Lincoln County Historical Association

Summer With The Past
2023-08-07 | LCHA Museum at the Old Jail, 133 Federal St., Wiscasset, Maine
Summer Day Camp held at Wiscasset’s Old Jail and Jailer’s House Museum.

Summer With the Past
2023-08-07 - 2023-08-11 | ME
A week at the Old Jail

Learn about the art of rug hooking at Chapman-Hall House
2023-08-06 12:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | ME
Textile artist Kathie Hills will discuss the art and craft of hooking rugs and their significance to the local area in a presentation at the Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta on Sunday, August 6, from 12:00 – 4:00 pm. A skilled designer, Mrs. Hills will demonstrate the craft and exhibit pieces she has created.

Mrs. Hills learned the craft from LaVerne Dickson and Margorie Freeman, local women known for their mastery of this functional art form. A member of the Waldoboro Historical Society, Mrs. Hills is well versed in the history of hooked rugs and their significance to Waldoboro.

On permanent display at the Chapman-Hall House are twelve antique hooked rugs, two of which show designs in the early stages of development. Also included in the exhibit is a copy of the 1884 E.S. Frost Rug Patterns catalog. Edward Sands Frost of Biddeford, Maine was famous for selling canvases printed with pattern designs for various size rugs, foot stool covers and even slippers. Only a few pattern illustrations are printed in the catalog, which offers for sale nearly 200 canvases at prices ranging from 15 cents to $1.25.

To celebrate this special event, admission to the historic site is free, but donations are very much appreciated. The Chapman-Hall House is located at 270 Main Street, Damariscotta.

The Chapman-Hall House is one of three historic sites under the care of the Lincoln County Historical Association. The Lincoln County Historical Association is a nonprofit organization that provides stewardship for the 1754 Chapman-Hall House, the 1761 Pownalborough Court House in Dresden, and the 1811 Old Jail and Museum in Wiscasset. For more information about the Lincoln County Historical Association visit www.lincolncountyhistory.org and Facebook at Lincoln County Historical Association Maine.

1772 Cookbook Celebration
2023-07-28 14:00 - 16:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Lincoln County Historical Association is pleased to announce the publication of the first facsimile edition of Susannah Carter’s “The Frugal Housewife,” first published in Boston by Edes and Gill
in 1772.
Our copy has an unbroken provenance since Major Samuel Goodwin bought it on Aug. 28, 1772 , through his family and descendants until it came into the ownership of the LCHA in 1954. This edition has a few missing pages (due to heavy use) but is mostly intact. And it does include the two pages of engravings on how to prepare poultry and small game for roasting (10 in all) created by Paul Revere.
This facsimile edition will be introduced for sale at a celebration to launch the cookbook at Pownalborough Court House on Friday, July 28 at 2 p.m.
For further information, please contact, by email : LCHAsamsbook@gmail.com

Dresden Summerfest
2023-07-09 11:00 - 14:00 | Pownalborough Court House, 23 Court House Rd, Dresden, ME, United States
Fun for the whole family with a bit of history. Past years have included face painting, balloon artist, caricaturist, pie contest, re-enactors from Colonial Maine Living History Association, tours of the court house (free for Dresden residents) wagon rides, local crafters, music and grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage plus drinks & dessert! Stay tuned for the 2023 line up!

Garden Tour
2023-07-01 10:00 - 14:00 | ME
Saturday Tickets Available 22 Lewis Point Road, Damariscotta, opening at 10. All gardens open until 2pm, so come buy your ticket early enough to leave time for the tour!!

View some of the most beautiful private gardens in Lincoln County. Enjoy these local treasures while also gaining inspiration for your own garden. The tour is self-paced with selected sites in Wiscasset and Dresden showcased from 10-2 on Friday and others in Damariscotta, Newcastle, and Round Pond showcased from 10-2 on Saturday.

Preregistration is encouraged, but tickets may also be purchased on the day of the event for $35.

The Gardens of Lincoln County
2023-06-30 10:00 - 14:00 | ME
Tickets now available at the following link: https://www.lincolncountyhistory.org/garden-tour/
View some of the most beautiful private gardens in Lincoln County. Enjoy these local treasures while also gaining inspiration for your own garden. The tour is self-paced with selected sites in Wiscasset and Dresden showcased from 10-2 on Friday and others in Damariscotta, Newcastle, and Round Pond showcased from 10-2 on Saturday.
Guests may purchase a ticket for Friday, Saturday, or both days with the option to add a boxed lunch on either or both days.

Preregistration is encouraged, but tickets may also be purchased on the day of the event for $35.

Summer With The Past
2023-06-30, 2023-06-29, 2023-06-28, 2023-06-27, 2023-06-26 | Chapman-Hall House, 270 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME, United States
Summer Day Camp at Chapman-Hall House

Jailhouse Rock
2023-06-24 17:00 - 20:00 | ME
CANCELED DUE TO EXPECTED RAIN AND THUNDERSTORM CONDITIONS
Join us for live music, dancing, food, and games for the whole family at the Old Jail in Wiscasset!
Click here for more information & to grab your tickets now! (this link can take several seconds to load, please be patient)

Jailhouse Rock

History From the Sheepscot
2023-06-23 08:00 - 10:00 | Wiscasset, Wiscasset, ME, 04578, United States
TENTATIVE

Led by Scot McFarlane, PhD, this unique look at the history of the Sheepscot will be a tour from the water! Participants should be comfortable, competent, and independent in their canoe or kayak.

