december 7, 2011: great gift ideas from maine's archives and
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GREAT GIFT IDEAS FROM MAINE’S MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES
Here are a handful of gift ideas from Maine’s Archives and Museums. Please contact the organization
for purchasing information. You can also look up member institutions using the “Find a
Museum/Archive” search feature on MAM’s website: http://www.mainemuseums.org/members.asp.
General
Maine’s Museums: Art, Oddities & Artifacts (Countryman Press, 2011) by Janet Mendelsohn is the first
and only book devotedly solely to Maine’s great art, history, maritime, children’s and quirky museums.
MAINE magazine called the book a “thorough, affectionate, and engaging exploration of Maine’s
obscure and popular museums.” It is available wherever books are sold including many museum gift
shops. www.janetmendelsohn.com
The Pembroke Historical Society
The Pembroke Historical Society’s 2011 Christmas ornament, each hand painted by artist Joan Dodge, is
on sale locally and ready for shipment to those who live away. It is the sixth in our series of ornaments
that commemorate historic Pembroke, and a companion to last year’s depiction of the clipper ship
Western Continent. Built in Pembroke by Stephen C. Foster in 1853, the vessel was shown moored in
2010, with her sails furled and rigging exposed. This year, she’s under full sail in a roiling sea. The artist
based her design on a sketch from 1861 attributed to the captain.
The Farnsworth Art Museum
In celebrating Maine’s role in American art, the Farnsworth Art Museum offers a nationally recognized
collection of American art in its elegantly appointed galleries.
Featured this year in the Museum Shop:
Paul Caponigro of Cushing Maine, “The Hidden Presence of Places”; the show catalog of black & white
photography.
Classic gold & silver hoop earrings by Yarmouth artist Judith Barker.
“Airborne,” limited edition Giclee print by Andrew Wyeth.
Farnsworth Art Museum
16 Museum St. Rockland, Me. 04843
207-596-6457
www.farnsworthmuseum.org
http://shop.farnsworthmuseum.org
The L.C. Bates Museum
The L.C. Bates Museum, in Hinckley, opens its gift shop from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to
Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4:30 p.m. The museum gift shop has a good selection of gifts including
jewelry, puppets, minerals, environmental educational toys, and many stocking stuffers.
For Young Naturalists: The Young Naturalist Bag - Three sizes $10, $15 and $25.
Every young naturalist would love to receive a bag of fascinating natural treasures from around the
world. The bags contain fossils, minerals, shells, and—to study the treasures—a 7-tools in one that also
magnifies. We also have individual specimens of minerals, fossils, and sea life available for purchase to
augment the gift.
For the Historian: Original copies of John Francis Sprague's Journal of Maine History will delight those
interested in Maine History. Special for the holiday the issues are $5 each and three for $10. Also
available is Sprague's book, Three Men from Maine on holiday special at $5.
The Brick Store Museum
Brick Store Museum Heritage Ornament Series: Now in its second year, the Heritage Ornament Series
offers an opportunity to create a unique holiday collection. Each year a new expertly crafted keepsake
ornament depicts a regional theme. This year’s ornament features Kennebunk’s shipbuilding history.
The 2010 ornament is still available and features Kennebunk’s architectural treasures. Cost is $21.95
plus tax. Shipping via USPS is available for an additional fee.
Windows on the Past: Kennebunk’s History through Architecture: Published in 2010, this popular book
features 42 of Kennebunk’s historic properties. Richly illustrated with full-color photography by Kevin
Byron, Windows on the Past features a pullout locator map that may also be purchased separately.
Bonus material includes a time line, index, glossary of architectural terms, bibliography of historical
resources, and images of related collections from the Brick Store Museum. Cost is $15.95 plus tax.
Shipping via USPS is available for an additional fee.
About the Brick Store Museum: The Brick Store Museum is located at 117 Main Street in Kennebunk’s
historic district and for 75 years has been dedicated to preserving and exhibiting the region’s rich
cultural and artistic heritage. Its galleries and research archives are open to the public year-round:
Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 – 4:30 and Saturdays, 10 – 1. Admission to the Museum is by donation,
suggested $5 per person. Visit www.brickstoremuseum.org or call 207-985-4802 for further
information.
The Maine State Museum
The Maine State Museum houses artifacts that highlight the collective heritage of the people of Maine -
from prehistory to the modern era. The exhibits offer insight into Maine’s History, Natural History, &
Social History.
