Preservation Party 2025
2025-09-07 | Maine

1775 at Pownalborough Court House
2025-09-20 10:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Maine
On June 21, August 9, and September 20, join us at the Pownalborough Courthouse in Dresden, Maine, for a unique chance to experience history firsthand. History enthusiasts will be on-site portraying scenes from 1775, reenacting moments from the colonial era that would have unfolded at this very location.
Visitors are welcome to come dressed in 18th-century-inspired clothing — it’s not required, but it’s a fun way to dive into the spirit of the day!
This is a perfect opportunity for families, history lovers, and anyone looking to immerse themselves in the past!
Dates:
June 21, August 9, September 20
Location: Pownalborough Courthouse, Dresden, Maine

Local Soldiers & The 1775 Arnold Expedition
2025-09-25 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
Speaker Rob Stevens presents Local Soldiers and the 1775 Arnold Expedition
September 25, 5:30 pm ONLINE
Click here to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/77kZ-vWQQ6GMiAJEzwa7gA

Learn about the soldiers from our community who took part in this historic journey of the American Revolution along with stories from the speaker’s own voyage retracing their route eight years ago.
This lecture is offered free online and open to the public!

Donations to support LCHA’s ongoing programming are welcome! www.lincolncountyhistory.org/get-involved/donate

Preregistration is required to receive zoom link.

Restoring a Treasure: Steven Williams on the preservation of the historic Kavanagh House
2025-10-02 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
Homeowner Steve Williams discusses the project to restore the historic Kavanagh House in Damariscotta Mills. This beautiful example of Federal-style architecture presented Williams with the challenge of balancing restoration and rehabilitation of an 1803 home for modern living. Don’t miss the story of this incredible preservation effort!
This online talk is free and open to the public! Registration is required to receive the link for participation. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Donations welcome to support our ongoing programming! Click here to donate to LCHA!

Shades of the Past - a twilight tour of the Pownalborough Court House
2025-10-24 - 2025-10-25 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Over more than 250 years, this historic house has gathered its share of legends and ghost stories. Find out what stirs after dark on a guided tour through key interior rooms, each with its own memorable tale, and make a stop at the house’s private cemetery. Bring a flashlight, bundle up, and come ready for a little Halloween fun.

Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance.

Choose Your Tour Time and Purchase Tickets
Our tours run on October 24 and 25 at four hourly start times each day: 4 PM, 5 PM, 6 PM, and 7 PM.
Please select and purchase tickets for the exact date and time you wish to attend. Each tour time has limited availability, so be sure to book early to secure your spot!
Click your preferred tour time below to buy tickets:
October 24 at 4 PM (4 tickets remaining as of 11 am Thursday)
October 24 at 5 PM (few spots left)
October 24 at 6 PM (SOLD OUT)
October 24 at 7 PM (SOLD OUT)
October 25 at 4 PM (6 remaining as of 11 am Thursday)
October 25 at 5 PM (few spots left)
October 25 at 6 PM (few spots left)
October 25 at 7 PM (Closed for booking)
Please note: Your ticket is valid only for the date and time you select.

Proceeds of this event support the installation of UV-protective shades to help safeguard its historic textiles, artwork, and furnishings for future generations!

Members Forum: Lincoln County and the Struggle for Maine Statehood, 1816-1819
2025-11-20 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
Thursday, November 20, 2025 • 5:30 PM (Online)
The Lincoln County Historical Association welcomes Ryan LaRochelle, Senior Lecturer at the University of Maine’s William S. Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service and former LCHA Board President, for this special Members Forum.
In this talk, Ryan will explore how Lincoln County became a key battleground in Maine’s statehood struggle. In 1816, leading figures including Abiel Wood Jr., Moses Carlton Jr., William King, and Peleg Tallman, known as the county’s “Great Quartet, ”found themselves on opposing sides of the debate. As Maine’s most populous county by 1820, Lincoln County’s divided leadership played a pivotal role in shaping the outcome of the movement toward separation from Massachusetts.
Ryan LaRochelle is the author of “Lincoln County’s ‘Great Quartet’ and the Struggle for Maine Statehood, 1816–1819,” included in What We Know, What We Wish: Maine Statehood, Historical Commemoration, and the Urgency of Public History (UMass Press).
Registration for this Members Forum is free, but advance registration is required → Register here
Membership InformationMembers Forums are a benefit of LCHA membership.Membership starts at just $25 per year, supports our mission, and includes access to Members Forums, free unlimited admission to our three museums, and other benefits. Join today or email us with your questions about membership!

