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.  Organizations who participated in the creation of the exhibit include: Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce; Bethel Historical Society; Center Theatre / Dover-Foxcroft; Cultural Heritage and Eco-tourism Committee / Dover-Foxcroft; Jackman-Moose River Chamber of Commerce; Katahdin Cultural Center / Millinocket; Millinocket Area Growth and Investment Council; Mountain Counties Heritage/Farmington; Natural Resource Education Center / Greenville; Northern Forest Center / Bethel; Old Canada Road National Scenic Byway/Solon; Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce; Rangeley Lakes Region Logging Museum; Rangeley Outdoors Sporting Heritage Museum; Skowhegan Heritage Council; Town of Skowhegan.  The exhibit was produced by Mountain Counties Heritage, Inc. and designed by Insyt New Media.  Funding was provided by the Federal Highway Administration and the Maine Department of Transportation through the National Scenic Byways Program through the Old Canada Road National Scenic Byway.

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.  Active on behalf of Maine's rural populace, the Grange lobbied the Maine Legislature to improve the quality of education in the State's public and vocational schools, and to reform the taxation system to make it more equitable.  In addition, as the first major organization in the United States to grant women equal rights, the Grange provided an opportunity for rural females to escape the drudgery of the farm home so they could take advantage of the educational and social aspects of the Order.  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.

The earliest souvenirs connected with the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire and western Maine made their appearance in the 1830s and 1840s. These mementos included landscape paintings by founders of the so-called "White Mountain School," inexpensive Staffordshire dinnerware decorated with scenes such as Thomas Cole's "View Near North Conway," and two volumes that today are considered White Mountain "classics"—Lucy Crawford's History of the White Mountains (1846) and William Oakes' Scenery of the White Mountains (1848).  Soon after railroad lines reached the "Alps of New England" in the early 1850s, a wider range of souvenirs became available for popular consumption; among these were brochures, stereoviews, souvenir china, cartes de visites, mauchlineware, guidebooks, maps, menus, postcards, playing cards, and tourist newspapers.  Focusing on specific districts within the region, this exhibition features a wide variety of White Mountain souvenirs from the Society's holdings, as well as from two private collections.

In April 2007, the Bethel Historical Society received a sizable collection of books, papers, and audio files documenting the American Indian experience—the gift of Charles R. Huntoon of Portland, Maine.  Over the years, Mr. Huntoon acquired many volumes about Native Americans and, most especially, works concerning the Abenaki, an eastern Algonquian sub-group whose historic homeland extended from northern New England and into southern Québec.  His collecting eventually led him to an unpublished French-Abenaki dictionary compiled by a Jesuit missionary, Father Joseph Aubéry (1673-1755); it also brought him to the doorstep of Stephen Laurent (1909-2001) of Intervale, New Hampshire.  The son of Abenaki Chief Joseph Laurent (1839-1917) of Odanak, Québec, and Intervale, Stephen Laurent was a talented lexicographer who took on the task of augmenting Father Aubéry’s dictionary and translating it into English.  After many years of work on this project, the two men published five hundred copies of Father Aubéry’s Dictionary in 1995.  To preserve the pronunciation of the Abenaki language, Stephen Laurent recorded the entire Dictionary on tape, and this material, in several formats, is also part of the Huntoon gift.  The Bethel Historical Society is honored to accept the Huntoon Collection, selections from which will be displayed in the Mason House Exhibit Hall through May 2008.

One of the largest rivers in New England, the Androscoggin drains an area of over 3,400 square miles in New Hampshire and Maine.  The 170-mile waterway begins its journey near Errol, New Hampshire, and, punctuated with numerous rapids and impressive waterfalls, eventually mingles with the waters of the Kennebec River in Merrymeeting Bay below Brunswick, Maine, before flowing into the Atlantic.  Due mainly to the dumping of tons of industrial and municipal wastes into its water over a period of several decades, the Androscoggin was one of the ten most polluted rivers in the United States by the 1960s.  However, thanks to the Federal Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966 and other similar legislation, the river has gradually made a comeback and is becoming a significant recreational resource for communities along its banks.  Through the use of selected images, artifacts and text, "A River's Journey" presents a vivid picture of the Androscoggin's past—as a transportation route for Native Americans and, more recently, for logs destined for lumber and paper mills; as a source of nutrients for agricultural production and waterpower for industry; and as a popular destination for artists, photographers, nature enthusiasts, boaters, and fishermen.

The Bethel Historical Society’s plans for a museum facility within a new ell and barn at the O’Neil Robinson House include dedicated spaces for the display and storage of mineral specimens, mining equipment and related materials, such as photos, documents and books.  In connection with this proposal, the Society has mounted a "sample" display of minerals in the former winter kitchen of the Robinson House.  One exhibit case contains a variety of minerals from several antique collections; these specimens have been generously loaned to the Society by Larry Stifler and Mary McFadden, as well as Jim and Anne Mann.  A second case features specimens and related items recently donated to the Society by Addison W. Saunders, Vandall T. King and Jim Mann.  Finally, a third display case holds selected specimens from the "Stuart Martin Collection of Maine Minerals," which was donated to the Society in 2001 by Mr. Martin's children, Kimball Martin and Anne Martin Smith.

Situated in the midst of high mountains and fertile river valleys, the town of Bethel traces its origins to a 1768 grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to men whose ancestors had fought in a campaign to conquer Canada in 1690.  Known throughout the latter part of the eighteenth century as "Sudbury Canada" (in honor of these original grantees, many of whom were from Sudbury, Massachusetts), the town was incorporated as "Bethel" (from the Book of Genesis, meaning "House of God") in 1796.  This on-going exhibition provides an overview of the town's past through the use of historic images and selected artifacts from the Bethel Historical Society's permanent collection.  (Included is a scale model of the 1886 Bethel Chair Company mill, constructed and donated by Society member James Auman.)  Click here to visit the online version of "Bethel: A Historic Town."

This mini-exhibit features text, photographs, and architectural renderings to present the story of one of Bethel's most historic nineteenth century properties, now an important part of the Bethel Historical Society's Regional History Center.  Constructed on Broad Street in the Federal style in 1821 and completely transformed into an impressive Italianate residence in the 1880s by Enoch Foster, one of the town's most successful lawyers, the historic Robinson House has been home to several locally prominent families.  The building's conversion into a small hotel by the Bethel Inn in 1923 and its current transformation into a museum facility by the Bethel Historical Society are also highlighted in this modest but informative exhibit.  A scale model of the property shows a connected barn that will replace the one removed by the Bethel Inn in the early 1930s.  (The Robinson House photo shown here appeared in the 6 January 1904 "Extra Illustrated Edition" of The Bethel News.)

Begun in 1813 and opened to the public in 1974, the Bethel Historical Society's Dr. Moses Mason House is one of the few period house museums in northern New England available for tours year-round (appointments required September through June; please call our main office at 207-824-2908 or 800-824-2910).  Discover life as it was lived in the highlands of western Maine during the first half of the nineteenth century as you join one of our trained guides in a tour of nine rooms filled with fine examples of the decorative arts, many of which are original to the house.  During your tour, you will see portraits of Dr. and Mrs. Mason painted by Chester Harding of Boston, and view their grand entrance hall with its exceptional circa 1835 wall murals attributed to the itinerant artist and inventor Rufus Porter.