Maine Historical Society

Yesterday we gathered for the final Beer in the Garden of the season and were taken to sea by the talents of Roll & Go! Thanks to Geary Brewing Company and 1820 Brewing Company for providing the perfect shanty companion 🍺 and sponsoring us this summer.

Music by Charlie Ipcar, Jeff Logan, Charlie Swerdlow, and Rebecca Steninger.

in 1948 Margaret Chase Smith was elected to the US Senate and became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. Smith grew up in Skowhegan and worked as a telephone operator, newspaper manager, and ran the Washington office for her husband Senator Clyde Smith before breaking into politics herself.

As a senator, Smith was outspoken against McCarthyism. In her historic speech Declaration of Conscience she defended the right to free speech: "The right to hold unpopular beliefs. The right to protest. The right of independent thought. The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to livelihood nor should he be in anger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us does not?"

Smith would go on to break another glass ceiling, as the first woman to be nominated by a delegate at a major political party's convention. Shortly after she announced her candidacy she said: “I have few illusions and no money, but I’m staying for the finish. When people keep telling you, you can’t do a thing, you kind of like to try.”

If this this history interests you, don't miss Portland Stage's new play Conscience, a dramedy about politics, doing what's right, and putting your country first. Opening September 25th! MHS is collaborating with our friends at Portland Stage to promote the show. They have graciously granted our community a special discount for tickets. Go to portlandstage.org and use the discount code Chase10.

Margaret Chase Smith, Skowhegan, 1940. Collections of Maine Historical Society, MaineMemory.Net #1426.

Join us next week for a literary tour of the Longfellow House where you will hear his timeless poems in the very rooms that inspired them and experience what Abraham Lincoln called his “gift to stir souls.” Author Gemma Cannon will share the origin stories behind his poetry, as well as recently discovered secrets, unknown to a century of biographers.

Register for this free, in-person event below!

How Henry Became Longfellow: The Creation of a Literary Legend Learn the hidden stories of Henry Longfellow's poetry and how his first wife Mary was a powerful inspiration for his work during the special evening tour of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House.

Today marks 23 years of remembering and honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks, six of whom were Mainers.

Maine communities hold remembrance ceremonies to honor victims of 9/11 Wednesday marks 23 years since the terror attacks on September 11, 2001.

Sea shanties, local beer, and the abundant Longfellow Garden is our perfect way to end the summer, and you're invited! Join us TOMORROW the 12th for the final Beer in the Garden of the season. Members and a friend get in free! Get your tickets: https://www.mainehistory.org/events/beer-in-the-garden-september/

🌊 Shanties by Roll & Go
🍺 Brews by our fabulous event sponsors Geary Brewing Company and 1820 Brewing Company

Charlie Ipcar

Bye-bye, Summer. Thanks for the lobster. 👋 🦞 🥲

Come see this and other sheet music covers at our exhibit Of Note: Maine Sheet Music. https://www.mainehistory.org/all-exhibitions/of-note-maine-sheet-music-exhibition/

"Thanks for the Lobster" sheet music cover, Boston, 1912. Collections of Maine Historical Society, MaineMemory.Net #149134.

"As I stay along the road I think of you and of all of our tales yet untold and told And I dream of those that cannot come to pass because from your thoughts I have been removed and you are alone at last."

The Wadsworth-Longfellow House inspires stillness and reflection. Come try your hand at poetry in the same halls where Longfellow wrote his first lines. ✍️

The museum galleries are open tonight from 5-7 p.m. for First Friday! Come explore our exhibits Music in Maine, Art in the Garden, Of Note: Maine Sheet Music, and our newest exhibit: Maine's Untold Vegetarian History all for the low, low price of absolutely free. Start your weekend off right! 🎶🌻🥦🎻

Next week you can hear MHS's Philanthropy Manager Maureen Duggan talk with other nonprofit professionals about the rapidly changing world of nonprofit public relations! Thanks to Maine Association of Nonprofits for organizing this free, virtual, and informative panel!