The Dirigo Men of Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery: Stories of Maine's WWII Service Members
2026-01-22 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
LCHA is proud to launch our 2026 Winter Lecture Series on January 22 with author Aimee Fogg, who will share stories of Maine’s WWII Service Members as she discusses The Dirigo Men of Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery. Thanks to sponsor J. Edward Knight Insurance, this online lecture is free and open to the public, pre-registration is required to receive the link to participate!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Located in Homburg, Belgium, Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery is the final resting place for 7,992 WWII service members, and where the names of 450 Missing in Action service members are commemorated. Fifty-four of these men called Maine home. From the state’s rocky coast along the Atlantic Ocean to its highest peak of Mount Katahdin and from towns in between, these men answered their country’s call. They left everything familiar to fight in a faraway land. They hugged their parents, siblings, spouses, and children goodbye. They missed their families. They dreamt of reunions. They wept. They suffered. They mourned. They sacrificed. They freed a continent. They liberated generations. Silenced by the passage of 80 years, their voices speak once again in The Dirigo Men of Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery: Stories of Maine’s WWII Service Members.

Aimee Gagnon Fogg is the great-niece of PFC Paul M. Lavoie of Nashua, NH, who is interred in Plot C Row 1 Grave 9 at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Homburg, Belgium. She is the founder of They Speak: Voices of Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, which is dedicated to collecting the personal stories and photos of the nearly 8,400 men of HCAC. She is the author of several publications and is also the recipient of the Daughters of the American Revolution Women in American History award. The Dirigo Men of Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery: Stories of Maine’s WWII Service Members is her third published title about HCAC. Aimee resides in New Hampshire with her husband, their three children, and their many pets.

Laboring Lives and Hidden Stories in Colonial New England
2026-01-29 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
Thanks to sponsor J. Edward Knight Insurance, this online lecture is free and open to the public, pre-registration is required to receive the link to participate!
Click here to register
Colonial New England has long been associated with free labor. But, in reality, most colonial New England households were mixed-labor settings. They relied on a diverse group of unfree people, including Indigenous, African, and European women and men, who served as indentured, enslaved, and hired laborers. In this presentation, Dr. Carbonell will survey the landscape of labor in seventeenth- and eighteenth- century New England, exploring how and under what terms this diverse group of laborers joined colonial households. In her talk, Dr. Carbonell will also reflect on the process of researching laboring people in colonial records that often obscure their histories.
Caylin Carbonell is an Assistant Professor of History at Bowdoin College, where she teaches courses on colonial North America. She earned her Ph.D. in History from William & Mary in 2020 and her B.A. from Bates College in 2012. Dr. Carbonell is currently working on a book manuscript which peers in on New England’s colonial households and their daily goings-on at a granular level to examine the intimate contestations and collaborations between household members. Her writing has previously appeared in Early American Studies, Commonplace: The Journal of Early American Life and the Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History.

Amos's Ear: Black Mainers, the American Revolution, and the Fight for Freedom
2026-02-05 18:00 - 19:00 | Online
A Free Online Lecture
Presented in partnership with the Old Bristol Historical Society
Free and open to the public – preregistration is required.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
African Americans used the American Revolution as a means to pursue freedom and equality. This lecture explores the history of freedom-making in Revolutionary-era Maine, with a particular focus on the community of Peterborough in Warren.
Founded by Revolutionary War veteran Amos Peters and his formerly enslaved wife Sarah, Peterborough became a beacon of freedom and hope for Black Mainers and their families throughout the Midcoast. This talk examines the complex and often contradictory realities of freedom and unfreedom experienced by Black Mainers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Dr. Kate McMahon is the Executive Director of the Castine Historical Society. She serves on the Operational Committee of SlaveVoyages.org and is a co-founder and board member of Atlantic Black Box. Dr. McMahon earned her B.A. in Art History and M.A. in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine and completed her Ph.D. in History at Howard University in 2017.
Her dissertation, The Transnational Dimensions of Africans and African Americans in Northern New England, 1776–1865, examined Black life and mobility across borders. Her current research focuses on New England’s connections to and complicity in the illegal slave trade and colonialism from 1809 to 1900. Dr. McMahon is dedicated to interpreting the lasting legacies of slavery and the slave trade for broad public audiences through scholarship and public engagement.
Thank you to J. Edward Knight Insurance for sponsoring our Online Winter Lecture Series.

