Maine Humanities Council

Donna Cassidy is Professor of American & New England Studies and Art History at the University of Southern Maine. Her most recent book, Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation, led to her current research on U.S. artists in Quebec and Atlantic Canada from 1890 to 1940. In this talk, co-sponsored by the Yarmouth and North Yarmouth historical societies, Cassidy descibes the travels of those artists in the region, and discusses the influence of the landscape and people on their work. (The images that accompanied the talk are protected by copyright, but searching any of the artists’ names in the Artcyclopedia or Google Images should yield some samples.)

This presentation took place in Yarmouth on June 15, 2009. Please leave your feedback below.

 

 Looking North [50:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (458)

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.

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 Landscapes of Poland Springs [51:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (536)

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.

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 Margaret Jane Mussey Sweat [37:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (297)

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 (271)

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 (577)