Lincoln County Historical Association

Dressing for Tea with Mrs. Chapman
2022-05-05 18:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Serving Tea in the Chapman-Hall House
Dressing for Tea with Mrs. Chapman brings to you a look at the changes in fashion styles for women and men from 1750 to the late 1820s. Interwoven with the clothing details will be historical insights to taking tea.
In 1754, Miriam Chapman, with her husband Nathaniel, braved the wilds of unsettled midcoast Maine to establish a new home. Miriam was 47, the Damariscotta settlement was very young. One can imagine the pleasures and comforts Miriam left behind in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Despite the lack of a bustling town in her new surroundings, chances are Miriam found a friend to take tea with and discuss the fashion of the day.
This fun, special program will be presented over ZOOM on May 5th at 6:30 PM. With your registration you will receive recipes for traditional tea fare, a list of tea varieties popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and a list of foods suitable for any early American tea for your next tea – all delivered by e-mail. Dressing for Tea with Mrs. Chapman is a benefit for the Chapman-Hall House Historic Site in Damariscotta. Registration is $15.

Register now online:

To register by check:
Please mail your check for $15, a note indicating that you are registering for “Dressing for Tea with Mrs. Chapman” and your email address (so we can send you the Zoom link and additional materials) to us at:
Lincoln County Historical Association, PO Box 61, Wiscasset, ME 04578

Onsite Shredding at Chapman-Hall House
2022-05-20 08:30 - 12:00 | ME

Calling All Book Clubs - a special look at our Women Writers of Lincoln County Exhibition
2022-05-24 08:00 - 17:00 | ME
Calling all Book Clubs, Members of any book groups are invited to view the Women Writers of Lincoln County Exhibit displayed at the Old Jail Museum with exhibit coordinator Alice Smith Duncan.

Admission $5 per person.
Time TBD

Writers’ Curiosity, History, and a Sense of Place: Kate Flora discusses crime writing, her friend Lea Wait, and some tales of Lincoln County
2022-05-26 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Kate Flora will discuss the heritage of mystery writing in Maine and her friend and Lincoln County writer Lea Wait. This is a virtual event that will take place over Zoom.
Maine native Kate Flora’s fascination with people’s criminal tendencies began in the Maine attorney general’s office. Deadbeat dads, people who hurt their kids, and employers’ discrimination aroused her curiosity about human behavior. The author of twenty-four books and many short stories, Flora’s been a finalist for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer awards. She won the Public Safety Writers Association award for nonfiction and twice won the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction. Her most recent Thea Kozak mystery is Death Sends a Message; her most recent Joe Burgess is A World of Deceit. Her crime story collection is Careful What You Wish For: Stories of revenge, retribution, and the world made right.

Flora is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake and the Maine Crime Wave and runs the blog Maine Crime Writers https://mainecrimewriters.com. Flora’s nonfiction focuses on aspects of the public safety officers’ experience and includes the Maine Literary Award finalist A Good Man with a Dog, a Maine game warden’s memoir. She divides her time between Massachusetts and Maine, where she gardens and cooks and watches the clouds when she’s not imagining her character’s dark deeds. She occasionally swims in the shark-filled sea. She’s been married for decades to an excellent man. Her sons edit films and hang out in research labs.
Registration donations offset program costs and support LCHA’s continued efforts to collect, preserve, and interpret this history of Lincoln County.
REGISTER BELOW

Kate Flora Registration

Memorial Day Commemoration
2022-05-30 10:00 - 13:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Procession from the flagpole to the Old Court House cemetery to honor and place bouquets on the graves of 9 veterans from Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War.

Exhibit Opening: Women Writers of Lincoln County
2022-06-02 16:00 - 18:00 | LCHA Museum at the Old Jail, 133 Federal St., Wiscasset, Maine

Community Appreciation Day
2022-06-04 | ME
Each museum will offer a community appreciation day that offers free tours to Lincoln County Residents

Reenactor Encampment
2022-06-11 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Colonial reenactors will be demonstrating what life was like in the 1750s New England.