Has Our History Whitewashed the Revolutionary War?
2026-02-12 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
LCHA continues our 2026 Winter Lecture Series on February 12, welcoming back a Winter Lecture Series favorite, Bob Greene! Thanks to sponsor J. Edward Knight Insurance, this online lecture is free and open to the public, pre-registration is required to receive the link to participate!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Has Our History Whitewashed the Revolutionary War? Bob Greene will explore this question and show that if you look carefully, you’ll realize that all of us took part in making us America. In this talk, Bob highlights some of the Black folks connected to Maine who were there when it counted during the Revolutionary War.
A native of Portland, Bob Greene is the eighth generation of his family to be born in Cumberland County. His roots in Maine stretch back into the 1700s. After graduating from Portland High, Bob went off to college and a career as a journalist, covering among other things airplane crashes, Mississippi River floods and the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He has met three presidents: Harry Truman, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. And, as The Associated Press Tennis Writer, Bob traveled the world covering the sport. After retiring he returned home to Maine where his genealogical research has led to his deep knowledge about Maine’s Black history. He currently teaches a Black History of Maine course at OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute) at the University of Southern Maine. Bob also is a recipient of the Maine Historical Society’s Neal Allen Award, which is presented each year for exceptional contributions to Maine History.

Company D: One Maine Company, Countless Civil War Stories
2026-02-26 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
Thanks to sponsor J. Edward Knight Insurance, this online lecture is free and open to the public, pre-registration is required to receive the link to participate!
Click here to register
Inspired by a Civil War diary left behind by his great-great-grandfather, the host of the Company D podcast, George F. Snell III, has spent years researching and preserving the lives of hundreds of soldiers who served in the Third Maine Infantry Regiment. Today, Company D reaches thousands of listeners with the remarkable, deeply human stories of Maine’s forgotten regiment. Join us for an evening of history as George shares some of his favorite discoveries — tales of courage, loss, and the lasting impact of war on ordinary families.

George F. Snell III is the great-great-grandson of Charles F. Snell, a volunteer with Company D of the Third Maine Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. A former award-winning journalist and communications consultant, Snell is the producer and host of Company D, a narrative history podcast exploring the lives of Maine soldiers and the families they left behind. He is also a member of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Post #104.

Heritage Crafts Workshop - Registration Required!
2026-03-01 13:30 - 16:30 | Maine
Learn Heritage Crafts This March with LCHA
Join us for a series of hands-on Heritage Crafts workshops offered on Sundays in March! Participants may register for one, two, or all three sessions. All workshops will be held at Second Congregational Church, 51 Main Street, Newcastle, from 1:30–4:30 p.m.
Workshops include basketmaking (March 1), paste paper decoration (March 15), and calligraphy (March 29).
Space is limited, and pre-registration is required. The cost is $35 per participant, per workshop, and all materials are included.
Please click here to complete the registration form.

March 1 – BasketmakingParticipants will learn the fundamentals of basket weaving with instructor and accomplished basket maker Allison Brown. Brown will guide participants through the creation of a small basket (approximately 8” x 4”), ideal for holding candles and other slender items.
March 15 – Paste Paper DecorationRebecca Manthey will lead a workshop on paste paper decoration. In colonial New England, bookbinders often used paste-decorated paper as an inexpensive alternative to marbled paper for book covers and endpapers. Participants will learn how to mix paint and paste, apply it to paper, and create decorative patterns using a variety of combing techniques.
March 29 – CalligraphyThis workshop offers an opportunity to try one’s hand at calligraphy, the art of lettering. Addie Miller will discuss the popularity of calligraphy in the 18th and 19th centuries, describe the tools used during that time, and guide participants through lettering exercises. The session will also explore the etiquette of calling cards and suggest ways calligraphy can be used today.

