Past Exhibits

Past Exhibits at the Bethel Historical Society

Molly Ockett and Her World

July 17, 2004 through May 26, 2007 — Robinson House

Making use of photographs, artifacts, paintings, and written text, this exhibit told the story of Molly Ockett, an Abenaki Indian, and the world in which she resided from her birth around 1740 to her death in 1816. Molly Ockett lived among the white settlers of such towns as Bethel, Andover, Fryeburg, and Paris during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. She is honored annually at Bethel's "Molly Ockett Day" celebration, and her name is connected with numerous geographic landmarks, business ventures, and community organizations. Since her death, Molly Ockett has become a legendary figure, the subject of fireside story-telling, of school pageants, and of popular magazine articles. The "Indian mystique," complete with romance, curses, buried treasures, and near-miraculous cures, has insured Molly Ockett's place in the consciousness of the region. But what of the real Molly Ockett? This exhibit at the Robinson House elevated Molly Ockett from the realm of myth and legend to the status of a documented personage in the colonial history of the Bethel area and the White Mountain region of Maine and New Hampshire. Funding for this exhibition was provided by the Molly Ockett Chapter DAR and the Maine State Organization Daughters of the American Revolution. To visit the online version of this exhibit, click here.

The Bethel Historical Society: Our First 40 Years
June 16 through December 31, 2006

On May 31, 1966, eighteen people gathered at the Bethel Library to organize the Bethel Historical Society. From that modest beginning, the Society has evolved into one of the most active historical organizations of its type in northern New England. "The Bethel Historical Society: Our First 40 Years" was a mini-exhibit installed in two large display cases on the first floor of the Dr. Moses Mason barn. The exhibit highlighted some of the Society's efforts over the past forty years to preserve the local and regional past through programs, exhibits, publications and research activities.

Cohen, Congress, and Controversy: Rediscovering Civics in the Archives
July 25 through September 22, 2006

Sponsored by the University of Maine's Fogler Library in Orono, and co-hosted by the Bethel and Gilead Historical Societies, this traveling exhibit was part of an outreach effort to raise public awareness about the William S. Cohen Papers. Cohen's donation of his papers to the Fogler Library comes on the leading edge of an effort to document the activities of Congress and the Executive Branch, allowing for a crucial public understanding of our nation's history. Born in Bangor, Maine, and educated at Bowdoin College and Boston University, Bill Cohen had a promising start in law and an avocation as a writer. His career in elective office lasted nearly 30 years, from his service in Bangor city government (1969-1972) through three terms each in the U.S. House of Representatives (1973-1978) and the U.S. senate (1979-1996). A Republican who distinguished himself during two constitutional crises—presidential impeachment in 1974 and the Iran-Contra investigations in 1987—Cohen saw himself as part of a tradition of independent-minded representatives from Maine. Retiring from the Senate in 1996, he was determined to return to private life, but accepted an appointment as Secretary of Defense in President Clinton's administration from 1997 to 2001. The proposed venues for the exhibit follow the route of Bill Cohen's campaign walk in 1972 from the New Hampshire border at Gilead, through Bethel, Rumford, Wilton, Lewiston, Skowhegan, Bangor, Millinockett, Houlton, and Caribou to Fort Kent.

Newry at 200: A Bicentennial Glimpse
July 5, 2005 through July 23, 2006

This exhibition celebrated the 200th anniversary of the incorporation of the Town of Newry, Maine, best known today as the home of the Sunday River Ski and Golf Resort. Located due north of Bethel, the mountainous community was settled in 1780 by Benjamin Barker of Methuen, Massachusetts, and Ithiel Smith of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. In 1796, Massachusetts sold some twenty-seven thousand acres here to Sarah Bostwick, a wealthy New Jersey widow and, until 1805, much of what is now Newry was known as the "Plantation of Bostwick." Farming, logging, and tourism became important in the nineteenth century, with winter recreation dominating the local economy by the late twentieth century. Newry-related photographs, postcards, paintings, and artifacts from the Society's collection were highlighted in this short-term exhibition at the Robinson House.

Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon

August 19 through October 22, 2005

Barns have become symbols of America. They represent tradition, family, hard work, self-sufficiency, and a wholesome lifestyle. Even as barns disappear from the rural landscape, they remain an enduring symbol of American life. Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon, an exhibition presented by the Maine Humanities Council, explored how these utilitarian agricultural structures have become icons. The exhibition was organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), the National Building Museum, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and made possible through the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Hearst Foundation. Additional funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution Special Exhibition Fund, and the Smithsonian Educational Outreach Fund. Barn Again! is a registered trademark owned by the Meredith Corporation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Bethel Historical Society was pleased to be one of only three sites in Maine that hosted this traveling exhibition in 2005.

Oxford County, 1805-2005

May 12 through August 14, 2005

This special summer exhibition honored the 200th anniversary of Oxford County, Maine, which was officially created by the Massachusetts legislature on March 4, 1805. Information about the three major bicentennial events (a trail ride from Beacon Hill to Paris Hill to reenact delivery of the original county documents, a grand celebration at Paris Hill on June 11, and a tour of the Bicentennial Quilt) was included, as well as artifacts and historic images highlighting the County's past. During the Society's annual Sudbury Canada Days celebration (August 12, 13 & 14), the Oxford County Bicentennial Quilt was on display. For information about the Oxford County Bicentennial as it happened, click here.

