Events at Member Institutions

A POP Studies program from Penobscot Marine Museum

Instructors, Kevin Johnson, Photo Archivist and Matt Wheeler, Digital Collections Curator

In this day and age, everyone has their own photography archive—typically made up of photos they have taken or acquired throughout their lives. These may include family albums, boxes of prints, negatives and slides, and digital photographs taken with cameras or phones. Managing a mass of images can be a daunting task. This course will offer tips and suggestions on how to organize your archive, find what you are looking for in it, and be prepared to pass it on to the next generation.

Topics Covered:

• Organizing and archivally storing your physical photographs, negatives & albums
• Organizing your digital photos on your computer and setting up a digital archive
• Naming and/or numbering your files, understanding metadata and creating a basic finding aid

Program Benefits:

• Learn how and where to store your physical photographic materials
• Set up a digital archive on your computer where all your digital photos can be stored AND found later
• Leave an archive for your heirs that will be useful, helpful and organized.

Target Audience:

• Museum professionals
• Historical society staff or volunteers
• Schools
• Libraries
• Community Members

Experience Level: Appropriate for both Novice and Intermediate

• Novice - Has minimal or textbook knowledge without connecting it to the practice
• Intermediate - Has basic knowledge of key aspects of the practice

Program Fee: $60 (MAM members receive 20% discount with code MAM20)

Contact Hours: 2

Delivery: Lecture/Hands on

Dates and Locations (choose one):

Friday, Feb 6, 2026
10:00am – 12:00pm
Remote via Zoom

Friday, June 5, 2026
10:00am – 12:00pm
Off Campus, Belfast Free Library

Contact: For more information, please contact Shelly Patten, Office Manager at 207-548-2529 or spatten@pmm-maine.org

This is a POP Studies program from the Penobscot Marine Museum.

Register: https://form.jotform.com/250435068978064

About the Instructors:

Kevin Johnson, Photo Archivist

kjohnson@pmm-maine.org

Kevin Johnson earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s University and a Professional Certificate in Photography from the Maine Photographic Workshops. Kevin has served as the Photo Archivist at PMM since 2007 and has grown the Museum’s collection to more than 500,000 photographs. Since joining PMM, he has curated or co-curated more than 30 photography exhibits. He is the co-author of Maine on Glass: The Early Twentieth Century in Glass Plate Photography, author of the forthcoming Boothbay Now and Then, and is a regular contributor to several area publications. Kevin was a co-founder and co-owner of Aarhus Gallery in Belfast. He occasionally finds time to pursue his personal photography.

Matt Wheeler, Digital Curator

mwheeler@pmm-maine.org

Matt Wheeler serves as the Digital Curator at PMM and has been working in the Museum's Photo Archives since 2011. His educational experience includes coursework in digital curation from University of Maine, Orono, as well as ongoing professional development in evolving standards of best practices in the industry. He guides PMM in building sound digital collections with an eye to accessibility and sustainability. Matt grew up in Camden and Lincolnville, living on and appreciating Penobscot Bay and enjoys engaging audiences in the digital age with stories of Penobscot Bay's cultural heritage. His personal photography explores the rich natural settings of the region.

Visit With Some Useful Citizens at the North Cemetery in Skowhegan

Take a guided walk with Historian Melvin Burnham

Thursday, July 10, 2025 | 10:00am - 11:30am

New England’s graveyards have changed over time. Those most familiar to us today were based on styles carried to the continent by our early European ancestors. Skowhegan’s North Cemetery, like most burial grounds, serves as an outdoor museum full of history, art, religious representations all telling stories of lives well-lived, times of disease, war, and trying conditions within a community. The stones become permanent records of those interred and act as a form of textbook of community history.

Louise Helen Coburn describes the cemetery in her two-volume history of Skowhegan, Skowhegan on the Kennebec, “The cemetery is retired from the street, and is half circled at the rear by woods and the gorge of a little stream. It has been the resting-place of Hills, Philbricks, Dyers, Neils, and other village families, and holds in its keeping Revolutionary and Civil War graves.”