Our Museum Store has a lovely selection of toys, gifts, and books that reflect the diversity of the
museum’s collection. Fine Maine tourmaline jewelry, reproductions of vintage toys and hundreds of
adult and children’s book titles are among our most popular offerings.
The Museum Store is open the same hours as the museum; 9-5 Tuesday – Friday, 10-4 Saturday, closed
Sunday & Monday. Location: The Maine State Museum, Capitol Complex, 83 State House Station,
Augusta, Maine 04333 or http://mainestatemuseum.org/. The store phone number is 207-287-2938.
The Whitefield Historical Society
Situated in the beautiful Sheepscot River Valley, the Whitefield Historical Society has been collecting and preserving its local history to share with others for thirty-five years. Contact us via
email at [email protected]. Two items available this winter are a map of Whitefield and a bicentennial coin. The map, scanned from an original 1857 Lincoln County Map, used actual surveys by C. M. Hopkins. On this quality reproduction, black dots show where houses were located plus the name of the owner and it shows several mills, churches, and schools. Comes in a cardboard roll; 20" x 30". $35 + $3 s/h.
Whitefield 2009 Bicentennial Coin minted by Northwest Territorial Mint. This coin, designed for us, has a mill on one side and 11 historic events listed on the reverse. Each of the 100 coins was individually numbered and comes in a case. Available numbers from the remaining 9 coins are 55, 61, 72, 76, 79, 81, 86, 87, and 92. $25 + $3 s/h.
The Boothbay Region Historical Society
The Boothbay Region Historical Society, located at 72 Oak Street in Boothbay Harbor, offers several
new items in our gift shop include our historic canning label lobster mug for $15 or our mackerel,
lobster or clam historic canning labels. Suitable for framing and reasonably priced at $10 each or a set of
three for $25. See images at www.boothbayhistorical.org. Year- round our open hours are Wednesday
through Saturday from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. FMI: [email protected], 207-633-0820 or boothbayhistorical.org
The Bethel Historical Society
ITEMS
NEW! “Write Quick": War and a Woman’s Life in Letters, 1836-
1867. Transcribed and edited by Ann Fox Chandonnet and Roberta Gibson
Pevear, and published by the Bethel Historical Society, this long-awaited
book is based on Civil War era documents, letters and diaries donated to the
Bethel Historical Society by Mrs. Pevear in 2005. Impressively narrated
and edited, the book tells the story of one New England family's daily
experiences on the Civil War home front and battlefield, through never-
before-published primary source materials.
Amid the gathering clouds of war, far from the nation’s centers of power,
two American families felt the first ripples on the breeze. Andrew Bean, a
teacher and farmer from Bethel, Maine, answered the call to the Union
infantry. His younger sister, Eliza, having found both employment and a
suitable marriage in the bustling mill city of Lowell, Massachusetts, soon
saw her husband, Henry C. Foster, enlist as well.
In more than 150 revealing letters dispatched from camp and field and home front, as well as Eliza
Bean Foster’s own diary, the honors and horrors of war play out on an intimate stage. Seldom does a
surviving cache of documents illuminate the full span of the antebellum and war years in such close
detail, from so many different angles. Illustrated with original documents and never-before-published
photographs, the book traces Eliza’s life from New England mill girl, to young married woman and
mother, to war widow and victim of consumption. Write Quick presents a valuable case history and a
poignant story of one Northern woman through her own pen and the lens of her contemporaries. The
book contains over 50 photographs, illustrations, and maps, plus an index. 572 pp., softcover, $34.95
NEW! Folk Art Murals of the Rufus Porter School : New England
Landscapes: 1825- 1845 by Linda Carter Lefko and Jane E.
Radcliffe. Here is the long awaited update of research on the Rufus Porter
Landscape Mural School, greatly expanding the knowledge and
understanding of this uniquely American folk art field of the 1820s to
1840s. The text provides detailed documentation never seen before in
print. The book takes the reader on a virtual tour of Porter School murals in
the New England states, presenting and analyzing more than 400 colorful
images, which will provide inspiration for historians, researchers, designers,
and painters alike. It offers evidence regarding the attribution of these
mostly unsigned works, and encourages readers to apply that evidence in
reaching their own conclusions. In addition, there is a section concerning
the preservation of historic murals and various challenges and threats to
such preservation. Finally, the book offers a “how-to” section that
interprets Porter’s original published mural painting instructions in terms of modern equipment,
materials, and supplies.
