Events at Member Institutions

Come for a ride through 150 years of history in Waldo County.  Chartered in 1867, the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad has survived two world wars, the construction of highways, the collapse of the poultry industry in Waldo County and survives today as a tourist railroad and historic relic of days gone by.  This presentation by author and railroad historian Joey Kelley outlines the history of this unique railroad and gives you a summary of his book on the subject - the very first book ever written on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad.

Our speaker, Joseph T. “Joey” Kelley, is a railroad historian, photographer and volunteer with the Brooks Preservation Society.  He has been involved with the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad on and off since 2004 and was once a paid employee of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad Preservation Society.  His other passions include photography, motorcycles and restoring antique equipment.

The Kennebec Historical Society January Presentation is co-sponsored by the Maine State Library and free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, January 24, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. at the Maine State Library located at 230 State Street in Augusta. ​  

It’s Christmas at the historic Tate House Museum and we’d like to invite you to join us for the sights, sounds, and tastes as we celebrate the season, Colonial style. Captain George Tate, his wife Mary, and their friends celebrated with much food and drink, music, and games. It was a joyous, bright spot in what could turn out to be a long, cold winter, and the Tate family and their friends made the most of it! Come and see how an affluent mast agent’s family may have celebrated the holidays in the 18^th century.Our docents donned in period attire will introduce you to the prevailing traditions and customs of the time as you make your way through the Tate’s 1755 home. Why did the Tates celebrate Christmas while many of their neighbors did not? How did decorations differ from those of today? What types of food and drink would be served? What kind of games and gifts might the children have enjoyed? What is Boxing Day all about? Please join us for this special house tour of the only pre-Revolutionary home in Greater Portland open to the public on Saturday, December 9 and Sunday, December 10 beginning at noon. The last tour will leave at 3:30 PM. Once you’ve completed your tour, you are invited to take some refreshment in the parlor of the Means House across the street. Admission is $15 for Adults and Seniors and $10 for children under 12. Tickets can also be purchased through

Eventbrite at  https://www.eventbrite.com/o/tate-house-museum-8364593136

For more information contact:

Betty Janus

Tate House Museum

1267 Westbrook Street

Portland, ME 04012

774-6177

info@tatehouse.org

www.tatehouse.org

It’s Christmas at the historic Tate House Museum and we’d like to invite you to join us for the sights, sounds, and tastes as we celebrate the season, Colonial style. Captain George Tate, his wife Mary, and their friends celebrated with much food and drink, music, and games. It was a joyous, bright spot in what could turn out to be a long, cold winter, and the Tate family and their friends made the most of it! Come and see how an affluent mast agent’s family may have celebrated the holidays in the 18^th century.Docents donned in period attire will introduce you to the prevailing traditions and customs of the time as you make your way through the Tate’s 1755 home. Why did the Tates celebrate Christmas while many of their neighbors did not? How did decorations differ from those of today? What types of food and drink would be served? What kind of games and gifts might the children have enjoyed? What is Boxing Day all about? Please join us for this special house tour of the only pre-Revolutionary home in Greater Portland open to the public on Saturday, December 9 and Sunday, December 10 beginning at noon. The last tour will leave at 3:30 PM. Once you’ve completed your tour, you are invited to take some refreshment in the parlor of the Means House across the street. Admission is $15 for Adults and Seniors and $10 for children under 12. Tickets can also be purchased through

Eventbrite at  https://www.eventbrite.com/o/tate-house-museum-8364593136

For more information contact:

Betty Janus

Tate House Museum

1267 Westbrook Street

Portland, ME 04012

774-6177

info@tatehouse.org

www.tatehouse.org

Please join us Wednesday, November 15th as Chuck Rand, professional archivist and Old Bristol Historical Society Co-President, discusses the proper care and handling of personal family documents and photos. His talk will focus on the factors that cause deterioration and will offer specific suggestions and materials to help you prolong the life of your family treasures.

Chuck Rand began his professional life as an historical archaeologist in the summer of 1972 following his first year as an undergraduate studying anthropology/archaeology at the University of Maine.  After acquiring an M.A. in history, he moved to the Washington, DC area and became affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and its National Museum of American History where his duties included collections management and photography.

Mr. Rand obtained an M.L.S. from the University of Maryland and moved to Oklahoma where he held a number of positions related to information services including Curator of the Political Commercial Archive at the University of Oklahoma.  His tenure as Director of the Dickinson Research Center at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum was rewarding and enabled him to employ all the skills and abilities he had developed to that point and some, such as oral history interviewing, videography and video-editing, that he learned and developed on the job.

The Kennebec Historical Society November Presentation is free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, November 15, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. at the South Parish Congregational Church located at 9 Church Street in Augusta. ​  

On November 7th at 6:30PM the Tate House Museum will be presenting a lecture and workshop with Beth Maitland on the art of English Paper Piecing. For those interested in quilting or fabric artistry this is a time-honored technique dating back to the first quarter of the 18^th century. It’s a wonderfully simple method for constructing intricate quilts with lots of perfectly matched points. It’s completely done by hand and can be assembled in modular units so you can take it with you.

Beth is a member of the Pine Tree Quilters Guild and an award winning teacher of quilting. Her series of workshops, lectures, and demonstrations are designed to focus on creativity and individual design. Her light-hearted and engaging approach allows quilters of all levels to actively utilize their innate creativity.

This lecture is part of the Tate House Museum Summer Lecture Series. Reservations are suggested by calling 774-6177 or emailing info@tatehouse.org. Tickets are $12 ($10 for members).