This history walk explores the lives of some of those “Useful Citizens” who are buried at the North Cemetery, lives that helped shape our community. As participants travel back in time, discussions will also focus on veterans and their experiences in our history, gravestone and monument design, and the various symbols used on the stones, as well as the history of this 1820’s cemetery. Former generations have much to say to us, although with great economy of words because each letter and ornament had to be chiseled in stone with hand tools.

This ninety-minute walk begins and ends at the North Cemetery gate located behind Walton Court Apartments on Walton Court just off Madison Avenue in Skowhegan, Maine.

Participants should be prepared to walk on uneven ground and to stand during periods of discussion. Light folding chairs and cameras are welcome.

This walk is not appropriate for young children.

Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center will open after the cemetery walk. Stop by for a guided tour of the historic house and to see the latest exhibition, "Living Legacy: Remembering Louise Helen Coburn".  History House is located at 66 Elm Street, Skowhegan. 

FMI: www.skowheganhistoryhouse.org

The Canton Historical Society Hosts its 50th Anniversary Celebration! 

Date/time: Saturday, July 26, 2025, 10 am - 7:30 pm

Where:  25 Turner Street, Canton, Maine

About the event:  Join us at the Canton Historical Society to view new exhibits including "Canton's History Through Maps."  Enjoy a quilt show featuring historical quilts.  Hear a talk about portrait artist Mary Neal Richardson and view many of her works on exhibit. Stay for the outdoor 70s party by the Gazebo from 4-7:30 pm. All are welcome!

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Complete Details:

The museum will open 10:00 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. for visitors to explore the collections, including new exhibits featuring maps of Canton through history and the paintings of Mary Neal Richardson—a renowned portrait artist from Canton in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. There will also be a quilt show featuring historical quilts from the collections of both the Canton and Jay Historical Societies.

2 p.m., A Talk by Frederic L. Thompson, author of  Mary Neal Richardson: A Universalist Esthetic & Cosmic Interpreter, 1859-1937

4 - 7:30 pm -  Join us for a party on the lawn.  Cash bar by Boondocks Farm’s Backwoods Affair and food for purchase by Alabama’s BBQ’s Phat Vinnie’s Food Truck.  Both vendors accept cash or credit.  Those wishing to have alcoholic beverages will be asked to provide identification—and please, no outside beverages.

70s Party Theme: Because our society was founded in 1975, we urge everyone to wear their 1970s garb!  Think tie-dye, denim, disco, bell bottoms, miniskirts, maxi dresses, hippy-style, and “flower power.”

Each attendee will receive a 50^th Anniversary souvenir gift (while supplies last), PLUS a slice of cake following the cake cutting!  The Country Store will be open featuring local crafts and Maine themed gifts.

Admission is FREE.  All ages are welcome, and the events are open to the public.  The venue is handicap accessible.  Parking is curbside or at the Public Boat Launch around the corner.  If it rains the party will be moved inside.

The Canton Historical Society is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization devoted to the preservation and celebration of Canton’s heritage and history.

If you would like more information about this event, please email cantonmehistorical@gmail.com, or go to www.cantonmehistory.org or the “Canton Maine Historical Society” Facebook page.

Tate House Museum is hosting a Community Day when complimentary tours will be offered at 10 am, 11 am, and 12 noon (three tours, every hour on the hour, last one at 12 noon) followed by a special Continental flag raising at 1 pm. This flag will be flown at our Visitors Center for the season to commemorate the beginning of the American Revolution. As a colonial-era museum, Tate House traditionally flies the historical colonial flag--the British Red Ensign. This temporary change in practice is to mark and remember the historical events that occurred 250 years ago and led to the founding of our country. This Community Day will include tours of our 18 th century garden and refreshments for visitors. And, our unique Gift Shop will be open. Please join us to find out what we do!

Tate House is the only pre-Revolutionary museum in the greater Portland area and offers a unique experience of life in 18 th century Maine. At the historic home of Mary and George Tate, who was a mast agent for the Crown, docents describe how New England forests fueled colonial industry, strengthened the British Royal Navy, and sparked rebellion. We are open for guided tours through mid-October. For details, to purchase tickets, and for information about upcoming programs, visit our website at tatehouse.org.

