Events at Member Institutions

Cynthia Milliken Taylor will be speaking on the historic aspects of the Cony Flatiron Building, which was rededicated on July 28, 2015, the restoration efforts and the adaptive re-use for Senior living.  Cynthia has an Architectural Degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and 30 years of experience in redeveloping old and new buildings for Seniors in Maine and New Hampshire.  With an interest in improving the lives of many older people and an eye for quality design she has developed over 3500 apartments and completed the financing and renovations of numerous historic buildings including the Inn at City Hall and the Cony Flatiron in Augusta.  Taking a leadership role in creative financing, construction and community building, she has tried to benefit those who live within and those who value their neighborhoods and cities through economic development.  Please join us at Cony Flatiron for an historic presentation on the Old and the New Cony High School.

The Kennebec Historical Society September Public Presentation is free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, September 21, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the Cony Flatiron Building, located at 110 Cony Street in Augusta.​  Please note this is our monthly program and is separate from the program which will be held at the KHS Annual Meeting.

Between 1944 and 1946, more than 4,000 German prisoners of war called Maine home. The story of how they arrived, and the lasting impact that they had on the people who encountered them is one of Maine’s most interesting and obscure stories.  Using materials and research used to create the 2012 exhibit “Maine Boys Overseas and German Boys in Maine,” Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine Program Director David Greenham shares the lively and surprising story of an interesting chapter of Maine history.  It is a story of cooperation, kindness, and enemies who became colleagues, and even friends. 

David Greenham is an adjunct professor of Drama at the University of Maine at Augusta, works as a grant writer and Program Manager for the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine (HHRC).  He spent 14 years as the Producing Artistic Director of The Theater At Monmouth, and has been a theater artist and arts administrator for more than 25 years.  In 2013, David was the creator and performer of Maine at Work, a touring program commissioned by the Maine Humanities Council. He has also been seen as a performer with Everyman Repertory Theater, Bath Shakespeare Festival, Camden Shakespeare Festival, and Capitol City Improv in Augusta.  In 2013, David created the exhibit Maine Boys Overseas, and German Boys in Maine for the HHRC.  The exhibit and the research to create it was the inspiration for the POW Camps in Maine program that has been presented for several community groups in Maine.  He continues to research the project with the goal of writing a book about the topic in partnership with several historians.

The Kennebec Historical Society and the Maine State Library’s Public Presentation will take place on Wednesday, August 24, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the Maine State Library, 230 State Street in Augusta.  This is an encore presentation of the Kennebec Historical Society’s July Public Presentation and refreshments will be served.

Florence Brooks Whitehouse was a Maine suffrage leader from 1914 – 1920. Her support of “radical” tactics, such as picketing President Wilson, earned condemnation from her more conservative suffrage peers in Maine.  As a result, she was left out of suffrage histories, although the record plainly shows that she did more than almost anyone in the closing years of the campaign to bring woman suffrage to the state. Through a statewide suffrage referendum, WWI, the 1918 influenza pandemic, and the political machinations of men of both major political parties, Florence and her peers fought for women’s right to vote and to have equality of opportunity with men. This is a story that has really never been told in Maine.

Anne Gass, our August speaker and great-grand-daughter of Whitehouse, has written Voting Down the Rose: Florence Brooks Whitehouse and Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage, which is a lively account of Florence’s suffrage activities during the critical final years of the campaign.  Due to the wealth of correspondence, interviews, and other historical documents Gass found in her research, Florence is often able to speak for herself in the pages.  William Barry, who reviewed the book for the Portland Press Herald, wrote “The author, Whitehouse’s great-grand-daughter, is never sentimental, for this is a true work of scholarship. Gass depicts not only the work of one Maine suffragist, but also the clash between the Maine Woman Suffrage Association, founded in 1874, and the radical National Woman’s Party of 1916.”

The Kennebec Historical Society August Presentation is free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, August 17, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the Augusta City Center, located at 16 Cony Street in Augusta.​  

The Kennebec Historical Society’s July Public Presentation:  “Maine’s German POW Camps in World War II”

Between 1944 and 1946, more than 4,000 German prisoners of war called Maine home. The story of how they arrived, and the lasting impact that they had on the people who encountered them is one of Maine’s most interesting and obscure stories.  Using materials and research used to create the 2012 exhibit “Maine Boys Overseas and German Boys in Maine,” Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine Program Director David Greenham shares the lively and surprising story of an interesting chapter of Maine history.  It is a story of cooperation, kindness, and enemies who became colleagues, and even friends. 

David Greenham is an adjunct professor of Drama at the University of Maine at Augusta, works as a grant writer and Program Manager for the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine (HHRC).  He spent 14 years as the Producing Artistic Director of The Theater At Monmouth, and has been a theater artist and arts administrator for more than 25 years.  In 2013, David was the creator and performer of Maine at Work, a touring program commissioned by the Maine Humanities Council. He has also been seen as a performer with Everyman Repertory Theater, Bath Shakespeare Festival, Camden Shakespeare Festival, and Capitol City Improv in Augusta.  In 2013, David created the exhibit Maine Boys Overseas, and German Boys in Maine for the HHRC.  The exhibit and the research to create it was the inspiration for the POW Camps in Maine program that has been presented for several community groups in Maine.  He continues to research the project with the goal of writing a book about the topic in partnership with several historians.