We're thrilled to have almost 200 nonprofit leaders and champions signed up for next Friday's MANP Connects! There's still time to register for this free, virtual conversation with guests from Preble Street, Maine Historical Society, and University of New England about nonprofit PR in our rapidly changing world - join us! https://www.nonprofitmaine.org/events/manp-connects-2024-nonprofit-pr Maine Public Relations Council

Riots! The Temperance Movement! Back-to-the-land! Gender equality! Our new exhibit, Maine's Untold Vegetarian History, opens next week on September 10th. View historic manuscripts, books, restaurant menus, photos, and packaged foods to learn about American vegetarianism in Maine from its rise in the early 19th century to its current popularity.

Read about the exhibition in VegOut Magazine: https://vegoutmag.com/news/vegetarian-history-maine-historical-society/ #:~:text=Dive%20into%20a%20fascinating%20slice,rich%20and%20influential%20vegetarian%20past.

Portland Food Map

MHS is excited to be a sponsor of Maine Country Music Hall of Fame's country music extravaganza happening at the Silver Spur Dance Club on October 6th. Experience the thrill of a live, 3-hour show featuring a line-up of country music living legends! Tickets to the extravaganza also get you a discount to see our exhibit Music in Maine!

Don't miss our next big show and annual benefit fundraiser, "EXTRAVAGANZA 2024” on Sunday, October 6, 2024 at The Silver Spur. Experience the thrill of a live, 3-hour show featuring a fabulous line-up of living legends from the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame. Museum Open House is from 10 AM to 12 Noon. Show begins at 1 PM. Doors open at 11:30 AM. Tickets are $15 at the door. For more information please call 207-613-5411. This show is co-sponsored by the Maine Historical Society "Music in Maine" Exhibit and The Maine Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. All ticket purchases include a discount to the "Music in Maine" exhibit in Portland.

Suzanne Svenson was a student at Deering High School when she appeared on The Dave Astor Show in 1964. The Dave Astor Show brought local teens from the Portland area into the studio to dance and sing along to the popular songs of the era. Similar shows that used local teen talent were popular across the country throughout the '50s and '60s.

Did you grow up watching The Dave Astor Show? 💃 🎶 Share your memories in the comments!

Learn more about the Dave Astor Show at Music in Maine! Get your tickets: https://www.mainehistory.org/all-exhibitions/music-in-maine/

Collections of Maine Historical Society, MaineMemory.Net #55533.

Sing Sea Shanties, Enjoy Themed Tours & Visit Our Museum -

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"I wish to have a record of all my acts, that I may see my own faults, and try to improve them. I shall for this purpose, try to keep a true account of every thing which transpires, both good and evil; for my own inspection." Saturday, January 1, 1859

Orange Frost Small (1842-1909) of Andover, Maine endeavored to make sense of his life and his struggles with mental illness through personal journals recently acquired by MHS. Glimpse into the poignant life of a singular and complicated Mainer, and his family's efforts to provide support.

Read the full story on Maine Connection: https://www.mainehistory.org/maine-connection/journals-of-orange-frost-small/

Subscribe to Maine Connection to get more stories like this delivered straight to your inbox: https://mailchi.mp/mainehistory.org/get-connected

The Therapeutic Pen: Intimate Journals of Orange Frost Small Through journals and personal writings, Orange Frost Small endeavored to make sense of his life and his struggles with mental illness.

Beer in the Garden is back on September 12th at 4:30! Roll & Go will transport us to the open ocean with their songs from the coast of Maine and we'll be serving the perfect sea shanty companion: local bear from Geary Brewing Company and 1820 Brewing Company, our generous sponsors. Remember, members and a friend get in free! Register here: https://www.mainehistory.org/events/beer-in-the-garden-september/

Roll & Go, featuring Charlie Ipcar, Jeff Logan, Charlie Swerdlow, and Rebecca Steninger, is a Maine group of men and women who love to sing "sea shanties" and other songs of the sea. Over the past 20 years, their spirited performances have earned them a growing reputation among festival and concertgoers in Maine and New England. The shanties are sung unaccompanied, combining strong solo work with tight harmonies on the refrain and chorus. The ballads are generally backed up by banjo, guitar, concertina, washtub bass and/or penny whistle.