FMI: Director Holly K. Hurd

Tate House Museum

1267 Westbrook Street

Portland, ME 04102

hkhurd@tatehouse.org

The Kennebec Historical Society will be having a gently used book sale in the driveway and the garage at the society’s headquarters, 107 Winthrop Street in Augusta on Thursday, May 29, Friday, May 30, and Saturday May 31 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.  The society has received many hardcover and paperback book donations. Subjects include fiction, biography, history, travel, business, children's, cookbooks, and much more!

Hardcover books are $2.00 each, and paperbacks are $1.00. There will also be a table of specialty books and books signed by the author which will be priced as marked. For more information, call (207) 622-7718.

From 1919 to 1921, Augusta was home to a movie production company founded by Edgar Jones and local businessmen. His goal was to make “North Woods” films. He chose the Augusta area because of the Kennebec River, surrounding lakes and forestland, and its four seasons. Jones brought in a company of actors and a film crew, who all lived together at 129 Sewall Street. Jones used locals as extras in the films. The films premiered at the Colonial Theater in Augusta.

Jones worked with local writer Holman Day to adapt many of Day’s stories for the films. In 1921 Day and local businessmen took over the company, ousting Jones. Day soon bankrupted the company.

Six of the dozens of two-reel films from this era are known to survive. Four are archived at the Library of Congress in various collections, and British Film Institute donated a pair to Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport. Digital scans of the original 35-millimeter films, with new music scores added, were screened in June 2023 at the Colonial.

KHS presenter Ed Lorusso previously showed four of the films, Caught in the Rapids and Cupid, Registered Guide, back in August 2024 and Border River and A Knight of the Pines in November 2024.  At this presentation, he will show two different films, Brother of the Bear and My Lady O’ the Pines, roughly 25 minutes each.  As before, Lorusso will provide commentary, then answer questions after the viewing.

Lorusso has been restoring silent films since he retired. Six of his projects have been licensed by Turner Classic Movies, including The Enchanted Cottage (1924), which aired in late September. His projects have been screened at various theaters and silent film festivals across the country. He’s also the author of The Silent Films of Marion Davies and is working on a book about filmmaking in Maine during the silent era.

The Kennebec Historical Society presentation is free to the public (donations are gladly accepted) and will take place at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 18, at Augusta City Center, located at 16 Cony Street in Augusta.  If you have questions about the program, call Scott Wood, executive director, at 622-7718.

Saturday, October 18, 10:00 am (rain date: October 25)  and repeated on Sunday, October 19, 10:00 am (rain date: October 26)

Join Georgia Zildjian and Lisa Lutts for a tour of the Castine Town Cemetery focusing on the lives of Castine residents. This event is co-sponsored by Castine Historical Society and the Wilson Museum. Participants are encouraged to wear sturdy shoes and to expect uneven terrain. Reservations are required and limited to 15. For details and to register visit castinehistoricalsociety.org

Thursday, September 4, 7:00 pm, Mitchell Room, Castine Historical Society, 17 School Street, Castine.

Dr. Liam Riordon, Professor of History at the University of Maine, will speak on the Declaration of Independence’s meaning and political ideals in relation to US public life today.  Reservations required for in-person attendance. Visit castinehistoricalsociety.org for more details, to register for attendance, or to get the YouTube link to watch remotely.

Thursday, August 21, 4-6 pm.

The CHS Annual Meeting, open to the public, is held at the Castine Inn and is followed by a social hour.  No reservations required to attend in-person.  Visit castinehistoricalsociety.org for YouTube link to watch remotely.

Presented by Castine Historical Society, Wednesday, August 16, 7:00 pm, Delano Auditorium, Leavitt Hall, Maine Maritime Academy, Castine. 

James Eric Francis Sr, the Penobscot Nation's Director of Cultural and Historic Preservation and Tribal Historian, will speak on "Penobscot Sense of Place". No reservations required to attend in-person. Visit castinehistoricalsociety.org for the YouTube link to watch remotely.