What did she know, and when did she know it? Closer look at Miss Burrage’s maps for Kenneth Roberts
2026-03-05 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
LCHA’s Members Forum series offers members-only Zoom lectures that provide space for deeper conversation and shared discovery beyond our public programs. These programs are designed especially for members, creating opportunities to connect around shared interests and learn together in a more focused setting. Please note that new members are always welcome! LCHA membership begins at just $25 per year and includes free, unlimited admission to LCHA’s three historic house museums, along with access to members-only programs such as this forum.
Click here to Register for What Did She Know And When Did She Know It?
Click here to become an LCHA member!
In the first Members Forum of 2026, longtime LCHA member Martha Frink explores the work of LCHA founder Mildred Burrage, focusing on Burrage’s creation of illustrated maps for author Kenneth Roberts. Martha’s long-standing effort to better understand Burrage began with a question sparked by a mural in the Lee Street house where Mildred moved in 1946 and which later became home to Martha and her young family in 1989.
More than a decade of research deepened Martha’s respect for a woman who came to Wiscasset to paint while leaving behind postwar Kennebunkport, and who is now best remembered for helping to establish the organizations that became LCHA and the Maine Art Gallery. Martha’s own roots echo this layered history. Her family includes a descendant who marched with Benedict Arnold to Quebec and another who fought in the battle now known as Bunker Hill. Her wide-ranging interests, from phycology to art history, have carried her from studies in the Caribbean back to the Maine coast, where she now lives in Bremen in Lincoln County.

Heritage Crafts Workshop - Paste Paper Decoration
2026-03-15 13:30 - 16:30 | Maine
Learn Heritage Crafts This March with LCHA
Join us for a series of hands-on Heritage Crafts workshops offered on Sundays in March! Participants may register for one, two, or all three sessions. All workshops will be held at Second Congregational Church, 51 Main Street, Newcastle, from 1:30–4:30 p.m.
Workshops include basketmaking (March 1), paste paper decoration (March 15), and calligraphy (March 29).
Space is limited, and pre-registration is required. The cost is $35 per participant, per workshop, and all materials are included.
Please click here to complete the registration form.

March 15 – Paste Paper DecorationRebecca Manthey will lead a workshop on paste paper decoration. In colonial New England, bookbinders often used paste-decorated paper as an inexpensive alternative to marbled paper for book covers and endpapers. Participants will learn how to mix paint and paste, apply it to paper, and create decorative patterns using a variety of combing techniques.

Members Forum: The Curious Life of E. E. Finch, 19th Century Maine Portrait Artist
2026-03-19 17:30 - 18:30 | Online
LCHA’s Members Forum series offers members-only Zoom lectures that provide space for deeper conversation and shared discovery beyond our public programs. These programs are designed especially for members, creating opportunities to connect around shared interests and learn together in a more focused setting. Please note that new members are always welcome! LCHA membership begins at just $25 per year and includes free, unlimited admission to LCHA’s three historic house museums, along with access to members-only programs such as this forum.
Click here to register for The Curious Life of E. E. Finch

A portrait in the LCHA Collection recently caught the attention of art historian Emily Esser, who wrote us to suggest that it was likely the work of artist E. E. Finch. Who was Finch and what makes his work recognizable? Esser will discuss his paintings and weave in some of the more curious aspects of the artist’s life.
Emily Esser is an independent art historian and a portrait specialist with a passion for sorting out the complex matter of attribution, particularly in the field of American folk portraiture. She has authored numerous articles online and in prominent journals such as Maine Antique Digest, and is the acknowledged expert on the works of Deacon Robert Peckham. Emily has also created groundbreaking websites with encyclopedic contents on portraiture, including the American Folk Portraits Wiki and Paintings Worth Looking At.

Members Forum: Treasures in Context: Quilts from the LCHA Collection
2026-03-26 17:30 - 18:00 | Online
Join us for an engaging online Members Forum with LCHA member Laurie LaBar, author of Maine Quilts: 250 Years of Comfort and Community and former Chief Curator of History and Decorative Arts at the Maine State Museum. Laurie will highlight the remarkably significant quilts in the LCHA collection that were examined by the American Quilt Study Group during their September 25 visit to Wiscasset. This talk offers a rare opportunity to explore the history and artistry of these early quilts and is exclusive to LCHA members as a benefit of membership.
Free to LCHA members, but preregistration is required: Click here to sign up!
Click here to become an LCHA member!
LCHA’s Members Forum series offers members-only Zoom lectures that provide space for deeper conversation and shared discovery beyond our public programs. These programs are designed especially for members, creating opportunities to connect around shared interests and learn together in a more focused setting. Please note that new members are always welcome! LCHA membership begins at just $25 per year and includes free, unlimited admission to LCHA’s three historic house museums, along with access to members-only programs such as this forum.

