Tag Archives: Maine Historical Society

Books

Maine Historical Society book group is back again

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designingacadia_webgraphicWednesday, October 5, 2016 – Wednesday, March 1, 2017

The Maine Historical Society Book Group is back by popular demand! Join us for five fun evenings of camaraderie and great book discussion. Led by MHS Research Librarian Tiffany Link, the group will read five books, each related to MHS’s Designing Acadia and World War I exhibitions, then gather for discussion. Light refreshments will be served. The group will meet in the MHS Brown Library, 6-8pm on the first Wednesday of each month through March. (There will be no December meeting.)

October 5:  A Land Of Discord Always-Acadia From It’s Beginnings to the Expulsion of Its People 1604-1755 by Charles Mahaffie (Camden, ME: Down East Books, 1995).

Please Read Chapters : 1- 4- 7- 11- 16- 21- 24- 29- 32 and 33 (or the whole book if you like). Also choose a chapter from Longfellow’s Evangeline to discuss and compare.

November 2: Ghost of Acadia by Marcus LiBrizzi (Rockport, ME: Down East Books, 2011).

January 4: Becoming Teddy Roosevelt by Andrew Vietze (Rockport, ME: Down East Books, 2010).

February 1: Love on the Rocks-Stories of Rusticators and Romance on MDI (Yarmouth, ME: Islandport Press, 2008).

March 1: Bar Harbor in the Roaring Twenties: From Village Life to the High Life on M.D.I. by Luann Yetter (The History Press, 2015).

Program dates: October 5, November 2, January 4, February 1, March 1. For questions, please contact Tiffany Link at tlink@mainehistory.org or 207-774-1822 x 230. A 20{a924d0e49cc5813a40c6e5abf88cc5a144f266a1cd8c3074f66db425794a7bb6} discount on the books read for this group will be offered in the MHS Museum Store. $20 MHS Members; $30 general admission for all book sessions. Limited to 25 people.

Register today!

 

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Love in Maine

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Valentine cookies

Looking for a literary, artistic, or historical spin on love this month? All sorts of options are available, right in Portland, Maine!

The Maine Historical Society is offering this month “Love in the Longfellow House: Couples Guided Tour,” complete with champagne, chocolate, roses, and valentines.

http://www.mainehistory.org/programs_events.shtml#event_463

On February 18th, I’ll be sharing some of our historic valentines at a Maine Memory Network presentation:

http://www.mainehistory.org/programs_events.shtml

Just a block away, at the Portland Public Library, on February 14th is an afternoon of “frightfully good tales that will add chills to your holiday of otherwise hot romance:”

Our Bloody Valentines: Love Notes, in which the Tuesday Mayhem Society, a group of local authors centered in Lisbon Falls, who are dedicated to carrying on the literary traditions of Poe, Lovecraft, Bradbury, and King, will be exploring the concepts of Love, Sex, and Murder through our fiction and poetry at the Portland Public Library: http://www.portlandlibrary.com/events/bloody-valentines-love-notes-tuesday-mayhem-society/#sthash.KWFWnVPB.dpuf

And, if you haven’t had your fill by then of twisted love, you can head down the hill to the Osher Map Library for a Valentine’s Day celebration at 5 p.m. which includes a talk on “Mapping Desire: Erotic Imagery in Old World Cartography.” Osher Map Library Acting Director Ian Fowler will present an enticing lecture covering the representation of love and the human body in cartography through the ages.  Cash bar and tasty treats will be served.

https://www.facebook.com/oshermaps

Finally, if you need a little guidance in writing a love letter, head to the Glickman Library at USM for a workshop by Arielle Greenberg on “How to write poems for your lover(s),” hosted by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance:

https://www.facebook.com/oshermaps

Happy Valentines Day from the Long Island Community Library!

Books

MHS Book Group: Home Is Where the Heart Is

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Another great book group is being offered at the Maine Historical Society, in conjunction with the current MHS exhibit on

Home: The Longfellow House and the Emergence of Portland

Tuesday, January 27 – Tuesday, May 26, 2015

MHS Book Group: Home Is Where the Heart Is

Wadsworth-Longfellow House, ca. 1880 (MMN #5417)

Wadsworth-Longfellow House, ca. 1880 (MMN #5417)

Facilitator: Larissa Vigue Picard, Director of Education

Join us this January through May for our sixth annual MHS reading group–a great opportunity to engage in literary discussions about history and connect with members of the MHS community.