The mineral resources of Maine, and especially of the Oxford County area in the westernmost district of the State, have attracted public attention for nearly two centuries. Initially, collectors sought these wondrous products of nature for their appearance alone, but markets for the commercial use of such materials—including mica and feldspar—were eventually found. In 2001, the Bethel Historical Society received the gift of a sizable and representative collection of Maine mineral specimens collected over many years by local historian and author Stuart Martin of Rumford Point. A selection of over sixty of these specimens, many of which were mined from locations near Bethel (notably the towns of Newry, Stoneham and Rumford), were displayed in this exhibit on the second floor of the Society's Robinson House.

This traveling exhibit, funded in part by the National Community Forest Center, Northern Forest Region, explored the need for wood and woods in a modern, consumer-based society. Located in three gallery spaces on the second floor of the Society's Robinson House, this temporary exhibition featured numerous large scale paintings, drawings, and photographs, as well as forest-related artifacts, to reflect four hundred years of change in "Maine's woods." An interactive exhibit that conveyed the concerns of those living and working in a forested environment in transition, Middle Ground encouraged visitors to participate by sharing their opinions on how best to achieve balance between the desire for wood and woods.

Featuring over thirty examples of large-scale historic trade and advertising signs from the Society's permanent collection, this exhibition sought to demonstrate how signs play an important role in the activities of local businesses, organizations, and individuals by the ways they identify, direct, and decorate. All of the exhibited signs—dating from the 1840s through the 1980s—were accompanied by text describing their original purpose and location. In several instances, these labels also featured old photographs showing the displayed signs in situ. The historic signs allowed the past to speak to the present by reflecting changes in architecture, technology, and community character.

Begun in 1846 and completed between Portland, Maine, and Montreal in 1853, the first international railway in North America was the dream of John Alfred Poor of Andover, Maine. Besides providing an ice-free winter port for Montreal, the railroad had a profound effect on the economies of western and southern Maine (most especially Portland), northern New Hampshire, and northern Vermont. This exhibit celebrated the sesquicentennial of this important rail line, as well as the arrival of rail transportation to Bethel and the northern White Mountain region in 1851.

The exhibition brought attention to the distinctive and fragile ecology of the Pine Tree State. A collaborative project of the George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and Acadia National Park, this educational and provocative exhibition used examples of lesser-known plants and animals of Maine, which are either threatened or endangered, to highlight the complexity of saving species. At the same time, the displays celebrated Maine's unique biodiversity. The exhibit employed a variety of display concepts and media to create interactive, visually oriented exhibits that appealed to both children and adults.

In 1854, Dr. Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist, patented his new invention in the United States. That invention was kerosene—also known as "coal oil"—a thin oil distilled from petroleum. The availability of the new fuel was limited until the first dug oil well in Ontario (1858) and the first drilled well in Pennsylvania (1859) produced large quantities of oil. Soon thereafter, the new fuel received a wide distribution, and inventors and designers went into a frenzy of innovation as new burners, wicks, sockets, chimneys, fonts, sizes, shapes and uses proliferated. This exhibit presented a variety of interesting products of the Kerosene Era from the collection of Pat Stewart of Greenwood, Maine. Included were "Little Harry's Night Lamp," only three inches tall; beautiful miniature "Twinkle" lamps in cobalt and lavender; practical lamps used by barbers, photographers, policemen, and sailors; as well as attractive parlor lamps and regal banquet lamps. The exhibit also included a few examples of earlier and later oil lamps and lamp accessories.

Produced by the Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce as part of its "Celebration of Winter 2001," this exhibit highlighted the history of winter sports activities in western Maine and nearby northern New Hampshire. Area residents from the towns of Bethel, Newry, Rumford, Andover, and Greenwood loaned a collection of eclectic memorabilia for display, including antique skis, skates, toboggans, and sleds. Old photographs, brochures, letters, and posters (some dating back to the 1920s) were also featured, as were videos of local ski areas in the 1960s.

The White Mountain region of New Hampshire and Maine is unique for its combination of superb scenery, important historical associations, and easy accessibility to millions of people in the northeastern part of the United States. Beginning around 1820, artists began producing images of this "Switzerland of America" for public consumption. By the time of the Civil War, photographers were also becoming important propagators of the image of the White Mountains throughout the country. Featuring paintings, lithographs, engravings, maps, and large-scale photographs dating from the 1830s to the 1940s, this exhibit highlighted images created for both popular and refined consumption.

Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council and provided to the Bethel Historical Society by the L. C. Bates Museum at Hinckley, Maine, this exhibit explored the fascinating career of John Francis Sprague (1848-1926). Lawyer, legislator, environmentalist, writer and speaker, Sprague led Maine in the writing and publishing of state and local history in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Sprague's monument is his Sprague's Journal of Maine History, which he founded in 1913 and which provided an important outlet for the dissemination of writings about Maine's past until his death in 1926.

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