Heritage Crafts Workshop - Calligraphy
2026-03-29 13:30 - 16:30 | Maine
Learn Heritage Crafts This March with LCHA
Join us for a series of hands-on Heritage Crafts workshops offered on Sundays in March! Participants may register for one, two, or all three sessions. All workshops will be held at Second Congregational Church, 51 Main Street, Newcastle, from 1:30–4:30 p.m.
Workshops include basketmaking (March 1), paste paper decoration (March 15), and calligraphy (March 29).
Space is limited, and pre-registration is required. The cost is $35 per participant, per workshop, and all materials are included.
Please click here to complete the registration form.

March 29 – CalligraphyThis workshop offers an opportunity to try one’s hand at calligraphy, the art of lettering. Addie Miller will discuss the popularity of calligraphy in the 18th and 19th centuries, describe the tools used during that time, and guide participants through lettering exercises. The session will also explore the etiquette of calling cards and suggest ways calligraphy can be used today.

Members Forum: Six Stitches Through Time - The Discovery and Journey of the Prescott Samplers
2026-04-02 18:30 - 19:30 | Online
LCHA’s Members Forum series offers members-only Zoom lectures that provide space for deeper conversation and shared discovery beyond our public programs. These programs are designed especially for members, creating opportunities to connect around shared interests and learn together in a more focused setting. Please note that new members are always welcome! LCHA membership begins at just $25 per year and includes free, unlimited admission to LCHA’s three historic house museums, along with access to members-only programs such as this forum.

Aric Wilmunder will share the story of the unexpected discovery of several early nineteenth-century needlework samplers at a California auction house and the research that has brought their story back to Lincoln County. Created by young girls who lived at the Pownalborough Court House and were connected to the Johnson, Prescott and Canby families, these objects illuminate childhood education, family networks, and daily life in early nineteenth-century Maine and Philadelphia, and reveal ties to wider early American networks, including the family of Betsy Ross. Through genealogy, archival records, and material culture, the talk traces the samplers’ path from their creation in Maine to their rediscovery on the West Coast and their return to the community where they were made.
Register for Six Stitches Through Time here!
Become an LCHA Member here!
Aric Wilmunder is a genealogical researcher currently focused on the Prescott and Johnson families and their lives at the Pownalborough Court House in the 1830s. He rediscovered a collection of samplers made by family members and worked with the Lincoln County Historical Association to bring about their return. He previously worked in the computer and entertainment industries and is recognized as a historian of early computer game development. He is also a bluegrass fiddle player and experimental RC aircraft test pilot. He is currently writing a juvenile historical novel about the three Prescott sisters.

Divided Loyalties: Loyalists and the American Revolution as a Civil War in Maine with speaker Michael Dekker
2026-04-19 16:00 - 17:00 | Bristol Mills Congregational Church, 1261 Bristol Rd, Bristol, ME, 04539, United States
Together with Old Bristol Historical Society, LCHA is pleased to present a lecture that examines the American Revolution through a unique lens:
The American Revolution was not just a break from Imperial Great Britain – it was America’s first civil war. In Maine, neighbors, families, and communities were divided by competing notions of patriotism. Divided Loyalties examines how intimidation, coercion, and legal sanctions were used to enforce ideological conformity, as well as the strategies employed by individuals who resisted these pressures.
Through the experiences of ordinary people, the program exposes the harsh realities of mob violence, political disenfranchisement, and personal recrimination during the Revolution in Maine. The presentation concludes by tracing how deep social and political fractures were mended after the war, revealing the processes through which individuals and communities sought reconciliation, stability, and renewed cohesion in the aftermath of the American Revolution.
Historian Mike Dekker specializes in 17 th and 18th-century Maine and New England. He is the author of the book The French and Indian Wars In Maine and is a contributing author to the book 1718-2018: Reflections on 300 Years of the Scots Irish in Maine. Mike offers talks and educational programming on a range of topics, including the 17th-century cod fishing industry and its relation to the current state of the Gulf of Maine fisheries. He regularly provides living history programming pertaining
to 17th-century Maine at the Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site.

Historical Theater at the Pownalborough Court House
2026-06-13 10:00 - 2026-09-23 16:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Guests to the Pownalborough Court House will be treated to interactions with first person reenactors portraying real people from the past! Step into the past – you’ll be transported to 1778!
Usual admission rates apply. No charge for access to the grounds.

Preservation Party 2026!
2026-09-13 | Maine

Historical Theater at Pownalborough Court House
2026-09-19 10:00 - 16:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