“Home Is Where the Heart Is” takes as its stepping off point the 2014-2015 MHS museum exhibition, Home: The Longfellow House and the Emergence of Portland. Session readings explore themes of home, family, place, immigration, and community in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry with a historical resonance. There are even a couple haunted houses in the mix!

Books must be acquired on your own and include Tracy Kidder’s House, Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger, Terry Farish’s The Good Braider, and George Howe Colt’s The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home. A number of additional short readings (essays, poetry, and a short story) will be provided as handouts or are available online.

WHEN: Tuesdays 1/27, 2/24, 3/24, 4/28, 5/26 @ 6:30PM
WHERE: MHS Lecture Hall
COST: $20 MHS members / $30 non-members (includes handouts/resources, facilitation, and refreshments)
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Friday, January 23. Registration is required; space is limited. To sign up, email lvpicard@mainehistory.org for a registration form and copy of the full reading list, drop by the MHS museum store to register on-site, or download the registration form and full reading list.

Books

MHS Book Group: Making Sense of the American Civil War

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For all you Civil War buffs, here’s a great reading group to join in the new year!

MHS Book Group: Making Sense of the American Civil War

Tuesday, January 21 – Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Presented in partnership with Maine Humanities Council

Facilitator: Candace Kanes, MHS Historian and Maine Memory Network Curator

Join us this January through May for our fifth annual MHS reading group–a great opportunity to engage in discussions about history and connect with members of the MHS community.

Created and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of its We the People initiative, “Making Sense of the Civil War” is a Maine Humanities Council “Let’s Talk About It” program designed as a succession of five conversations exploring different facets of the Civil War experience. Each session will explore a different topic informed by reading the words written or spoken by powerful voices from the past and present.

Books will be provided on loan by Maine Humanities Council and include March by Geraldine Brooks, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson, and America’s War, an anthology published by the NEH expressly for this series. There is no charge for this year’s group.

WHEN: Tuesdays 1/21, 2/18, 3/18, 4/15, 5/20 @ 6:30PM
WHERE: MHS Lecture Hall
BOOKS: On loan from Maine Humanities Council
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Friday, January 10. Registration is required; space is limited and the group has traditionally filled up fast. To sign up, Download the Flyer, call 774-1822, or email info@mainehistory.org with “book group” in the subject heading.

Books

East of the Hague Line

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Last month Gordon Holmes came to the Long Island Learning Center to talk about, and read from, his new book, “East of the Hague Line,” a novel which “takes a close, personal look at what it takes to live the life of an offshore fisherman.” Given the enthusiasm of the crowd, it appears to be a great read, and a page turner, despite the over 600 pages. I still haven’t read it, but armed by the excitement I felt that evening at the reading, I set forth to spread the word amongst my fellow librarians in Maine, by way of the Me-Libs listserve. I also e-mailed our museum store manager, Melissa, and the library director, Nick. I’m pleased to say, that while the libraries still don’t seem to be jumping on board, the Maine Historical Society museum store now carries copies of the book – actually, they not only carry the book but feature it front and center, as you can see from this picture. And I just catalogued a copy for the Maine Historical Society Library. East of the Hague Line

One of these days I will read the book for myself… (sounds like a perfect book to curl up with, mid-winter, with a storm raging outside…)

Books

We are What we Ate: A Maine Historical Society Reading and Discussion Program

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Here’s a book group that I couldn’t resist – it combines two of my favorites: food and books!

We are What we Ate: A Maine Historical Society Reading and Discussion Program Facilitator: Larissa Vigue Picard, MHS Community Partnership Coordinator

Join us this January through May for our fourth annual MHS reading group. This year, we explore a topic that resonates across humanity, inspiring great passion and wide-ranging opinion–food! In non-fiction and fiction, we’ll examine how the food that has been envisioned, produced, sold, shared, cooked, and eaten in the past–whether by desire, tradition, deprivation, or other forces beyond one’s control–has influenced numerous aspects of life. In addition to a wide variety of short readings and excerpts which will be provided as handouts to participants, books include Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton; 97 Orchard by Jane Ziegelman; Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro; and The Emperors of Chocolate, by Joel Glenn Brenner (Emperors is currently out of print but widely available used–and at your public library!). Discussion dates are January 22, February 26, March 26, April 23, May 28; time is 6:30PM. Registration is required by Friday, January 11. Participation is limited; the group has traditionally filled up quickly. Fee: $20 for MHS members; $25 for non-members. (Books will not be available through the MHS store; participants must supply these on their own.) For a complete reading list and a registration form, please visit http://www.mainehistory.org/programs_events.shtml#January.