Linda Carter Lefko, of Penn Yan, New York, is an artist, teacher, and scholar of the historic decorative
arts known for her research, classes and lectures on various topics such as historic watercolors, school
girl arts, love tokens, wall murals, and theorem painting. Linda is coauthor of The Art of Theorem
Painting, currently serves as an advisor to the Rufus Porter Museum in Bridgton, Maine, and continues
her research into painted walls in New Hampshire. Her work can be seen at www.lclefko.com.
Jane E. Radcliffe, a resident of Hallowell, Maine, served the Maine State Museum in a variety of
capacities for close to twenty years. Since 1988, she has been a partner in Museum Research
Associates, a firm specializing in the documentation of historical collections and computerization of
collection records. This book is the culmination of her continued research of Porter School
murals. Jane also serves on the Board of Directors of the Rufus Porter Museum, as well as Adjunct
Curator at the Maine State Museum. Numerous color photos and vintage advertisements. 256 pages,
hardcover (with dust jacket). $59.99
Contact: Danna B. Nickerson, Museum Shop Manager
Bethel Historical Society, 10 Broad St., P.O. Box 12, Bethel, Maine 04217
207-824-2908 / 800-824-2910 /207-824-0882 (fax)
www.bethelhistorical.org
December Museum Shop Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 AM to 4 PM, and by appointment
USM-Lewiston-Auburn’s Franco-American Collection
To purchase any of these items, please contact the USM Lewiston-Auburn College Bookstore at 207-
753-6520 or [email protected]. Their hours are M-Th 8:30 - 4:30, Friday 8:30-4:00, and
they can be found at 51 Westminster Street in Lewiston.
Voyages: A Maine Franco-American Reader - $30.00, Edited by Nelson Madore and Barry Rodrigue
Published by Tilbury House with the Franco-American Collection, USM Lewiston-Auburn College
Paperback, $30.00, ISBN 978-0-88448-294-9
7 x 10, 656 pages, photographs/illustrations
". . . a rich, lively, cross-grained treasure of a book that everyone interested in the history of our region
should explore. Almost 70 writers were enlisted in this effort, which proves a good thing in this instance.
The authors do not come to the same conclusions, with some frequency, and this, from the cultural
historian's vantage, is an extremely healthy sign. . . . History is an amazing and tricky thing, and
Voyages takes us further than we have gone before."
—William David Barry, Maine Sunday Telegram
Dozens of voices celebrate—in essays, stories, plays, poetry, songs, and art—the Franco-American and
Acadian experience in Maine. They explore subjects as diverse as Quebec-Maine frontier history,
immigrant drama, work, genealogy, discrimination, women, community affairs, religion, archeology,
politics, literature, language, and humor. The voices, themselves, are equally diverse, including Norman
Beaupré, Michael Michaud, Ross and Judy Paradis, Susann Pelletier, John Martin, Béatrice Craig,
Michael Parent, Linda Pervier, Alaric Faulkner, Ray Levasseur, Yves Frenette, Paul Paré, Yvon Labbé,
Rev. Clement Thibodeau, Bob Chenard, Denis Ledoux, Josée Vachon, Greg Chabot, Jean-Paul Poulain,
Stewart Doty, Rhea Côté Robbins, and many others. This is a rich resource and an engaging read, one
that will resonate with many.
Gift Cards:
Individual - $0.75
Box of 8 (Musical Traditions) - $4.00
Box of 8 (Winter) - $4.00
These gift cards are the perfect way to send holiday greetings to family and friends while celebrating
Lewiston's Franco-American heritage. The cards feature scenes of musical traditions and winters gone
by.
The Saco Museum
It’s always fun to do the buying for the Saco Museum gift shop this time of year. Right now it is all a-
glitter with lots of new products, including adorable paperboard gingerbread houses and village
buildings ($28 each), as well as bottle-brush Christmas trees in green and ivory ($6-$14). Here are a few
other new items, all from local artisans:
Sunflower Hill scented soaps from Hollis in Peppermint
(so pink and fragrant!), Cranberry Orange, and two holiday scents: O Christmas Tree (Balsam) and Gift
of the Magi (Frankincense and Myrrh). Just $5 each! For more info: www.sunflowerhillsoap.com.
Gorgeous acid-etched ornaments by Goose Pond of Cumberland. These 3-D stars and snowflakes are a
perfect fit with the theme of this year’s Festival: Let Heaven and Nature Sing. $15 each, 24K-gold or
rhodium-plated. For more info: www.goosepond.com.
A perennial favorite! Lovely holiday-themed textiles from Saco River Needleworks, including table
runners (shown), throw pillows, aprons, and tree skirts. $7-$25. For more info: [email protected].