Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

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Listen to recordings of lectures, book talks, panels, and other programs on Maine, New England, American history from Maine Historical Society. These podcasts allow everyone to enjoy, learn from, and reflect on history and its relevance today.

Maine Historical Society


    • Mar 8, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • monthly NEW EPISODES
    • 55m AVG DURATION
    • 139 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

    Black Salts: Black Sailors in Maine and New England

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 8, 2025 54:39


    Seth Goldstein; Recorded February 13, 2025 - Black people and people of African heritage have lived in Maine for more than 400 years, playing a vital role in the shaping of the economy and the history of the state. In the 1800s, many of these individuals worked as farmers, homemakers, drivers, hotel owners, and restaurant keepers, and even more worked in the maritime trades as shipbuilders, fishermen, lobstermen, and sailors. In this talk, Cushing's Point Museum director Seth Goldstein discussed the fundamental role of African heritage sailors in regional history and examined why the jobs of mariners and shore-related occupations such as longshoremen were important for individuals of African heritage. Seth also addressed how Black mariners participated in the Underground Railroad. Recorded February 13, 2025

    A Plausible Man: The True Story of the Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2025 62:12


    Susanna Ashton; Recorded January 23, 2025 - In December of 1850, a faculty wife in Brunswick, Maine, named Harriet Beecher Stowe hid a fugitive enslaved man in her house. While John Andrew Jackson stayed for only one night, he made a lasting impression: drawing from this experience, Stowe began to write Uncle Tom's Cabin, one of the most influential books in American history and the novel that helped inspire the overthrow of slavery in the United States. Author Susanna talked about her book A Plausible Man, a historical detective story of Jackson's remarkable flight from slavery to freedom, his quest to liberate his enslaved family, and his emergence as an international advocate for abolition. Recorded January 23, 2025

    Food of the Future: How Social Reformers Created a Vegetarian Crusade in America

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2025 61:56


    Adam Shprintzen; Recorded January 13, 2025 - Vegetarianism has been practiced in the United States since the country's founding, yet the early years of the movement have been woefully misunderstood and understudied. Through the Civil War, the vegetarian movement focused on social and political reform, but by the late nineteenth century, the movement became a path for personal strength and success in a newly individualistic, consumption-driven economy. This development led to greater expansion and acceptance of vegetarianism in mainstream society. From Bible Christians to Grahamites, the American Vegetarian Society to the Battle Creek Sanitarium Adam D. Shprintzen explored this lively history of early American vegetarianism and social reform. Recorded January 13, 2025

    Maine's Untold Vegetarian History

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 11, 2024 38:51


    John Babin and Avery Yale Kamila; Recorded September 30, 2024 - Reaching back 300 years, MHS's exhibit, Maine's Untold Vegetarian History features stories of Mainers who changed what vegetarians eat and opened access to plant-based foods. Co-curators John Babin and Avery Yale Kamila discussed this little-known history with plenty of food for thought!

    Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2024 50:33


    Ann Powers; Recorded October 7, 2024 - Did you know that Joni Mitchell's eighth studio record, Hejira, was inspired by a cross-country road trip Mitchell made to and from the midcoast village of Damariscotta? For decades, Mitchell's life and music have enraptured listeners, and yet, while Mitchell has always been a force beckoning us still closer with one arm, with the other arm, she pushes us away. Given this, music critic Ann Powers wondered if there was another way to draw insights from the life of this singular musician who never stops moving, never stops experimenting. In Traveling, Powers seeks to understand Mitchell through her myriad journeys. Through extensive interviews with Mitchell's peers and deep archival research, she takes readers to rural Canada, mapping the singer's childhood battle with polio, and charts the course of Mitchell's musical evolution, ranging from early folk to jazz fusion to experimentation with pop synthetics. She follows the winding road of Mitchell's collaborations with other greats, and the loves that emerged along the way, all the way through to the remarkable return of Mitchell to music-making after the 2015 aneurysm that nearly took her life. Kaleidoscopic in scope, and intimate in its detail, Traveling is a fresh and fascinating addition to the Joni Mitchell canon, written by a biographer in full command of her gifts who asks as much of herself as of her subject.

