offices and appointments, campaigned on behalf of national parties, and shaped political debates surrounding slavery, abolition, and racism. This panel discussion will explore the political endeavors of the creators of the meetinghouse plan and their activist allies in the decades surrounding its construction, putting this research in conversation with ongoing public history and preservation work. Purchase The First Reconstruction - Black Politics in America From the Revolution to the Civil War This panel discussions highlight important new research by Van Gosse (Franklin & Marshall University) whose book, The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America, From the Revolution to the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2021), includes chapters devoted to the partisan politics of Black Mainers. Panelists Pamela Cummings (President of the Committee to Restore the Abyssinian Meeting House), Mary Freeman (University of Maine), and Bob Greene (Journalist & Independent Scholar) also share their research and insights.

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 people, shocked opponents who believed the president had stretched the power of the office beyond the limits set by the nation's founders. Trapani also discusses contributions to the debate from the two Maine senators often overlooked by history: Ether Shepley and Peleg Sprague - the former one of Jackson's staunchest defenders, and the latter one of his most forceful enemies. Purchase the book from the MHS Store.

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 as their encounters with antisemitism. How have Jews sought to contribute to Maine's economic, cultural, and social landscape, and how did they gain widespread acceptance? How have these Mainers sustained their own religion, culture, and ethnic ties while embracing the broader communities to which they belong? How did the challenges and opportunities that Jews faced in Maine change over time? Check out this engaging conversation with David Freidenreich to learn more.

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 coal for the longshore union, while his wife Mary, who is nearly full-term with their tenth child, does her best to keep the family going. Challenges abound and though it seems the family faces an ever-growing number of hurdles, they know they must take on each day one at a time even when their prospects appear to be murky, at best. Purchase Murky Overhead from our MHS Store.

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 children ran the laundry and household, located at 615 Forest Ave in Portland, ME. However, there is much of Toy Len Goon's story that was not told by the media coverage celebrating her honor. As one of Toy Len Goon’s grandchildren, but also a cultural anthropologist, Dr. Andrea Louie places her story within a fuller context in the hopes of doing justice to her legacy as not only a mother, but a woman who broke out of a number of traditional roles, while also remaining filial to relatives back in China.

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 we got them speaks to the very essence of Maine’s identity. Hear Thomas Urquhart's informative overview of the history of conservation and preservation in Maine and discuss his new book Up for Grabs: Timber Pirates, Lumber Barons, and the Battles Over Maine's Public Lands. Purchase the book from the MHS Store .