Maine Humanities Council

David Carey, Jr. is an associate professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Southern Maine. He holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University; his publications include Ojer taq tzijob’äl kichin ri Kaqchikela’ Winaqi’ (A History of the Kaqchikel People) (Q’anilsa Ediciones, 2004) and Engendering Mayan History: Mayan Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past, 1875-1970 (Routledge, 2006).Professor Carey is the second in our series of podcasts from our December, 2009 event: Cuban Exceptionalism: Reflections on Latin American History. This one day event examined the colonial history of Cuba, the Revolution and the post-revolution era of the region. Professor Carey’s lecture entitled Cuba and the United States, informs us on Portland’s important connection with Cuba at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Professor Carey’s lecture was part of the Cuban Exceptionalism symposium which took place on December 4, 2009 in the Albert Brenner Glickman Library at the University of Southern Maine.

 

 Cuba and the United States [15:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (156)

David Richards earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of New Hampshire. His research for the 2006 book Poland Spring: A Tale of the Gilded Age (University Press of New England) forms the basis of this presentation at the Yarmouth Historical Society. Richards is the assistant director of the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, Maine. He has also served as executive secretary of the Androscoggin Historical Society in Auburn, and curator of collections at the United Society of Shakers in New Gloucester.

We welcome your feedback on this podcast.

 

 Landscapes of Poland Springs [51:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (533)

The Blaine House is the Governor’s residence in Augusta, Maine. At the 175th anniversary celebration of this historic house on August 16, 2008, historian Jo Radner interviewed some of its former residents and staff.

Phyllis H. Siebert was the Blaine House chef from 1972 until her retirement in 2001. Cass Longley-Leahy is one of James B. Longley’s children. Governor Longley was in office from 1975 to 1979. Burton Cross served as Governor of Maine between 1953 and 1955. Margaret (Peggy) Gardiner’s father, William Tudor Gardiner, was the Governor of Maine from 1929 to 1933. Nancy Catlin is the great-granddaughter of Edwin Chick Burleigh, U.S. Senator (1913-1916) and Governor of Maine (1889-1893). Several other descendents of the Burleigh family—Mary J. O’Connor, Dr. Susan O’Connor, and Mari McGuire—joined her for this interview. Nicholas S. Sewall occupied the wartime Blaine House while his father, Sumner Sewall, served as the Governor of Maine between 1941 and 1945.

 

 Phyllis H. Siebert [26:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (92)

 

 Cass Longley-Leahy [10:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (93)

 

 Burton Cross [7:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (92)

 

 Margaret (Peggy) Gardiner [13:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (97)

 

 Nancy Catlin [5:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (98)

 

 Nicholas S. Sewall [9:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (210)

Connie Burns is a school librarian in South Portland with a hidden passion: the lives of Victorian women. In pursuit of her passion, Burns researched Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat (1823-1908) for her Master’s thesis in the American and New England Studies program at the University of Southern Maine. Sweat is best remembered for her bequest of the mansion that would become the Portland Museum of Art, but she was also a published author and an influential member of Portland’s elite during her life. Here, Burns reads from Sweat’s diary and letters (held in the Maine Women Writer’s Collection) and discusses her role in Victorian society.

We welcome your feedback on this Margaret Sweat podcast.

 

 Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat [37:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (294)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert P. Tristram Coffin (1892-1955) was a native Mainer, Bowdoin College graduate, and longtime Bowdoin faculty member. Though a popular writer and speaker in his time, his work is not widely known today. In this podcast episode, Kevin Belmonte, who recently completed a Master’s thesis on Coffin for the American and New England Studies program at the University of Southern Maine, considers why. In the process, he shares pieces of Coffin’s correspondence and, with permission from Coffin’s literary executor, reads three poems aloud. Kevin Belmonte is the author of William Wilberforce, A Hero for Humanity (Zondervan/HarperCollins, 2007), for which he received the John Pollock Award for Christian Biography, and has served as a script consultant for the BBC and PBS. He lives in York, Maine, where his family has resided since the 1630s.

Permission to read Coffin’s poems was granted by the Estate of Robert P. Tristram Coffin. Photo courtesy of Kevin Belmonte. We welcome your feedback on this Robert P. Tristram Coffin podcast.

 

 Robert P. Tristram Coffin [23:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (268)

For her doctoral dissertation in American history, scholar Mimi Killinger researched the life of homesteader and writer Helen Nearing. Her dissertation became the biography The Good Life of Helen K. Nearing (University of Vermont Press, 2007). Here, Killinger uncovers the roots of her project at the Good Life Center in Harborside, Maine, and reads excerpts from the biography. Killinger earned her Ph.D. from the University of Maine, where she is now Rezendes Preceptor for the Arts at the Honors College. The photo of Helen Nearing is courtesy of the Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods.

 

 The Good Life of Helen K. Nearing [44:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (574)