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 ..read more

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 i ..read more

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 countles ..read more

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 f ..read more

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 C ..read more

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 ..read more

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 f ..read more

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 ..read more

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 H ..read more

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 ..read more