The Ride of Her Life: Bestselling Author Elizabeth Letts shares the story of Annie Wilkins
2022-06-16 18:00 | ME
Zoom presentation. #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Elizabeth Letts shares the story of Annie Wilkins, who embarked on an incredible adventure, wrote about it, and retired in Lincoln County – becoming one of Lincoln County’s most intriguing Woman Writers. Registration is free, donations gratefully accepted to support LCHA programs and events!
About the book:
It was 1954, and 63-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins’s odds were looking bleak. She had no money, no family, and had just lost her farm. When it seemed like things couldn’t get much worse, they did—according to her doctor, she had only two years left to live. For most, this would‘ve marked the beginning of the end. But most weren’t Annie Wilkins.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Letts comes the remarkable true story of a woman, her horse, and their last-chance journey across America called THE RIDE OF HER LIFE (On sale 6/7; Ballantine Trade Paperback), now available in paperback!
Determined to see the Pacific Ocean before she died, Annie ignored her doctor’s advice to “take it easy,” choosing instead to purchase a cast-off horse named Tarzan, dress in men’s dungarees, and with her faithful mutt, Depeche Toi (French for “hurry up”) in tow, head south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow.
Personifying the very best of the American spirit—determination, grit, bravery, adventure, good humor—Annie and her four-legged companions captured the hearts (and media attention!) of people everywhere. In a decade when car ownership nearly tripled, television’s influence was quickly expanding, rotary phones became widely embraced by the masses, and when homeowners began locking their doors, , this motley crew of loveable misfits inspired an outpouring of kindness and hospitality in a rapidly changing world.

Rediscovering Madam Sally Wood, Maine's First Woman Novelist
2022-07-06 18:00 | Online
Alice Smith Duncan will speak about Madam Sally Wood via Zoom on Wednesday, July 6th at 6pm. Registration is free/by donation.
REGISTRATION BELOW
Alice Smith Duncan

Sarah “Sally” Sayward Barrell Keating Wood published her first novel in 1800 under the pseudonym “A Lady of Massachusetts.” After Maine became a state in 1820, she changed her pen name to “A Lady of Maine.” The prolific writer became a leading and popular social figure in Wiscasset, actively engaged in local society and benevolent activities.
Copies of her books are exceedingly rare. After she discovered the novels of Sir Walter Scott and modestly finding them superior to her own, she decided to retract all undistributed copies from her publishers and libraries. Since the 1960s, she has been the subject of feminist scholars, and rediscovered by literary historians and critics to international acclaim.
Alice Smith Duncan, an independent researcher, writer, lecturer, and longtime Lincoln County Historical Association volunteer, has curated three prior exhibitions for LCHA: “First Efforts of an Infant Hand: Early Samplers from Lincoln County” (2001), “On Eagles’ Wings: 19th century Symbols of Patriotism” (2002), and “Dungeons and Dragons, Sailors and Jailors: The Language of 19th century Sailors’ Tattoos” (2017), as well as art and history exhibitions for Arkell Museum (arkellmuseum.org) and many history sites and associations in New York’s Mohawk Valley. The former Executive Director of Hyde Hall, she wrote “Sir Francis Drake and the Struggle for an Ocean Empire,” and is currently at work on a memoir of her mother’s life in 1940s Maine and Greenwich Village, and a biography of 19th century artist/historian Rufus Grider. Duncan has been awarded grants, fellowships and residencies from the New York State Council on the Arts, Columbia University, the Moravian Archives, Salem Art Works/Salem2Salem (New York and Germany), the Snow Foundation, the New York History Association, and the Decorative Arts Trust.
REGISTER FOR ZOOM TALK HERE:

Tour: Madam Wood's Wiscasset
2022-07-10 16:00 - 17:30 | LCHA Museum at the Old Jail, 133 Federal St., Wiscasset, Maine
Alice Smith Duncan will help you picture the Wiscasset of the early 1800s through writer Madam Sally Wood’s eyes.
Register Below
4:00 pm. Meet at the Old Jail at 133 Federal Street in Wiscasset, where you will have an opportunity to view the Women Writers of Lincoln County exhibition briefly before carpooling to several different sites in Wiscasset. It is possible to walk between some of the sites, if desired. The tour will last about 90 minutes, please plan accordingly. Tour is limited to the first 12 registrants.
Sunday, July 10th 4pm

