Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

John Babin and Avery Yale Kamila; Recorded September 30, 2024 - Reaching back 300 years, MHS’s exhibit, Maine’s Untold Vegetarian History features stories of Mainers who changed what vegetarians eat and opened access to plant-based foods. Co-curators John Babin and Avery Yale Kamila discussed this little-known history with plenty of food for thought!

Ann Powers; Recorded October 7, 2024 - Did you know that Joni Mitchell’s eighth studio record, Hejira, was inspired by a cross-country road trip Mitchell made to and from the midcoast village of Damariscotta? For decades, Mitchell’s life and music have enraptured listeners, and yet, while Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer with one arm, with the other arm, she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer’s childhood battle with polio, and charts the course of Mitchell’s musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell’s collaborations with ot

Arlene Palmer Schwind; Recorded July 9, 2024 - It is perhaps unusual that a small state like Maine can claim connections with several opera divas who enjoyed international acclaim between the 1870s and the 1920s. In her illustrated presentation, Arlene Palmer Schwind explored the fascinating lives and careers of Annie Louise Cary, Lillian Nordica, Emma Eames, Olive Fremstad, and Lillian Blauvelt. The experiences of these remarkably talented singers reveal the challenges that faced independent female performing artists in that period as they aimed to reach the peak of what was, and still is, a difficult and demanding profession.

Nathan D. Gibson; Recorded July 16, 2024 - In the late 1950s, Maine was home to one of the most dynamic and exciting recording studios and record labels in the country—Event Records. Co-founded by Al Hawkes and Richard Greeley in 1956, the label recorded bluegrass pioneers (The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover), rockabilly icons (Ricky Coyne and Curtis Johnson), country music legends (Dick Curless, Hal "Lone" Pine, Charlie Bailey), instrumental wizards (Lenny Breau), and many more. Country music researcher and audio archivist Nathan Gibson befriended Hawkes in 2006 and the two spent countless hours playing music together and talking about bluegrass in Maine, record collecting, audio engineering, and Moxie soda. In this presentation, Gibson shared a few of his insights into Event Records and the music of Al Hawkes based on his personal interviews and country music collections.

Nadine Hubbs; Recorded May 29, 2024 - America ushered in twentieth-century modernity with new technologies, aesthetics, and national status as a global power. With the rise in economic and political standing came new cultural pressures: American concert music was deemed far behind its European counterparts and in urgent need of catching up. Years of searching failed to identify a representative compositional voice. Then in 1939 came the sensational New York premiere of Aaron Copland’s “cowboy ballet,” Billy the Kid, soon followed by Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, and other megahits. America found its national sound in the music of Copland, a gay Jewish Brooklynite and one of a close-knit group of gay composers who crucially influenced and collaborated with each other. How did a circle of gay composers become architects of American national identity during the most homophobic period in U.S. history? Nadine Hubbs's answer may surprise you.

York Lo; Recorded February 1, 2024 - York Lo retraced the footsteps of Chinese in the New England area over the past two centuries —from the first known Chinese immigrant to the recent election of Michelle Wu as the first Asian and female mayor of Boston. Highlights of this talk included the story of the first known Chinese immigrant in the area and his connection to a famous painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, a racist incident in Boston Chinatown that later led to the biggest anti-American boycott in China, Chinese soldiers from the area who have served the country from the Civil War to WWII, and the story of the accidental politician who became the first Asian mayor in the Boston area (and it’s not Michelle Wu) and many more stories of triumphs and tribulations.

Seth Goldstein; Recorded February 22, 2024 - Historian Seth Goldstein discussed the economic ties between Maine and the luxury-producing plantations of the West Indies and explored the various commodities, such as lumber, draft animals, and salt cod, that Maine supplied to West Indian plantations. Concurrently, enslaved Africans in the Caribbean labored in horrific conditions to produce sugar, molasses, rum, and other goods that were consumed in Maine. Seth explained how the West Indies Trade was significant to the forced migration of enslaved Africans to Northern New England and how the West Indies Trade left a lasting mark on the city of Portland and the state of Maine.

