Happenings for the Public at MAM Member Institutions

Touring Through Time

Weekend Celebration at the The Historical Societies of the East Penobscot Bay and Blue Hill Peninsula

Saturday, July 28, and Sunday, July 29

The Historical Societies of the East Penobscot Bay and Blue Hill Peninsula invite you to visit us, enjoy our displays, learn about our local heritage and, perhaps, your own family history. The weekend will include special events, live demonstrations, and music at nine different sites in the area. For more information, contact the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society at (207) 348-6400.

*Merit Is Better Than Fame: History of the First 10th and 29th Maine Regiments

A lecture by Historian Nick Picerno at the Saco Museum

Saturday, July 27, 6:30 p.m.

The 10th Maine mustered into the Union Army for a two-year service on October 4, 1861 in Portland, Maine and was mustered out on May 8, 1863. The 29th Maine Infantry was organized in Augusta, Maine and mustered in December 17, 1863, for three years’ service under the command of Colonel George Lafayette Beal. Company A and Company D were transferred in from the 10th Maine Infantry Battalion on May 30, 1864. Come join Nicolas Picerno as he shares the fruits of his 30 years of research on the 1st, 10th, and 29th Maine Infantry regiments. The Dyer Library/Saco Museum is located at 371 Main Street, Saco. FMI: (207) 283-3861 / www.dyerlibrarysacomuseum.org

A Place of Tranquil Beauty: Wiscasset’s Sunken Garden

Lecture at the Nickels-Sortwell House, Wiscasset

Friday, July 26, 10 - 11:30 a.m.                          

After Wiscasset’s Hilton House Hotel burned to the ground in 1903, Frances Sortwell, whose family owned the house across the street, put the hotel’s stone foundation to good use. Miss Frances and her friends, including Rose Isabel Greeley, one of the first female landscape architects in the country, transformed the dismal site into a magical sunken garden and a place of tranquil beauty. Join Historic New England’s Cathy Messmer to explore the creation of this special garden space. The lecture includes a look at other sunken gardens created by women in the same period. Lecture in the Barn followed by a firsthand look at the Sunken Garden just across the street. $5 Historic New England members, $10 nonmembers. Registration is required. The Nickels-Sortwell House is located at 121 Main Street (Route 1); access to the barn is from Federal Street. FMI: (207) 882-7169.

Annual Summer Festival

Event at the Curran Homestead Living History Farm and Museum, Orrington

Saturday, July 20, and Sunday, July 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Offered in conjunction with Maine Open Farm Day, the Curran Homestead’s annual festival features living-history activities, homemade food, and good old-fashioned summer fun in the Homestead’s lakeside milieu. The two-day event caps off Orrington’s “Old Home Week,” a weeklong celebration of the riverfront town’s 225th anniversary. 372 Field’s Pond Road, Orrington. FMI: (207) 356-5076 / www.curranhomestead.org. 

Silent Movies at the Old Town House

Screenings presented by the Union Historical Society

Saturday, July 20, 7 p.m.

The Union Historical Society will present short comedy films from the early careers of famous silent movie stars. Doug Protsik, director of the Maine Fiddle Camp and of The Old Grey Goose band, will play the non-stop piano accompaniment from his own score. Union Historical Society gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship of Susan Fay, whose generosity underwrites this event. Doors open at the Old Town House at 6:30 p.m. and admission is $5.00. Entrance is free for young people up to the age of 21, and for present and former military personnel with some form of ID. The program will run for about an hour. FMI: (207) 785-5444.

Children’s Heritage Fair

Family event at the Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center

Saturday, July 20, 1-3 p.m.

The whole family will enjoy a look back to the mid 1800’s with a special emphasis on what activities children enjoyed and the life of the mid-19th-century youth. Come join in with demonstrations and games, tour the History House, and frolic the afternoon away beside the mighty Kennebec with refreshments of the period. The Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center is located at 66 Elm Street, Skowhegan. FMI: (207) 474-6632 / www.skowheganhistoryhouse.org.

Come Spring Bus Tours

Tours at Union Historical Society

Friday, July 19 and Saturday, July 20

Tickets are now on sale for two Come Spring bus tours to take place on Founders Day weekend in Union. The first tour departs the Old Town House, 128 Town House Road, Union, at 5:30 p.m. on Friday July 19, and the second tour starts at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday July 20. The popular narrated 2-hour bus tours follow the Georges River Scenic Byway, identifying sites where Union’s early settlers built cabins and lived. The names of the settlers are documented in town records, and their lives and stories are recounted by Ben Ames Williams in his 1940 historical novel Come Spring, reprinted and sold by the Union Historical Society. Tickets, priced at $10.00, may be purchased in advance at the Robbins House, headquarters of Union Historical Society, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, or by calling (207) 785-5444 and leaving a message. 

Lost and Found: The 1607 Popham Colony

Lecture presented by the Friends of Colonial Pemaquid

Monday, July 15, 7:30 p.m.

This lecture is presented by John W. Bradford of Maine’s First Ship, a non-profit devoted to reconstructing the pinnace Virginia, now underway at Bath. Bradford is the author of a book that compiles the research of early 17th-century English shipbuilding that became the basis of the Virginia’s reconstruction design. It was at the Popham Colony’s Fort St. George that colonists

managed to complete construction of the small ship, a 30 ton pinnace they christened Virginia, the first English ship built in Maine and probably in all of North America. The lecture will take place at the Contented Sole Restaurant adjacent to the museum. Admission is $5, and free for members. FMI:  (207) 677-2423 / www.FriendsofColonialPemaquid.org.

In the Blood

Screening and Performance at the Hiram Historical Society

Saturday, July 13, 1:30 p.m.

After a brief business meeting at 1 p.m., the Hiram Historical Society will present In the Blood, a film and live music documentary of the life of Maine lumbermen and river drivers at the turn of the 20th century. FMI: (207) 625-4762 / gardenlit@gmail.com.

Garden Tour of the Vaughan Homestead, Hallowell

Saturday, July 13, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Vaughan Homestead grounds will be open to ticket holders for the Kennebec Valley Garden Club’s 2013 Garden Tour. Walk the stone paths through our terraced perennial garden, past the 200 year old Black Oxford apple tree and through the tunnel created by a decades old cedar arch. Stroll through our apple orchard to the community garden to see the vegetables, herbs and flowers that community members are raising. Then take a rest on the front porch and enjoy an unparalleled view of the Kennebec River. Details on ticket purchase will be available in mid-May on the Kennebec Valley Garden Club website, (http://mainegardenclubs.org/Kennebec_Valley.html).