“My fingers on the canvas move”: A History of Textile Samplers - A special talk by textile historian Susan Jerome
2026-06-06 07:01 | ME
Quickly now, what do you think of when someone begins to speak of a sampler? Words of wisdom, often from the Bible, stitched on to a piece of fabric? The alphabet, in capital and small letters, embroidered in a cross-stitch in both cursive and block letters? And one form of needlework often signed by the maker, unlike so many other kinds of needlecraft made by women before the twentieth century. This program explores the ways in which samplers are a part of American culture and folklore. Using images of antique samplers, Ms. Jerome discusses some of the definitions and ideas surrounding the word “sampler.” What pictures come to mind? How has the term evolved through time? Ms. Jerome explores how textile history and technological changes in fabric production influenced the slow demise of samplers during the 19th century.

Susan J. Jerome is the Collections Manager at the University of Rhode Island Historic Textile and Costume Collection. She earned her MS degree from the URI Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design. Ms. Jerome works as a textile conservator and consultant for private clients, museums and historical societies. An avid textilian, she is happiest when writing, talking and doing all things textile.

Participants will:

1. Learn about textile history and how the development of cheap cotton fabrics influenced sampler making in 19th century America.

2. Explore the different meanings of the word “sampler” and why sampler making today is considered to be a “leisure time” activity.

3. Learn how to properly store textile heirlooms for future generations.

4. Learn something about family samplers.

5. Be able to ask questions relevant to textile and sampler history.

Interested? Of course you are! Please RSVP to Shannon Gilmore here!

Elizabeth Coatsworth at Chimney Farm - Gary Lawless Talk
2022-08-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Skidompha Library, 184 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME, 04543, United States
Gary Lawless: Elizabeth Coatsworth at Chimney Farm
Writer Elizabeth Coatsworth penned an estimated 127 total titles while living for decades in an early 19th-century house at lakefront Chimney Farm in Nobleboro. (See the article on her by Laura McCandlish in our Winter 2022 Newletter for additional background.). Join us for an evening with poet, bookstore owner, editor and publisher Gary Lawless to learn more about her life and work at the Skidompha Library on August 10th at 6 pm.

Women Writers of Lincoln County Story and Craft for All Ages
2022-08-12 10:00 - 12:00 | Chapman-Hall House, 270 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME, United States
Barbara Cooney stories and Lupine Lady inspired Craft with Beyond Crafts (https://www.beyondcraftsmaine.com/). Registration required. This is a free event.

Women Writers and Crafts, August 12, 2022
Sign up for this event.

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Period Reenactors at the Court House
2022-08-13 09:00 - 16:00, 2022-09-10 09:00 - 16:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Special tours at Pownalborough Court House: First person reenactors portraying real people at the court house in 1777 will be part of tours on these days.
Registration not required.

Preservation Party
2022-09-18 16:00 - 18:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
You are cordially invited to our annual fun and fundraiser party! Relax and enjoy the lovely Pownalborough Court House grounds on the bank of the Kennebec River. Tickets required. Click here for more information.

Cider Pressing Day
2022-10-08 10:00 - 14:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Join us at the Court House for Cider Pressing with Children’s story time and a family nature-based activity at the Pownalborough Court House.

Time 10 am – 2 pm.

Jefferson Navicky. Elizabeth Coatsworth & Kate Barnes: Processing the Literary Archives of Mother & Daughter
2022-10-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Skidompha Library, 184 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME, 04543, United States
Jefferson Navicky. Elizabeth Coatsworth & Kate Barnes: Processing the Literary Archives of Mother & Daughter
Location: Skidompha Library
Jefferson had the rare good fortune of processing the extensive archival papers of Elizabeth Coatsworth, one of the most accomplished children’s book authors and poets of the mid 20th century, as well as the papers of her daughter, Kate Barnes, Maine’s first Poet Laureate. Together, their papers present an intimate glimpse into the makings of a matriarchal line of Maine writers. Jefferson will speak about his experience processing these collections, as well as present illustrative work.