Recorded March 27, 2024 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular and successful poet of his day. Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts he was a member of the literati that made Boston the literary hub of the country; Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier were all Longfellow friends or associates. But 20 miles west of Boston was a small town filled with its own poets, writers and philosophers. Concord, Massachusetts was home to not only Ralph Waldo Emerson, but Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Alcott family; they too all had a deep friendship or close association with Longfellow. Concord public historian Richard Smith explored the friendships between Longfellow and the Concord writers in this talk, sharing his opinions about their lives and writings.

Recorded May 2, 2024 - What's the big deal about rock and roll concerts in Maine? Back when there were just a handful of AM radio stations and only three TV channels, this small and remote state got way more than its share of live performances by big-name rock and roll musicians. When the rock and roll stars of the day were planning tours, southern Maine was on their map- sort of "off Broadway" stops before hitting the big cities on the east coast of the United States. This was a unique dynamic and a stroke of luck for young Mainers. In this talk, Ford Reiche took a closer look at this history, including what made these performances such noteworthy local events, the hometown concert promoters and radio personalities, the community performance venues, the record shops where event tickets were sold, and the local garage bands that often served as opening acts. Audio mixing by Kevin Schinstock/Groundswell Sound

Michael Hillard, Cynthia Isenhour, Stefano Tijerina; Recorded July 15, 2023 - A major story in United States history over the past 50 years has been the decline of industrial jobs. The accompanying rise of a "post-industrial" economy has looked different for various communities and regions. The 2023 Historian's Forum featured an interdisciplinary look at economic and labor history in Maine since 1973. In Part 3, Stefano Tijerina, Maine Historical Society's P.D. Merrill Research Fellow, discusses the globalized economy and its impact on local economies. Ian Saxine, Assistant Professor of History at Bridgewater State University, leads the speakers of the Historian's Forum in a discussion on Maine economic and labor history.

Michael Hillard, Cynthia Isenhour, Stefano Tijerina; Recorded July 15, 2023 - A major story in United States history over the past 50 years has been the decline of industrial jobs. The accompanying rise of a "post-industrial" economy has looked different for various communities and regions. The 2023 Historian’s Forum featured an interdisciplinary look at economic and labor history in Maine since 1973. In Part 2, Cynthia Isenhour, Professor of Anthropology and Climate Change at the University of Maine, discusses re-imaging what wealth and work will look like in the future. This is a three part recording.

Michael Hillard, Cynthia Isenhour, Stefano Tijerina; Recorded July 15, 2023 - A major story in United States history over the past 50 years has been the decline of industrial jobs. The accompanying rise of a "post-industrial" economy has looked different for various communities and regions. The 2023 Historian's Forum featured an interdisciplinary look at economic and labor history in Maine since 1973. In Part 1, Ian Saxine, Assistant Professor of History at Bridgewater State University, introduces the Historian's Forum, a look at economic and labor history in Maine since 1973. Michael Hillard, author of "Shredding Paper: Labor and The Rise and Fall of Maine's Mighty Paper Industry" discusses the paper industry in Maine.

Recorded October 11, 2023 - Rising seas and coastal flooding present a threat to cultural resources in historic coastal communities. Greater Portland is at considerable risk according to sea level rise projections and local communities are already experiencing recurrent flooding, erosion and increasingly intense storms—threats that are projected to increase as the Gulf of Maine warms and expands. The continued damage and destruction of local historic landmarks and sites could be detrimental to Greater Portland’s personality and sense of collective history. The panel of experts--Julie Larry, Dr. Dave Reidmiller, and Abbie Sherwin--discussed this threat, planning, the tough decisions preservationists face in this crisis, and how historic preservation can contribute to making our places more sustainable.