Docent College Session Two: Site Specific Training
2023-06-17 09:00 - 12:00, 2023-05-27 09:00 - 12:00, 2023-05-20 10:00 - 12:00 | ME
Are you a history buff? Do you love old houses? Have you always wanted to be a tour guide at a historic property but didn’t know how to start? You’re in luck! Join Lincoln County Historical Association for Docent College, a short program of classes designed to teach the basics of being a volunteer docent for any or all of our historic properties: the Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta, the Old Jail in Wiscasset, and the Pownalborough Court House in Dresden. Docent College starts with an introductory class at two convenient times: Saturday, April 29th
from 9am-12pm via Zoom, or May 6th from 9am-12pm in person at Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasset. Once you have completed the introductory course, the fun really begins!

Attend additional courses to learn more about the three LCHA properties with our seasoned docents and members of our Collections Committee. With all of this knowledge under your belt you’ll be ready to volunteer at our wonderful properties and share your love of history with summer visitors. Docent College is free to attend. Register below, or visit our webpage www.lincolncountyhistory.org/docent-college for more information

Old Jail & Jailer’s House Museum, Wiscasset – May 20, 10:00am
Pownalborough Court House, Dresden – May 27, 9:00 am
Chapman-Hall House Damariscotta – June 17, 9:00 am

Docent College Registration

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Shredding at Dresden Town Office
2023-06-03 09:00 - 11:00 | Dresden Town Office, 534 Gardiner Road, Dresden, ME, 04342, United States
Bring your unwanted personal documents to the Dresden Town Office Parking Lot for safe destruction and make a donation to support the ongoing care of the irreplaceable 1761 Pownalborough Court House.

Community Day at the Museums
2023-06-03 | ME
All Lincoln County residents are invited to be our guest at all three museums on Community Day 2023. Admission is waived for tours at the 1754 Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta, the 1761 Pownalborough Court House in Dresden, and at the 1811 Old Jail/1839 Jailer’s House Museum in Wiscasset.

Hours:
Chapman-Hall House and the Old Jail
noon to 4:00 pm

Pownalbourough Court House
10:00 am to 4:00 pm

Calling all Book Groups!
2023-05-30 13:00 - 16:00 | LCHA Museum at the Old Jail, 133 Federal St., Wiscasset, Maine
Calling all Book Groups! A special look at our women writers of Lincoln County Exhibition for members of any book groups. Book group members are invited to view the Women Writers of Lincoln County Exhibit displayed at the Old Jail Museum with exhibit coordinator Alice Smith Duncan.
This tour is sure to inspire new book ideas and future discussions within your book group.
Admission $5 per person.
Two Tours
1:00 pm & 3:00 pm

Amy Truesdell encore!
2023-05-25 17:30 | Online
We hosted Civil War author Amy Truesdell for an in-person lecture that was so good that we are bringing her back for our online audience! Don’t miss this talk! Registration Click here
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.

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. Donations gratefully accepted to support LCHA’s ongoing work.
Register free here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpf-mppzMiHteJMMqehl64Gp9mh3FgLoy7

Shredding Onsite at Chapman-Hall House
2023-05-19 08:30 - 12:00 | Chapman-Hall House, 270 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME, United States
Come to the Bath Savings Bank parking lot next to Damariscotta’s Chapman-Hall House to clean out old documents like financial papers and bank statements for shredding by professionals. Volunteers will provide assistance. Bags, boxes, or even truck-loads of papers will be shredded quickly.
There is no set charge for this service, but donations to support educational programs and for the maintenance of the Chapman-Hall House are appreciated.

Docent College Session One: Fundamentals of Docenting
2023-05-06 09:00 - 12:00, 2023-04-29 09:00 - 12:00 | ME
Are you a history buff? Do you love old houses? Have you always wanted to be a tour guide at a historic property but didn’t know how to start? You’re in luck! Join Lincoln County Historical Association for Docent College, a short program of classes designed to teach the basics of being a volunteer docent for any or all of our historic properties: the Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta, the Old Jail in Wiscasset, and the Pownalborough Court House in Dresden.

Docent College starts with an introductory class at two convenient times: Saturday, April 29th from 9am-12pm via Zoom, or May 6th from 9am-12pm in person at Maine Tasting Center in Wiscasset. Once you have completed the introductory course, the fun really begins!

Attend additional courses (times and dates to be announced) to learn more about the three LCHA properties with our seasoned docents and members of our Collections Committee. With all of this knowledge under your belt you’ll be ready to volunteer at our wonderful properties and share your love of history with summer visitors. Docent College is free to attend. Register below, or visit our webpage www.lincolncountyhistory.org/docent-college for more information

Docent College Registration

Name

First

Last

PhoneEmail

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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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.

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.

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.

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!

Sparks from our Stories: Discussion Project
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