Judgment Day: Historical Hauntings at the Pownalborough Court House
2022-10-28 16:30 - 20:00, 2022-10-29 16:30 - 20:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
People of all ages who appreciate a creepy Halloween activity can look forward to special haunted tours at the Pownalborough Court House from 4:30 pm – 8:00 pm on October 28th and 29th. Participants will experience a tour of the haunted court house and cemetery with hauntings provided by people portraying the ghosts of Pownalborough’s past. An outdoor fire with seating will allow guests to enjoy the grounds before or after their tour.
Tickets are $5 for children under 16 and $15 per adult.
Tours will be scheduled to begin every 15 minutes and be limited to 8 individuals.
As a reminder, the floors are uneven and there will be stairs to climb in this 18th century building.
Please be prepared to present your paid printed or digital ticket when you arrive.
ORDER TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/judgment-day-2022-tickets-425860950567

Sparks from our Stories: Discussion Project
2022-11-01 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-11-15 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-12-06 17:30 - 19:00 | Zoom
Free and open to the public!

Join us for a series of discussions with compelling readings that invite
reflection on things that really matter. A facilitator grounds and guides
each discussion, all texts are provided, and there is no charge to
participate. The discussion will be richer with you there.
Facilitated by Leigh Anne Keichline
email to register: lakeichline@gmail.com

Postponed - Dr. Heather Leslie Building on Rachel Carson's Legacy through Resilience, Science, and Practice.
2022-11-03 18:00 - 19:30 | ME
This talk will be rescheduled for 2023.
Dr. Heather Leslie Building on Rachel Carson’s Legacy through Resilience, Science, and Practice. With a welcome by Andrea Lani.
About the talk: Dr. Heather Leslie will reflect on Rachel Carson’s legacy and how it has shaped marine conservation science and practice, particularly in the face of climate change impacts on coastal marine ecosystems and human communities.
About the Speaker: Dr. Heather Leslie, Director of the University of Maine Darling Marine Center and Professor, UMaine School of Marine Sciences.
Location or Zoom TBA.

Malaga Island with Kate McBrien
2023-02-02 17:30 | Online
Courtesy of Peter K. Roberts
Maine State Archivist Kate McBrien explores the true history of the community who lived on Malaga Island, off the coast of Phippsburg, Maine, in the late 1800s with an engaging presentation and discussion. This program examines the individuals who were part of this community and the State’s actions to evict them from their homes through the complex history of racism and eugenics in Maine.

Kate McBrien currently serves as Maine State Archivist, overseeing Maine State Government’s archives and records management programs. As curator of the award winning exhibition “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives”, Kate is also an historian for the Malaga Island community. She previously held positions as Chief Curator and Director of Public Engagement at the Maine Historical Society and as the Curator of Historic Collections for The Maine State Museum.

This program is free and open to the public, and donations are gratefully accepted. Suggested donation – $5.
Preregistration is required.
Registration for this program is closed. Thank you for your interest and please check out our upcoming offerings!

Put In Their Place: Criminalizing the Other In Early New England
2023-02-16 17:30 | ME
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.
Preregistration (below) is required to receive the Zoom link for this program.
Lincoln County’s history is full of stories of valour, civic leaders, and enterprising community builders.
But the area’s history was also shaped by thieves, murderers, ladies of the night, and others accused of crimes here. Then, as today, criminalization intersects with social issues like race, gender, and class. In this talk, Aimée Keithan delves into the people behind the crimes. Using Jailer’s Accounts to place the accused within the physical environment of the Wiscasset Old Jail, she shares how social biases impacted prisoners’ lives, and begins to restore the humanity and stories of individuals who history has suppressed.

About our Speaker:

Aimée Keithan, Ph.D. is a buildings archaeologist and architectural historian, currently working as Pejepscot History Center’s Museum Services Manager in Brunswick. She has held research fellowships at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the Preservation of Newport County in Rhode Island. Her research focuses on using the material culture of architecture to reveal the history of marginalized populations.

Please register using the form below. After registering, you should see a confirmation page indicating that your registration was successful. You will not receive a confirmation email, so please take note of your confirmation screen now.

