Home
Hours & Facilities
New & Noteworthy
Exhibits
House Museum
Research Library
Museum Shop
Membership
Calendar of Events
 |
* "Maine History: Varied and Vivid," our 2008 Lecture Series, is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council |
| 2008 |
|
| February 16 |
Heritage
Day Exhibit galleries, period rooms, and Museum Shop open at Robinson and Mason houses; craft demonstrations; historical videos; Indian pudding served from the hearth in the Mason House winter kitchen (admission to period rooms free to members; small fee for non-members); a special feature of this year's Heritage Day will be appraisals by local antique shop owner Jay Boschetti ($5 donation for up to two items). 1:00 to 4:00 PM |
| March 13 - April 10 |
Course: "Topics in New England History" This five-session course will offer a detailed discussion of several topics of major significance in New England history; these will include war, the poor, literature, political figures, and town characters. Sessions will be held at 7:30 PM on Thursdays, beginning March 13 and continuing through April 10. Society Executive Director Stanley R. Howe, who has lectured, written and published widely on New England history, will lead the course. He has taught history at several colleges and universities, served on graduate committees and possesses extensive experience as a facilitator for Maine, New Hampshire and New England Humanities Foundation programs. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Southern Maine, an M.A. in history from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maine. The course will be held at the Society’s O’Neil Robinson House at 10 Broad Street. |
| May 8* |
Lecture: "Benedict Arnold and Maine" by Thomas Desjardin, Ph.D., Historic Site Specialist, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands; 7:30 PM, Mason House Exhibit Hall |
| May 24 |
Faye Taylor Art Show This show will feature the art of students in Grades 1-6 in S.A.D. #44, plus a special display of artwork created by adults from the Bethel area. The Art Show theme for 2008 will be "It's All Relatives!" Each student who enters the show is requested to submit a finished painting in any medium (crayon, oils, tempera, watercolors, chalk, etc.) no larger than 12 inches by 18 inches. Paintings must be at the Dr. Moses Mason House Exhibit Hall by 3 PM on Friday, May 23, in order to be considered for a cash prize, ribbon, or certificate of commendation. 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Mason House Exhibit Hall St. Nevers Day Sale |
| June 12* |
Lecture: "The Enigma of James G. Blaine," by Neil Rolde, author of Continental Liar from the State of Maine: James G. Blaine, published in 2006. In 1884 Republican James G. Blaine came within 1,047 votes of becoming the President of the United States. This was the margin by which he lost New York State, and thus the election, to Grover Cleveland in what has been called "the dirtiest campaign in American history." Yet his career—arguably the most sensational of any American politician of the so-called Gilded Age—did not end there. He was twice U.S. secretary of state, credited with having started our country on the path to acting like a world power, a powerful speaker of the house in Congress, and a United States senator from his adopted State of Maine. A former Maine politician himself, Neil Rolde is a prize-winning historian and the author of Unsettled Past, Unsettled Future: The Story of Maine Indians; The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine's Wildlands, and many other books. 7:30 PM, Mason House Exhibit Hall |
| July 1 |
Summer Season Guided Tours of the Dr.