Genevieve LeMoine; Recorded November 16, 2023 - Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is perhaps best known for, in April 1909, leading an expedition that claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole. Before his famous 1909 expedition, Peary sailed to Greenland in the summer of 1897 to bring an iron meteorite back to the United States. When he returned in the fall, he brought with him six Inughuit people invited to spend to winter in New York at the American Museum of Natural History. Tragically, many of the Inughuit soon fell ill, and by winter all but one man, Uisaakassak, and one child, Minik, had died of tuberculosis. Uisaakassak returned to Greenland in the spring, but a museum staff member adopted eight-year-old Minik and raised him with their children. Minik spent the next decade living the life of an American middle-class boy until a shocking dis

Michael Blaakman; Recorded October 4, 2023 - During the quarter-century after 1776, the new United States was swept by a wave of land speculation so unprecedented in intensity and scale that contemporaries and historians alike have dubbed it a "mania." From Maine to the Mississippi and Georgia to the Great Lakes, wily merchants, lawyers, planters, and financiers purchased claims to millions of acres of land—chasing fantastical visions of profit by investing in the United States' future expansion across Native American territories. Although such ambitious schemes drove many speculators into bankruptcy and debtors' prison, they also indelibly shaped the development of American capitalism and the U.S. "empire of liberty." In this talk, historian Michael Blaakman, author of Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic, discussed the revolutionary origins of this real-estate bonanza and what it means for our understanding of the American founding.

Lisa Massie; Recorded September 14, 2023 - Bees and other pollinators are essential parts of all ecosystems on earth and are fundamental for the long-term survival of flowering plants; the role they play in Maine's environment is one of the many topics explored in CODE RED: Climate, Justice, and Natural History Collections. This talk with the Xerces Society addressed the concerns of native pollinators and the possible impacts on society without them. We discussed food production, native bee conservation, creating habitats, and no-cost ways to make positive impacts around your home.

Bill McKibben and Steve Bromage; Recorded November 30, 2023 - As we approached the last month of CODE RED, our landmark exhibition examining topics around the climate and biodiversity crisis, it seemed only fitting to take the time to reflect on what we’ve learned, and to look forward and envision "What comes next?" In this informative dialogue with Maine Historical Society Executive Director Steve Bromage and environmentalist Bill McKibben, we considered Maine’s pivotal role in the modern environmental movement, and the actions we all can take to be part of this positive legacy.

Christoph Irmscher; Recorded August 8, 2023 - Christoph Irmscher, author of Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science, reflected on Agassiz's legacy, his friendships with Emerson, Henry Wadsworth and Fanny Longfellow and others, and how his own thinking about Agassiz has (and hasn't) changed since he published his biography 10 years ago. The talk addressed Agassiz's scientific achievements as well as his controversial involvement in the production of racist photographs, not only the more infamous daguerreotypes but also the less familiar cache of glass negatives made in Manaus, Brazil, in 1865 (and the responses to this expedition by contemporary Brazilian artists).

Recorded July 11, 2023 - How has the notion of a Maine “fishing community” changed with time? How has the relationship the people of Maine have with natural world changed over thousands of years? When the Island had Fish is the story of a tiny island, Vinalhaven Maine, that offers a close look at the significant history of Maine fishing particularly, but also offers perspective on the impact of industrialized fishing on small fishing villages all over the United States and the world. Vinalhaven’s documented habitation by fishermen dates back over 5000 years, and still today lobstering is the primary source of employment for its 1100 year round residents; islanders currently harvest lobsters at a rate almost unrivaled nationally. When the Island had Fish provides a meditation on America's past and future. Listen to author Janna Malamud Smith explore these topics through a broad lens, shedding light on the way that species, including humans, are impacted by—and at moments contribute to—climate change, environme

Recorded June 27, 2023 - Ever since the early 1600s, when the first Europeans set foot on the peninsula that was to later become the City of Portland, the city's social and economic history has been shaped by national and international events. Some of these events are very well-known while others have been mostly forgotten, but all of them have influenced the city in both tangible and intangible ways. In the podcast Author Paul Ledman discusses historical connections and the history of Portland in the larger context of national and international events.