The link for the talk should arrive in your email the day before the talk. In some cases, you may need to check your spam folder or filter settings to make sure you can accept emails from lchamaine1954@gmail.com.

Silent Witnesses: The Architecture of Justice in Early New England
2023-02-23 17:30 - 18:30 | ME
Registration is now closed for this talk.
Colonial gaols or jails were often small, makeshift spaces, intended as holding places before criminal punishment was executed. But by the mid-nineteenth century huge institutional prison complexes were being built all over the country. Aimée Keithan examines the development of penal and judicial architecture using the Pownalborough Courthouse, Wiscasset Old Jail, and other examples to illustrate that changes in architectural design were intended to deliberately manipulate the behavior of those accused of crime, attempting to shape them into “productive” members of society.

Aimée Keithan, Ph.D. is a buildings archaeologist and architectural historian, currently working as Pejepscot History Center’s Museum Services Manager in Brunswick. She has held research fellowships at
George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the Preservation of Newport County in Rhode Island. Her research focuses on using the material culture of architecture to reveal the history of marginalized populations.

Please register using the form below. After registering, you should see a confirmation page indicating that your registration was successful. You will not receive a confirmation email, so please take note of your confirmation screen.

The link for the talk should arrive in your email the day before the talk. In some cases, you may need to check your spam folder or filter settings to make sure you can accept emails from lchamaine1954@gmail.com.

Civil War Author Talk
2023-03-02 18:00 | Skidompha Library, 184 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME, 04543, United States
Local author Amy Truesdell will discuss her new book, From Binghamton to the Battlefield: The Civil War Letters of Rollin B. Truesdell, which traces the Civil War experiences of her great-great-grandfather, an early enlistee in the Union Army. Using the 100+ letters Rollin penned for his family as a guide, Truesdell will share the arc of Rollin’s experience as he transformed from eager raw recruit to war-weary, battle-tested veteran. After Q&A, Truesdell will sign copies of her book which will be available for purchase for $30 each.

Amy is a writer and consultant whose appreciation of family and cultural history led her to fulfill a long-held dream of narrating the Civil War experiences of her great-great-grandfather. Formerly she was a lead foreign affairs officer with the U.S. Department of State specializing in conflict resolution in Central and East Africa.

This talk is free and open to the public, with donations at the door gratefully accepted to support Lincoln County Historical Association’s ongoing efforts to preserve and share the objects and stories of our local history with the public.

Enslavement in Maine
2023-03-30 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Preregistration (below) is required to receive the Zoom link for this program.
Learn some of the lesser told stories of our past with an overview of enslavement in Maine, beginning in the 17th century and describing its expansion in the state over two hundred years. She’ll share stories of individual enslaved people, and bring to light some of the people who experienced slavery in what is now Lincoln County.
Vana Carmona is the founder of The Prince Project, a database of over 2000 people of color who lived in Maine prior to 1800. She began researching enslavement in Maine eight years ago after she discovered that several of her ancestral New England families enslaved people of color and were also complicit in the slave trade itself. Because of her grandmother’s interest in genealogy and history, she had always known that she had descended from a number of early New England settlers. But it was only recently that Vana discovered the role they had played in enslaving kidnapped Africans.
Vana has also given presentations on her work to various local historical societies and schools and is a docent/guide for several historic sites in the Portland area, including Maine Historical Society and Spirits Alive (Eastern Cemetery, the oldest public burial ground in Portland, Maine, it has two sections of African American graves). She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and completed her Masters of Liberal Arts (focusing on Medieval History) at California State University/Sacramento.
This talk is free, but please consider a donation to help our dual goals of offering high quality programs to the public and continuing our mission of stewardship for our three irreplaceable historic buildings.
The Zoom link for this remote talk will be sent one day before the event to the email address included in the form below.

Please register using the form below. After registering, you should see a confirmation page indicating that your registration was successful. You will not receive a confirmation email, so please take note of your confirmation screen.

The link for the talk should arrive in your email the day before the talk. In some cases, you may need to check your spam folder or filter settings to make sure you can accept emails from lchamaine1954@gmail.com.

Enslavement in Maine Vana Carmona

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