In August 2005, this newsletter reported on a pilot program called History Camp. This program for high school students has proved so successful that this summer there will be three camps instead of just one.
Each week-long day camp explores an issue or period in U.S. history through the biography of an important Maine figure. The programs are designed to expose students to sites and archives relevant to the life in question. Speakers include practicing historians and avid amateurs.
Students are selected for the program by teacher participants in the Council’s “American Lives: Teaching History Through Biography” seminars, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Indeed, while History Camp is overseen by Charles Calhoun, who directs all of the Council’s programs for teachers, it was the brainchild of one early seminar participant, Topsham history teacher Dennis Edmondson.
For the first time this year, one camp program will be held in Augusta, with cooperation from the Maine State Library. Like last year’s camp at Bowdoin College, the topic will be how Margaret Chase Smith’s personality and background led her to become the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, where she challenged Senator McCarthy’s hegemony in her famous “Declaration of Conscience” speech. Students will take a field trip to the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan.
The remaining two camps will be held at Bowdoin College. One will be modeled after the pilot program on Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Students will once again visit the Joshua Chamberlain Museum in Brunswick, discuss the making of an historical “hero,” and assess the role that the Civil War played in Chamberlain’s rise to fame. The other camp, still in the planning stages, will focus on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
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Save the Date: October 5-8, 2007
We are excited to announce a bus tour of the Kennebec Chaudière Heritage Corridor, the historic route along the Kennebec River from the tidewaters of Bath to the Beauce Region of Québec. The corridor was used for centuries by Native Americans, revolutionaries (including Benedict Arnold), traders and immigrants. This tour will bring to life the history and contemporary culture of the Corridor, which marks its 400th anniversary in 2007. If you are interested, please call to make sure you are notified of further details and registration opportunities. The tour is made possible in part by support from the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Events are listed in two places on the MHC website: as part of the map of MHC activities and a Calendar of Events, which you may sort by county and date. We’re very pleased to have this new feature on our site and encourage you to use it.
We are still working out some of the details of these pages, so, for now, grant-funded events are available only through this link.
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This year’s Letters About Literature contest, presented nationwide by the Library of Congress and in Maine by the Maine Humanities Council, has brought in over 1,000 entries in this state-a new record. Students from grades 5 through 12 submit letters to authors, living or dead, discussing the impact of a book on their personal lives. The profundity of these letters shows how well Maine students can approach complicated issues in literature, and also how creative they are. Last year, one of the national Letters About Literature winners was Maine’s Lacie Craven, who won not only a trip to Washington, D.C., with her family but also the recognition on a national level that her talent deserved.
Starting in 2007, Letters About Literature in Maine will be supported by the David Royte Fund, which was established by Royte’s children to honor his belief in philanthropy and the greater good. An active community member who served on the Council’s board in the 1980s, Royte formed the Council’s first Development Committee and evaluated statewide grant proposals. The new fund that bears his name allows Maine students of all economic and educational backgrounds the opportunity to express themselves through writing about the books they love best.
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The March booklist from Born to Read is an early sign of spring: a collection of folktales, stories, and nonfiction books about eggs.
Back to the TopThe MHC recently awarded the following grants:
$1,000 to MSAD 55, Hiram, for Snapshots of Change: The Cornish Historical Mural Project
Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Cornish Elementary School will spend February and March researching local history through field trips and interviews with older residents. Based on their research, students will design and create a permanent mural for the school’s multipurpose room. They will be guided in this project by experienced educators, local historians at the Cornish Historical Society, and graphic artist Laurie Downey. A public presentation scheduled for April 26, 2007, will include the debut of a film about Cornish history and the unveiling of preparatory drawings for the mural. For details, please call the school at (207) 625-4393.
$500 to New Strategies for Youth, Belfast, for America Awakening
The Game Loft is a youth center in Belfast that provides a refuge from electronic games and entertainment. In January 2007, the center began a partnership with Belfast’s Senior College for a role-playing program called “America Awakening.” This interactive history lesson gives each participant a character from a different region and culture in the U.S. Participants use background reading and research to follow their characters from 1870 through 1945. A similar role-playing game called “Pax Britannica” began in March. For more information, call 338-6447 or visit www.thegameloft.org.
$500 to Northeast Historic Film, Bucksport, for Digital Access in Community Context: Planning Public Access to 18 Years of Moving Image Review
Digital Access in Community Context is a planning grant for a humanities resource that will enhance public access to Northeast Historic Film’s collection of historic moving images. The public access point will be 36 issues of Moving Image Review, a journal that chronicles the origins, significance, and ongoing relevance of old films. The journal contents will be digitized, professionally indexed, and cross-referenced with existing online resources. Organizations such as the Maine Memory Network and MaineLearns.org are already involved, and a public forum on digital moving images resources in July will bring historians and other content providers to the table. For examples of Moving Image Review content, please visit www.oldfilm.org and click on Educational Resources; to learn more, call (207) 469-0924.
$500 to Coastal Senior College, Thomaston, for John Syrett Distinguished Lecture Series
On July 12, 2007, Coastal Senior College presents Mahmud Faksh, professor of political science at the University of Southern Maine, at Rockland Town Hall, starting at 7 pm. Dr. Faksh will speak on U.S./Middle East relations as part of the John Syrett Distinguished Lecture Series, held each year in honor of a beloved volunteer professor for Coastal Senior College. For more information, please call (800) 286-1594.
Lizz Sinclair, Program Officer for Literature & Medicine, writes: I am an ardent reader of short stories, and one of my favorite collections is Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen. This collection, particularly the title story, is a core reading in our Literature & Medicine program. Olsen’s stories powerfully explore aging, poverty, love, end-of-life issues, and the complexity of relationships. Her characters and the worlds they inhabit are painfully and artfully portrayed.
The title story explores the life of an elderly Russian immigrant. Never do we learn her actual name: her husband calls her “bitter woman” and “Mrs. Unpleasant;” to her children she is “mother.” Through glimpses of her earlier life, we learn that she has sacrificed a large part of herself to the stifling effects of poverty, a difficult marriage, and the demands of motherhood. Her rich interior life is evident to readers, but it’s a riddle to her family. The story has raised many important questions for Literature & Medicine groups. What constitutes a good life, death, or marriage? What does it mean to love? How do we reconcile the life we dream of with the reality we live? What sacrifices must we make in life, and how do we remain true to who we are? How do we care for people who may not be forthcoming about their situations or needs?
What makes Tillie Olsen such a wonderful writer is the reverence she shows for ordinary people, suggesting the extraordinary nature submerged in each of us. She adds no artificially rosy gloss to life, but her stories and characters are not without dignity, love, and hope—even amidst very real struggles. In that sense, Olsen captures the fullness, complexity, and beauty of what it is to be human.
Back to the Top“The teachers weren’t reading off notes or just making a speech. They all really knew the subjects that they talked about. And they understood that we had ideas to express, too. We could contribute to our own learning.”
—from a student participant in History Camp
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Thank you to our current members. Your support helps to make Maine Humanities Council programs like the ones detailed in this newsletter possible. If you are not a member but would like to make a gift you may do so online.
Notes from an Open Book welcomes feedback from its readers. Please contact guest editor Brita Zitin by email at brita@mainehumanities.org or by phone at (207)773-5051 ext. 211 (toll-free 1-866-637-3233, ext. 211) to respond.