    Maine's Great Opera Divas

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2024 64:56


    Arlene Palmer Schwind; Recorded July 9, 2024 - It is perhaps unusual that a small state like Maine can claim connections with several opera divas who enjoyed international acclaim between the 1870s and the 1920s. In her illustrated presentation, Arlene Palmer Schwind explored the fascinating lives and careers of Annie Louise Cary, Lillian Nordica, Emma Eames, Olive Fremstad, and Lillian Blauvelt. The experiences of these remarkably talented singers reveal the challenges that faced independent female performing artists in that period as they aimed to reach the peak of what was, and still is, a difficult and demanding profession.

    Remembering Al Hawkes and Event Records

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2024 49:48


    Nathan D. Gibson; Recorded July 16, 2024 - In the late 1950s, Maine was home to one of the most dynamic and exciting recording studios and record labels in the country—Event Records. Co-founded by Al Hawkes and Richard Greeley in 1956, the label recorded bluegrass pioneers (The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover), rockabilly icons (Ricky Coyne and Curtis Johnson), country music legends (Dick Curless, Hal "Lone" Pine, Charlie Bailey), instrumental wizards (Lenny Breau), and many more. Country music researcher and audio archivist Nathan Gibson befriended Hawkes in 2006 and the two spent countless hours playing music together and talking about bluegrass in Maine, record collecting, audio engineering, and Moxie soda. In this presentation, Gibson shared a few of his insights into Event Records and the music of Al Hawkes based on his personal interviews and country music collections.

    Queer Voices in American Music

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2024 48:19


    Nadine Hubbs; Recorded May 29, 2024 - America ushered in twentieth-century modernity with new technologies, aesthetics, and national status as a global power. With the rise in economic and political standing came new cultural pressures: American concert music was deemed far behind its European counterparts and in urgent need of catching up. Years of searching failed to identify a representative compositional voice. Then in 1939 came the sensational New York premiere of Aaron Copland's “cowboy ballet,” Billy the Kid, soon followed by Rodeo, Appalachian Spring, and other megahits. America found its national sound in the music of Copland, a gay Jewish Brooklynite and one of a close-knit group of gay composers who crucially influenced and collaborated with each other. How did a circle of gay composers become architects of American national identity during the most homophobic period in U.S. history? Nadine Hubbs's answer may surprise you.

    From Exclusion to Inclusion: Chinese in New England, 1798-present

    Play Episode Listen Later May 20, 2024 60:35


    York Lo; Recorded February 1, 2024 - York Lo retraced the footsteps of Chinese in the New England area over the past two centuries —from the first known Chinese immigrant to the recent election of Michelle Wu as the first Asian and female mayor of Boston. Highlights of this talk included the story of the first known Chinese immigrant in the area and his connection to a famous painting at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, a racist incident in Boston Chinatown that later led to the biggest anti-American boycott in China, Chinese soldiers from the area who have served the country from the Civil War to WWII, and the story of the accidental politician who became the first Asian mayor in the Boston area (and it's not Michelle Wu) and many more stories of triumphs and tribulations.

    Maine and the West Indies Trade

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2024 61:17


    Seth Goldstein; Recorded February 22, 2024 - Historian Seth Goldstein discussed the economic ties between Maine and the luxury-producing plantations of the West Indies and explored the various commodities, such as lumber, draft animals, and salt cod, that Maine supplied to West Indian plantations. Concurrently, enslaved Africans in the Caribbean labored in horrific conditions to produce sugar, molasses, rum, and other goods that were consumed in Maine. Seth explained how the West Indies Trade was significant to the forced migration of enslaved Africans to Northern New England and how the West Indies Trade left a lasting mark on the city of Portland and the state of Maine.