Contact:

Betty Janus

Tate House Museum

1267 Westbrook Street

Portland ME 04102

The Tate House Museum is hosting cemetery tours of the 18^th Century Stroudwater Burial Ground on Saturday October 21^nd from 12-4 PM. Hear from the ghostly apparitions themselves as they talk about the joys and hardships of colonial life as they knew it. These are the people who shared life in Stroudwater with George and Mary Tate. Gather up your friends and family and get ready for a tour that is a little bit spooky and a little bit educational. An afternoon of ghostly fun and entertainment awaits visitors.

Ticket prices are $12.00 for adults and $6.00 for children 12 and under. Tickets and a “Home Made Pie Sale” will be available at the Tate House gift shop, 1267 Westbrook Street, Portland, ME.

For More Information Contact:

Betty Janus

Tate House Museum

1267 Westbrook Street

Portland, Maine

207-774-6177

www.tatehouse.org

On October 10^th at 6:30 PM the Tate House Museum will be hosting Susan McLellan Plaisted as she presents a lecture and demonstration entitled “An 18^th Century Bill of Fare”. Seasonality was the key word in what was placed on the 18^th century table much as it is today.

This program will take the audience through bread baking, cheese making, beer making processes and symmetrically appointed dining experiences. Susan will be sharing these processes and tying them in to the Tate House kitchen. This is a lecture which will be of interest to students of 18^th century foodways and history.

Susan McLellan Plaisted is the proprietress of Heart to Hearth Cookery, a food history business based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and has conducted hands-on-workshops and classes for both children and adults at many historic sites and museums in the Delaware Valley and beyond. She is also the director of foodways at Pennsbury Manor, the recreated 1680 home of Pennsylvania’s founder, William Penn.

This lecture is part of the Tate House’s Summer Lecture Series and is being held at the Mean’s House at 1267 Westbrook Street Portland. The fee for admission is $12 or $10 for members and docents. Please call 774-6177 or email info@tatehouse.org for reservations as space is limited.

FMI: Betty Janus

Tate House Museum

1267 Westbrook Street

Portland ME 04102

207-774-6177

info@tatehouse.org

John H. Twomey will speak about his recent book, Retiring To, Not From -- From Massachusetts Professor to Maine Farmer.  The discussion will encompass many aspects of life on his farm and his comments will be accompanied by a slide presentation.  John and his partner Leigh Norcott live off grid in a 19^th century Maine farmhouse.  They raise vegetables, fruits, chickens and brook trout, and enjoy hiking and cross-country skiing on the many trails on the farm.  Indeed, their lives include many aspects of life from the 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st centuries.  John and Leigh live quietly and very much in touch with the natural world that surrounds them.  Since 1978 John has worked on maintaining and improving wildlife habitat on the farm’s 125 acres.  He will discuss these efforts, focusing attention on his work in the fields, brushy areas, and woodlands.  

After 37 years as a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, John retired in 2009 and moved, with his partner Leigh Norcott, to Montville, Maine. There they live simply and deliberately on the farm that John has owned since 1978.  The farm operates on solar power, completely off grid, and John and Leigh work together as they produce almost all of their own food, and all of their own firewood.  An avid naturalist, John has for years worked to maintain and improve the wildlife habitat on the farm.  He does so by carefully scheduling the mowing of his fields and brushy areas, by planting, transplanting, grafting, and pruning hundreds of apple trees, and by planting thousands of white and chestnut oaks.  Having seen farms sold and developed in his hometowns in Connecticut and Massachusetts, John long ago set his sights on owning and nurturing an old New England farm, a traditional home place. He has accomplished that and intends to permanently protect his Montville farm.

The Kennebec Historical Society September Presentation is co-sponsored by the Maine State Library and free to the public (donations gladly accepted).  The presentation will take place on Wednesday, September 20, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. at the Maine State Library, located at 230 State Street in Augusta. ​ The program will be preceded at 4:30pm by a potluck supper and at 6pm by the society’s annual meeting and election of officers and directors.

The Union Meeting House is on the National Register of Historic Places primarily because of the famous well preserved trompe l’oeil murals by Charles Schumacher of Portland, done in 1866-68.  The building was built in 1827-28 and is said to be one of the oldest brick churches in Maine.  The presentation will focus on the murals and discuss steps being taken to preserve this historic, artistic and cultural landmark.

Our speaker, Marius B. Peladeau, is the President of the Union Meeting House, director emeritus of the Farnsworth Art Museum, former executive director of the Theater at Monmouth, former exhibition curator at the L.C. Bates Museum, former director of the Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums.  He was an accredited White House correspondent and press secretary to a U.S. Congressman.  Marius also holds B.A., M.S., and M.A. degrees and is the author of six books on art, history and culture.

The Kennebec Historical Society August Presentation is co-sponsored by the Lithgow Public Library and free to the public (donations gladly accepted).  The presentation will take place on Wednesday, August 16, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. at the Lithgow Public Library, located at 45 Winthrop Street in Augusta. ​  

This visual slideshow explores the “herstories” of Penobscot Bay women and daughters who went to sea in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Despite the old sailors' superstition that women at sea were unlucky, the women accompanied their fathers and husbands on cargo voyages around the world. Some were literally born into the profession and others joined their love ones with initial trepidation. Using letters, manuscripts and newspaper articles from the Penobscot Marine Museum archives and objects from the collection, we will learn about their experiences at sea.

Cipperly Good, Collections Manager and Curator at Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, spent her early museum career just upriver at the L.C. Bates Museum and returned to Maine full-time in 2010 to take her current job at Penobscot Marine Museum. She holds a Masters of Arts in Museum Studies from The George Washington University and is a graduate of Colby College. She regularly presents to senior colleges, public libraries, historical societies, and other historical groups.

The Kennebec Historical Society July Presentation is free to the public (donations gladly accepted) and will take place on Wednesday, July 19, 2017, at 6:30 p.m. at the Hope Baptist Church, located at 726 Western Avenue in Manchester. ​