Mainely History

Jack Furniss, historian of Civil War era party politics, discusses why Maine Republican Hannibal Hamlin made an attractive vice president for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, why he was dropped from the ticket in 1864, and what a Hamlin administration might have looked like.

Rebecca Brenner Graham returns to the pod to discuss Frances Perkins's little-known work aiding refugees from Nazi Germany.

Catherine Burns discusses the history behind Maine's 1875 redaction of parts of the state constitution dealing with public lands and obligations to Wabanaki nations.

Genevieve LeMoine of Bowdoin College's Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum discusses the controversial contest to reach the North Pole.

Elizabeth DeWolfe discusses the tragedy, trial, and media sensation surrounding the death of a young Biddeford mill worker named Berengera Caswell in 1849.

Food writer and historian of vegetarianism Avery Yale Kamila speaks with Tiffany and Ian about dietary reformer Sylvester Graham's controversial Maine speaking tour, which drew both fans and riotous critics in the 1830s.

Ian chats with composer Bryan Den Hartog about how he created the music of Mainely History.

Film historian Vaughn Joy returns to discuss the baffling 1988 Christmas movie "Some Girls," starring Lewiston's own Patrick Dempsey in this bonus episode.

Alexandra Montgomery returns to the pod for a discussion on the significance and complicated legacy of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 for Mainers and their neighbors on both sides of the US-Canadian border.

Jeremy Ellis, president of the Clotilda Descendants Association, speaks with Tiffany and Ian about the final ship of enslaved Africans illegally brought to the United States in 1860, and their ties to Maine-born slave trader Timothy Meaher.