    "Sweet and Beautiful Souls: Longfellow and the Concord Writers" with Richard Smith

    Play Episode Listen Later May 12, 2024 51:39


    Recorded March 27, 2024 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was the most popular and successful poet of his day. Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts he was a member of the literati that made Boston the literary hub of the country; Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and John Greenleaf Whittier were all Longfellow friends or associates. But 20 miles west of Boston was a small town filled with its own poets, writers and philosophers. Concord, Massachusetts was home to not only Ralph Waldo Emerson, but Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the Alcott family; they too all had a deep friendship or close association with Longfellow. Concord public historian Richard Smith explored the friendships between Longfellow and the Concord writers in this talk, sharing his opinions about their lives and writings.

    "A Long, Long Time Ago: The Major Rock and Roll Concerts in Southern Maine, 1955-1977," a book talk with Ford Reiche

    Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2024 65:54


    Historian's Forum: the Maine economy since 1973, Part III

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2024 106:51


    Historian's Forum: the Maine economy since 1973, Part II

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2024 25:39


    Historian's Forum: the Maine economy since 1973, Part I

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2024 28:33


    Adapting to Sea Level Rise in Southern Maine's Historic Waterfront Communities *CODE RED SERIES*

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 27, 2023 55:42


    Tragic Betrayal: The Story of Robert Peary and Minik Wallace

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 25, 2023 52:18


    Spectulation Nation

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2023 57:19


    Bring Back the Pollinators

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2023 52:00


    Climate, Justice, and the Future of Maine's Environment

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2023 56:10


    "A Man to be Thankful for"? Louis Agassiz and His Contemporaries

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2023 51:27


    When the Island Had Fish, a book talk with Janna Malamud Smith

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2023 48:17


    Portland Maine: Connections Across Time, a book talk with Paul Ledman

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2023 60:59


    Wit and Wisdom, a book talk with Joan Radner

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2023 40:14


    Fishing for Solutions: Climate Change and the Seafood Industry

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2023 45:16


    Tales (and a Tail) in the Return of Elizabeth Oakes Smith to Literary History

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2023 69:48


    The Nation That Never Was

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2023 62:41


    Evangeline Reconsidered

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2023 42:06


    CODE RED: discussion with exhibit co-curators Tilly Laskey and Darren Ranco

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2023 55:44


    FINAL MISSION The North Woods

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2023 44:52


    The Unwilling Architects Initiative: Interpreting Untold Stories in a Small Historic House Museum

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2023 40:33


    Victoria Mansion

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2022 45:52


    Looming Trends: 18th-Century Patterned Silks in New England

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2022 50:17


    Only the Clothes on Her Back: Clothing and the Hidden History of Power in the 19th-Century United States

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2022 48:48


    Songs of Ships and Sailors

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 26, 2022 63:34


    American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2022 44:33


    Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2022 61:18


    Peaks Island: Past and Present

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2022 40:01


    Whence these stories? History in Longfellow's Poetry

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2022 68:34


    Green Acre: An "Experiment" in Eliot, Maine in the 1890s and Beyond

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2021 58:42


    The Unlikeliness of It All, Part 1: An Insider's Perspective: A Small Maine Town's History of Resilience, Transformation, Collaboration, Immigration, and its Global Singularity

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2021 49:22


    Trans & Nonbinary Adventures in 19th century New England

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2021 53:51


    A Man, A Horse-Drawn Wagon, and a Moving Panorama: The Travels of L. E. Emerson

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2021 51:29


    The Wreck of the Steamship Portland: Rediscovering the Titanic of New England

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 7, 2021 73:50


    "All Power is Inherent in the People:" A Discussion of Maine Voting Rights

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2021 38:38


    Bigfoot in Maine

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2021 39:25


    The Atlantic Black Box Project

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2021 67:17


    Ghosts of Pineland

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2021 36:20


    Who Gets To Tell Story?

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2021 39:41


    Longfellow and the Occult

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 30, 2021 38:11


    The Know-Nothings Menace: When Hate, Fear, and Prejudice Ruled Maine and America

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2021 54:40


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