The Brown Research Library has books for all your gardening questions! Stroll through the Longfellow Garden, visit our new exhibit about the Longfellow Garden Club, then read up on the history, design, and flora of Maine gardens. The library is open to the public on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Make an appointment on our website, https://mainehistory.rezgo.com/details/270358/research-appointment-library, or just walk in! 📚

Have you seen the trailer for the new Lost on a Mountain in Maine movie? Donn Fendler visited MHS in 2014 with one of the producers of the movie, Ryan Cook, to give our audience a first look at the film and share memories from his nine day ordeal in the wilderness of Mt. Katahdin.

"Lost on a Mountain in Maine" - Donn Fendler at Maine Historical Society Donn Fendler visited Maine Historical Society and talked about his experience in 1939, being 12 years old and lost on Mount Katahdin for nine days. His story...

Did you know that Downeast Maine is the birthplace of American sardine canning? For over a century, tens of thousands of Mainers, mostly women, packed hundreds of millions of cans a year. Whether you love sardines or hate them, these little fish made their mark on American diets and the Maine economy. Was your family a part of the canning industry? Watch our latest installment of Maine History IN FOCUS to learn about the rise and fall of the Maine sardine and share your stories in the comments! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjJwq_bcIzM&t=4s

Images contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum Northeast Historic Film Lubec Memorial Library

Sign up for Maine Connection to get video stories like this delivered straight to your inbox: https://www.mainehistory.org/maine-connection/maines-sardine-century/

Maine's Sardine Century The birthplace of American sardines lies way up the Maine coast in Eastport, where Wabanaki peoples have harvested herring in the plentiful waters of Downeas...

Today is and Maine knows a thing or two about taters. Aroostook County has been one of the most productive potato growing regions in the country since the 1800s. The rich soil, climate conditions, and railway connecting the region to trade centers on the East Coast made it the perfect location for a booming industry. The first potatoes in Maine were planted by Irish immigrants in 1719 in the Southern part of the state.

In this promotional image for International Fertilizers, workers from the Lester Allen farm in Masardis pose with their harvest.

Explore more potato content from photos to first-hand accounts of growing up on potato farms on Maine Memory Network and My Maine Stories: https://www.mainememory.net/search?keywords=potato

Collections of Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum, MaineMemory.Net #12437.

Wishing everyone a summer weekend full of dogs 🌭 and dogs 🐕.

Kids and hot dogs, ca. 1935. Collections of Maine Historical Society / MaineToday Media, MaineMemory.Net #103627.

Dog at Portland Day Nursery, Portland, ca. 1923. Collections of Maine Historical Society / MaineToday Media, MaineMemory.Net #103947.

Gone fishin'? Check out the cool videos & compelling stories in this month's Maine Connection. Click in to subscribe FREE to get your own issue directly in your inbox. -

Gone Fishin' Orange Frost Small (1842-1909) of Andover, Maine endeavored to make sense of his life and his struggles with mental illness through personal journals recently acquired by MHS. Glimpse into the poignant life of a singular and complicated Mainer, and his family's efforts to provide support. It.....

Our new exhibit Of Note: Maine Sheet Music opens today! 🎵🎶

Before people had easy access to popular music from records, radios, and the internet, they played songs of the day on instruments at home, using sheet music purchased at music stores. In Maine, iconic subjects like lobsters, pine trees, and winter made perfect lyrics, with artwork of seascapes, mountains, and forest gracing sheet music covers.

Of Note: Maine Sheet Music features captivating sheet music covers along with stories about Maine connections to the songs. Composers and performers gained recognition through music inspired by or about Maine, and its sense of place. Whether Longfellow poetry to set to music, or celebrated tunes like Rudy Vallée’s Maine Stein Song, Maine’s musical roots come to life in Maine sheet music.

'Now the Flowers Bloom Above Her,' 1905. Words and music by William E. Cooper, arranged by L.A. Clark. Collections of Maine Historical Society, MaineMemory.Net #42026.

Did you catch the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow episode of Dead Writers Podcast on Maine Public? Listen to all the episodes of this literary audio journey across Maine here!

Dead Writers Podcast Dead Writers takes listeners inside famous American authors’ homes. Riffing on literature, history, home décor, gardens, and ghosts, literary critic Tess Chakkalakal and novelist Brock Clarke, bring great American writers, and the books they wrote, back from the dead.