Moses Mason House 1:00 to 4:00 PM, Tuesday through Sunday, until Labor Day; tours may be arranged during the remainder of the year by calling 207-824-2908 Exhibit Opening: "To Improve the Farmer's Lot: The Grange in Maine" For over half a century, beginning in the 1870s, the Grange ("Order of Patrons of Husbandry") in Maine numbered some 50,000 members in more than 400 locations throughout the State. Based on the book "A Fair Field and No Favor": A Concise History of the Maine State Grange, written by Bethel Historical Society Executive Director Stanley R. Howe, this exhibit delves into the history and significance of this remarkable organization and its role in Maine's past. Robinson House, through May 2009. |
| July 4 |
Fourth
of July
Community Picnic This free event begins at noon on the side lawn of the Dr. Moses Mason House (14 Broad St.). Bring your lunch and after the presentation of colors and the National Anthem, enjoy a two-hour concert by the Portland Brass Quintet. Dr. Mason began this Fourth of July tradition in the 1850s and the Bethel Historical Society carries it on today. In case of rain, the concert and picnic will be held in the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse (1816) on Intervale Road, approximately four miles down river from Bethel Hill village. |
| July 26 |
Ripley Brass Band Festival Several brass bands—including the Gilford Band (NH), the Newmont Band (VT), the Centennial Brass Band (ME), and the Yankee Brass Band—will perform during this celebration of 19th century brass band music. The Festival is named in honor of Hosea Ripley, of Bethel, and Winfield Scott Ripley, of Paris, Maine, both of whom composed music and led brass bands during the Civil War era and later. The festival is tentatively scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM and run through the early evening. More information about this event will be posted soon on this site. |
| August 8*,
9
& 10 |
Sudbury Canada Days The Society's 2008 heritage festival will include the Hall Memorial Lecture (Friday evening, August 8th, at 7:30 PM), old-time crafts, an art show, historical films, period room tours, a children's parade and games, badminton and croquet tournaments, a log drivers' bean supper, an open house at the Lower Sunday River Schoolhouse, and an old-fashioned hymn sing at the Middle Intervale Meetinghouse. This year's Hall Memorial Lecture* will be presented by Donna M. Cassidy, Professor of American & New England Studies and Art History at the University of Southern Maine. Her presentation will be entitled, "Marsden Hartley, New England History, and 1930s Regionalism." Ms. Cassidy's articles on early twentieth-century American art and culture have appeared in Smithsonian Studies in American Art, American Art Journal, Winterthur Portfolio, and numerous anthologies and exhibition catalogues. She is the author of Painting the Musical City: Jazz and Cultural Identity in American Art, 1910-1940 (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997) and Marsden Hartley: Race, Region, and Nation (University Press of New England, 2005). A scholar of New England art, she served as editor for the art section of the Encyclopedia of New England Culture (Yale University Press, 2005), and her essay “Picturing Place: Portland and the Visual Arts” appeared in Creating Portland: History and Place in Northern New England, edited by Joseph A. Conforti and published by the University Press of New England (2005). Her present research projects include two studies of American artists working abroad: Looking North: American Artists in Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes 1890-1940 and Ex-centric Expatriates: American Modernist Artists in Provence. |
| August 31 |
Last Day for Regularly Scheduled Tours of the Dr. Moses Mason House; tours may be arranged during the remainder of the year by calling 207-824-2908 |
| September 9 |
Exhibit Opening: "The Maine Mountain
Heritage Traveling Exhibit" Created by the Maine Mountain Heritage Network, this exhibit presents eighteen stories and associated images that were submitted by local organizations from across the Maine Mountain Heritage Area (Franklin, Oxford, Piscataquis, and Somerset Counties and nearby towns). Story subjects include natural history (moose and riverways), community origins (early immigration and community life), and local economies (logging and slate mining). The exhibit is intended to raise awareness and deepen knowledge of the history and natural history of the Maine Mountains region. Robinson House, through September 26. |
| September 11* |
Bethel Historical
Society Annual Meeting and Lecture by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr. 6:30 PM potluck supper followed by a brief meeting and program by Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Director, Maine Historic Preservation Commission and State Historian, entitled "Historic Maine Presidential and Senatorial Election Campaigns, as Recalled by the Political Memorabilia of the Time" |
| September |
Conference on the Grange in Maine; more information forthcoming |
| October 9* |
Lecture: "Marketing Maine Apples," by Ben B. Conant, Curator, Paris Cape Historical Society; 7:30 PM, Mason House Exhibit Hall |
| November 13* |
Lecture: "Androscoggin River Water Quality: Past, Present and Future," by Barry Mower, Maine Department of Environmental Protection; 7:30 PM, Mason House Exhibit Hall |
| December 4 |
Christmas with the
Masons Music & refreshments in the Mason House period rooms, decorated in traditional nineteenth century style and illuminated by candles—a once-a-year event! Free and open to the public (donations accepted). 6:00 to 8:00 PM |
| December 31 |
11th
Annual "New
Year's Bethel"
Celebration An affordable, chemical-free festival featuring a variety of live entertainment at selected sites within historic Bethel Hill village. |
Home
| Hours &
Facilities
| New & Noteworthy
| Exhibits
| House Museum
Research Library | Museum Shop | Membership
Research Library | Museum Shop | Membership
Site maintained by the Bethel Historical Society
©1998-2008 Bethel Historical Society