The Kennebec Historical Society July Public Presentation will take place on Wednesday, July 20, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the Michael Klahr Center at the University of Maine at Augusta, 46 University Drive in Augusta.

The L.C.Bates Museum has a blue marlin caught by Ernest Hemingway and mounted by Maine taxidermist Fred C. Parke of Bangor. Scholar Susan Beegel will present a talk on Wednesday, June 29 about the marlin and its history and marine life in Hemingway's work Old Man and the Sea. The talk is free and prior to the talk you may visit the museum to see the recently preserved marlin. 

The L.C.Bates Museum is located at 14 Easler Road (on route 201) in Hinckley, ME. For more information contact the museum at 207-238-4250 or at lcbates@gwh.org.

The Tate House Museum presents Poetry in the Garden on the Tate House lawn by the Stroudwater River on Tuesday, June 28 from 6:30 - 8:00 PM.

Seeing with the Heart's Ear is a presentation of poems from Martin Steingesser's new book, Yellow Horses, and a garden of poems by several other poets presented as an ensemble work in two voices by Martin, Portland’s first Poet Laureate, and performer Judy Tierney.

Martin Steingesser's poems whisper, shout and occasionally slam. He is author of three books of poems, Yellow Horses; Brothers of Morning; and The Thinking Heart: the Life & Loves of Etty Hillesum, based on Hillesum’s writings, composed and arranged for performance. The Thinking Heart has toured in New England and in Europe, at the International Etty Hillesum Congress (2014). “His poems are ablaze with imagination,” said poet Laure-Anne Bosselaar. “A burning, tender voice,” declared former Maine Poet Laureate Baron Wormser.

Judy Tierney is a performer and member of The Thinking Heart Ensemble that toured New England and Europe, a former radio show host, dancer and Taiji practitioner.

This promises to be an unforgettable evening as Martin and Judy captivate the audience by bringing words to life with their engaging presentation.

This event is part of the Tate House Museum Summer Lecture Series. The admission fee, which supports the museum and its programs, is $10 ($8 for museum members). Light refreshments will be served. For reservations please call 774-6177 or e-mail the museum at info@tatehouse.org.

A Strawberry Festival and Craft Fair will be held on Saturday, June 25, 2016, at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, in Livermore, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The Festival features a craft fair with artisans demonstrating handmade craft and selling original artwork.  Admission to the craft fair is free.  Regular admission applies to all other activities. There are activities for all ages and all buildings will be open for tours. Ongoing activities for the day include horse-drawn hayrides, tours of the 1867 Washburn family mansion, blacksmithing demonstrations, lessons of the past and spelling bees in the one-room schoolhouse, artifact games and living history in the farmer’s cottage, special presentations, storytelling, and old-fashioned outdoor games such as hoops & graces and croquet. Children’s craft activities include making kites, bean bags, and handkerchief dolls.  Strawberry Shortcake for sale, made with homemade biscuits, local strawberries, and real whipped cream.

For an enchanted experience and to get inspired about life in 19^th-century Maine and Livermore’s celebrated Washburn Family – visit the Norlands – where history comes to life!   

General admission is $10; $6 ages 12 and under; $25 family rate. FMI: 207-897-4366 or norlands@norlands.org.

This June, the New England Museum Association will be presenting a leadership workshop exclusively for directors and trustees called High Impact, Low Drama: Optimizing Your Board/CEO Team. They will be having a workshop on June 23 at Bowdoin College. Members of Maine Archives and Museums are invited to attend this workshop at the NEMA member rate of $65. They are encouraging the executive director and at least one board member to attend the workshop together. The $65 fee includes up to 6 people.

You can find complete details about the workshop here - http://nemanet.org/conference-events/museum-leadership-workshops/.

Also see this PDF: NEMA Leadership Event Invitation 2016_form.pdf

Join us for an Educator Evening on Thursday, May 12, 6:00-8:00 pm. Enjoy refreshments, conversation, and networking with fellow educators while learning about current exhibitions, artworks and artists and how to incorporate them into your classroom teaching. Those attending will receive contact hours for certification. For more information, contact Matt Timme, Mirken Coordinator of Education and Public Programs, at mrtimme@colby.edu or visit https://www.colby.edu/museum/

Explore the beauty of Maine through the juxtaposition of art and natural history. This exhibition will join the flora and fauna of the surrounding area with an artistic definition of a field as an expansive space. Works in a variety of mediums from contemporary Maine artists depicting fields of land and color will be featured. 

The L.C. Bates Museum is proud to announce its new exhibition Open Spaces: Reimagining Pastoral Maine, opening on May 6th 2016. The show, the result of a collaborative effort between the L.C. Bates Museum staff and two Colby College students, Francesca Soriano and Nora Hill, under the supervision of Professor Véronique Plesch, aims to explore the natural beauty of Maine’s fields and the flora and fauna that fill them. Defining fields as an expansive space, the exhibition seeks to combine scientific and artistic methods of looking at fields. Works in a variety of mediums from contemporary Maine artists will be featured. The exhibition gives visitors a broad perspective of how artists view and portray nature. 

An opening reception for the exhibition will be held at the L.C. Bates Museum on May 6th from 5-7pm. Throughout the summer there will be various workshops with featured artists and visitors of all ages are encouraged to attend. The L.C. Bates Museum is located in Hinckley, Maine and welcomes visitors to explore Open Spaces: Reimagining Pastoral Maine as well as any objects on display from the Museum’s rich permanent collection.