Maine Historical Society
In This Issue
Stories from MMN
MHS News
March Programs
Bill's Mythbusters

Support the MHS Annual Fund

 

History is a gift

to future generations and preserving it depends on people like you who understand its value and fragility. The MHS Annual Fund is a critical source of essential operating funds and underwrites every aspect of our work--exhibits, library and museum collections, educational programs, lectures, workshops, Maine Memory Network, and much more.

Please click here to support MHS with a gift to the Annual Fund.

Your support makes it all possible. Thank you.

Reminder: 

Grant Deadline

Grants are available to support participation in Maine Memory Network. The deadline for the current round of applications is April 1.


 

Current Exhibits  

Museum
Zoom In: New Approaches to Maine History (through 5/29/11)

Gallery
Arts, Artists & Personalities in 1930s Maine (through 5/4/11)

Showcase Gallery
Student art work from the Local History/Local Schools Project

Heads Up!

Mad Hatter

MHS Annual Gala

will be held on

SATURDAY
MAY 7, 2011
5-11 PM 

T
he Woodlands Club
Falmouth, Maine 

Stay tuned
Details Online

Spotlight On:

Dana Twiss

Dana Twiss has made a tremendous contribution since coming to MHS in 2006: first inventorying Museum and Longfellow House collections and, currently, as project curator for the CMP collection. His knowledge of historic artifacts is far-ranging, and he brings impeccable research and collection management skills.

 

Dana and his wife have been restoring a 200-year old farmhouse in Litchfield for the past 20 years. The farmhouse is home to both his personal collections (ranging from folk pottery to antique musical instruments) as well as Freemont, his Australian Shepherd, and Harriet and Lola, the two sheep. Dana also enjoys his musician friends and participating in living history events and re-enactments.



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Stories from Maine Memory Network    

 
Fish River, Fort Kent, ca. 1900 

Fish River, Fort Kent, ca. 1900

Online Exhibit:  Aroostook County in 1900: Railroads      

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was new and expanding into northern Aroostook County. These photographs, from a group of glass plate negatives collected by railroad enthusiast Emmons Lancaster, document construction of the Fish River branch (Ashland to Fort Kent) in 1902. View this exhibit.

MHS News

Program Series to Feature    

Historic Garden and Landscape Design  

Childrens Gate

Children's Gate, Longfellow Garden, ca. 1930.


This Spring and Summer MHS will offer a series of public programs that feature the Longfellow Garden and historic landscape design. It has now been two years since the Garden was reinstalled following the Library renovation, and it continues to mature in wonderful ways. The program series grows out of and honors MHS's relationship with two of its closest and most important partners: the Longfellow Garden Club and Maine Olmsted Alliance (now part of MHS). There is much more in the works, including a fundraising push to support the recreation of one of the Garden's signature (but long lost) elements: the Children's Gate. 

Survey Results are in!

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete our recent survey. The response was overwhelming (nearly 400 people filled it out) and overwhelmingly positive. Key trends:  

  • many folks from "away" love being able to stay connected to Maine/MHS through eConnection;  
  • the frequency of email seems about right for most subscribers;  
  • folks are hungry for historic images and stories;
  • our readers had many GREAT suggestions for additional content and features--watch this space!   

Please continue to share your feedback! Congratulations to MHS member Kerry from Scarborough who won the drawing for a $50 gift certificate to the MHS Museum Store.


From the Collections  

Smart Meters: In the News and  

In the Collection

 

The new "smart" meters that Central Maine Power are

1904 Watt-Meter

Westinghouse Watt-Meter, 1904

installing have been in the news recently. The industry has been working for more than a century to make meters smarter. The task: efficiently measuring the amount of electricity that customers use while expending as little energy as possible in the process (in terms of both manpower and electricity). MHS's CMP Collection--which is currently being processed--includes more than 150 watt-meters that demonstrate how this technology has evolved. 

 

March Programs 

 

Thursday, March 10-Sunday, March 13

MHS at the 2011 Portland Flower Show

Chat with MHS staff, trustees, and members of the Longfellow Garden Club about opportunities to enjoy and support the Longfellow Garden. More info. 

 

BrockwayTuesday, March 15, 7pm

Lecture: History of American Landscape and Garden Design

Speaker: Lucinda A. Brockway 


Join us to explore the history of landscape design in Maine and beyond. More info. 

 

 

GenealogySaturday, March 19, 10am-12pm

Workshop: Intro to Online Genealogy Resources at MHS

Presenter: Jamie Kingman Rice 

 

Learn how to make the most out of the extensive online resources available to genealogists at MHS's Brown Research Library. Registration required. More info. 

 

James Phinney Baxter

Wednesday, March 23, 5-7pm

In Partnership with Friends of the Eastern Promenade...

An 180th Birthday Party for James Phinney Baxter

 

Join us to celebrate one of Portland's most important civic fathers. State Historian Earle Shettleworth Jr. will present a brief illustrated overview of Baxter's many contributions. More info. 

Bill's Mythbusters

Fact Checking with William David Barry,

Maine Historian Extraordinaire

Onawa Station

Onawa Station, ca. 1920

MMN #5983


CLAIM: Maine's worst train wreck did not happen in Maine!

REALITY:  Of course it did, but you wouldn't know it to read standard Maine history books. One has to read through Canadian histories, village histories, or lists of the world's worst railroad disasters to find mention of the Onawa Wreck of December 20, 1919. On that date, a train carrying immigrants from St. John, New Brunswick to Quebec collided with a freight train on the International Railway of Maine (owned by the Canadian Pacific). The wreck happened near the whistle stop of Onawa in the township of Elliottsville. While a popular song lyric of the day noted "no Americans were killed or injured", in fact 23 died and another 50 newcomers, en route to Canada, were injured. This was only big news in Brownville Junction and Bangor where some victims were temporarily taken. The rescue and cleanup was virtually an all Canadian Pacific effort and part of that line's history-it just happened to occur in the Maine woods. For further reading, see William R. Sawtell's Onawa Revisted (Milo, 1989).

Bill Barry can be reached at rdesk@mainehistory.org.
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Save 20%

 

 

MARCH DEAL:  

Celebrating Women's History Month


Bring this coupon to the MHS Museum Store in Portland, or use the coupon code "MARCH2011" at our online store and receive 20% off the book Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. 

 

Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History celebrates a renaissance in history inspired by amateurs, activists, and professional historians. It is a tribute to those who make it.

 

Hardcover. Regular price $24.00.


Offer Expires April 3, 2011. Discount not valid without coupon or coupon code.  
Maine Historical Society  489 Congress Street  Portland, ME 04101 (207) 774-1822

MHS e-Connection is your online source for news and events at MHS, e-mailed monthly.