Wednesday, October 5, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Special Curator Tour: NORTHERN THREADS Part II with Jamie Rice

MHS MEMBERS EXCLUSIVE
Join Jamie Rice, MHS Deputy Director and exhibit co-curator, for a special guided tour of Part II of NORTHERN THREADS: Two Centuries of Dress at Maine Historical Society.

With all-new themed vignettes from 1890-1980, Part II shares fascinating stories about Maine people, and explores clothing’s role in social, economic, and environmental histories. Central to our 200th anniversary, Northern Threads highlights MHS’ collecting expertise with newly-conserved, never-before-seen pieces from our permanent collection. Look for Main Gallery groupings like Turn of the Century; Bridalwear; Maine Outdoors; Women at Work; Designed with Style; and Silhouettes in Sequence

Space is limited and open to MHS members only.

Location: MHS 489 Congress Street, Portland
Cost: Free for MHS members, space limited to 10 members

Register Today!

Thursday, October 6, 7:00 – 8:30 pm

In-Person Program: Limited Seating
BOUNTY: Film Screening & Discussion

Join Maine Historical Society in person to see Upstander Project's short film BOUNTY. Following the film, participant Dawn Neptune Adams (Penobscot) and Upstander Project learning director Mishy Lesser will open a conversation.

The following synopsis of the film is by Dawn Neptune Adams, Maulian Dana, Adam Mazo, Ben Pender-Cudlip, and Tracy Rector:

We are citizens of the Penobscot Nation. For this film, we bring our families to Boston to read our ancestors’ death warrant. This abhorrent proclamation, made in 1755 by the colonial government, paid settlers handsomely to murder Penobscot people. It declared our people enemies and offered different prices for the scalps of children, women, and men. Bounty proclamations like this, some even paid in stolen land, persisted for more than two centuries across what is now the United States.

The memory of being hunted is in our blood. We know this to be true, and the science now affirms that trauma can be passed down from generation to generation. In BOUNTY we step into the future together with our children into the colonizer’s hall of injustice, to read their hateful words and tell the truth about what was done to our ancestors. We exercise our power by sharing the horrors of this hard history as an act of resistance, remembrance, and a step toward justice.

About the Panelists:

Dawn Neptune Adams is a filmmaker and journalist with Sunlight Media Collective, and co-director of and a participant in Bounty. Her grassroots environmental activism began with the protection of Indigenous Sacred sites in Huntington Beach, California in 1998. Since then, she has been a tireless advocate for environmental justice and Indigenous rights at the tribal, local, state, and national levels. Dawn is actively involved in politics for change across a wide spectrum of influences. She is a Racial Justice Consultant to the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine; a member of Racial Equity & Justice of Bangor; and a former Indigenous Peoples' Policy Advisor for the Hunter/Elias 2020 Presidential campaign. Dawn has served as the Wabanaki Liaison to the Maine Independent Green Party since 2016 and was the Vice Presidential Candidate to the Dario Hunter 2020 Presidential campaign.

Mishy Lesser, Ed.D., is the learning director for Upstander Project and an Emmy® award-winning researcher. Mishy has authored Upstander Project’s many learning and viewer guides. She is a Circle Keeper and has been featured on WBUR (Boston) and PRI/BBC’s The World. Mishy was a Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador and spent 12 years learning and working in the Andes. She is a descendant of Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestral language is Yiddish and lives with her husband in the territory of the Massachusett Tribe.

Cost: Free and open to the public. No registration needed, but SEATING IS LIMITED.

Location: MHS Shettleworth Lecture Hall, 489 Congress Street, Portland

Learn more at bountyfilm.org.

Friday, October 7, 5:00 – 7:00 pm

In-Person Program
First Friday Art Walk

Join MHS for First Friday Art Walk festivities!

SHOP our store.

EXPERIENCE Three Amazing Exhibits in our Galleries:

• Northern Threads: Two Centuries of Dress at Maine Historical Society (Part II).

• Chansonetta Stanley Emmons: Staging the Past

• Fashion for the People: Graphic Tees of Maine

PLEASE NOTE: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Brown Research Library will NOT be open.

Cost: Free & open to the public. NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

Location: MHS 489 Congress Street, Portland.

This is an in-person event. Please find up-to-date MHS pandemic protocols here.

Wednesday, October 12, 6:00 – 7:00 pm

In-Person Book Talk with Robert Klotz
Thomas Brackett Reed: The Gilded Age Speaker Who Made the Rules for American Politics

As the 2022 election approaches, we’re taking a look back at the politics of the Gilded Age, and at the man from Maine’s past whose statue towers over Portland's Western Prom, and whose impact is still felt on American politics. Join author Robert Klotz who will offer a balanced portrayal of the leadership and legacy of Thomas Brackett Reed. Klotz has combined political science findings with extensive archival research he did at Maine Historical Society.

Thomas Brackett Reed defined a “statesman” as “a successful politician who is dead” -- but gave himself latitude in pursuing his own goals as a congressional leader. Known for his sharp wit and support of Civil Rights, Reed's roller-coaster career included numerous terms in the House of Representatives, six years as Speaker of the House, and serving as Maine’s Attorney General. His leadership style as Speaker of the House is encapsulated in the Reed Rules, which continue to serve as the institutional foundation of the modern House of Representatives, and as a metaphor for the practice of power politics for partisan ends.

About the author: Robert J. Klotz is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern Maine. He received his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. His most recent book, Thomas Brackett Reed: The Gilded Age Speaker Who Made the Rules for American Politics is published by the University Press of Kansas. Other recent publications include an article about candidate debates in the Gilded Age published by Ohio History in 2020.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Location: MHS Shettleworth Lecture Hall. NO Registration required.

PLEASE NOTE: This in-person program will NOT be available via Zoom.

Please visit our Coronavirus Update page for current masking policies and other related details.

Tuesday, October 18, 7:00 – 8:00 pm

MHS AT 200 SERIES: A Talk with Tiffany Link
Collections Conundrums and How Genealogy Cracked the Case

'Eva' doll, Washington, DC, ca. 1865, MMN #84644

Sometimes history leaves mysteries -- but never fear, our library detectives are on the case!

Join Research and Manuscripts Librarian Tiffany Link to learn how MHS staff uses genealogy research to verify the provenance of a Civil War era doll, fill in the story of a couple featured in an early photograph, and research a murder noted on an architectural drawing.

Cost: Free and open to the public.

Location: Online via Zoom. REGISTER