Speakers and Programs

Unless indicated otherwise:

Meetings and speaker programs are at 7:00pm
at the
Milbridge Historical Society and Museum

83 Main Street, Milbridge,
unless otherwise indicated.

All are free and open to the public.

Programs for 2010

March 9	Ice cream Social and Narraguagus Singer Concert (Cancelled due to illness)
April 13	Edwin Jessiman, "Historical Research on Native Americans"
May 11	Harry Fish, "Diving for Shipwrecks"
June 8	Bill Waterhouse, "Making Sea Salt"
July 13	Jean Holmes, "Jaffa American Colony"
August 10	Annual Meeting, Sandy Phippen, "Down East Stories" - Milbridge Elem School
September	To be determined
October 12	Sandy Oliver, "Baked Beans to Whoopie pies: A bird's-Eye View of Maine's Food History"

Night at the Museum

Authors, historians, and other experts will speak on topics as diverse as shipwrecks and Native American history as part of the Milbridge Historical Society’s 2010 Night at the Museum speaker series.

Starting the season on Tuesday, April 13, Edwin Jessiman from University of Maine, Machias, presents “Historical Research on Native Americans.”

On May 11 we explore the sea and underwater archaeology with “Diving for Shipwrecks,” presented by Dive Master Harry Fish. Mr. Fish is a lifelong resident of Downeast Maine who made his first dive when he was 18. Since then, he has made hundreds of dives in Maine and the Caribbean. (Photo of Undersea life at Hancock Point from cruisedowneast.com.)

We stay close to the sea with our June 8 program by Bill Waterhouse as he instructs us in the art of “Making Sea Salt.” Following 20 years as a middle/high school teacher, Bill decided it was time for him to become the student. In Addison, Bill is now learning about sea salts and how challenging Mother Nature can be as a teacher. Bill will share what he has learned and what challenges remain in the process of collecting those flavorful crystals from the waters of Wohoa Bay.

The 1866 transoceanic tale of 35 families and the resulting Maine Friendship House museum, “Jaffa American Colony,” is told by Jean Holmes on July 13. Built in 1866 by the Mark T. Wentworth family and restored in 2002 by Jean and Reed Holmes, this wooden house was brought from Maine on the sailing vessel the Nellie Chapin, along with 35 families and their wooden houses. They established the American Colony in Jaffa.

On August 10 the traditional pot luck supper is followed by a brief annual meeting and election of society officers. The event will be held at the Milbridge Elementary School on Washington streeet. Then author Sanford “Sandy” Phippen will delight us with “Down East Stories.” Mr. Phippen grew up in Hancock and graduated from Sumner Memorial High School and the University of Maine. He received his M.A. degree from Syracuse University. An English teacher for 46 years at both the high school and college levels, he now teaches at the University of Maine. He is the author of 12 books and he hosted two TV series for MPBN: RFD Maine and A Good Read.

He was nominated for an Emmy Award and has received a number of other awards for both his teaching and writing. His books include the best-selling Kitchen Boy, The Police Know Everything, and People Trying to be Good. He is also the editor of the literary magazine Puckerbrush Review.

September program to be announced. Keep looking here for information.

Our final program on October 12 features food historian and author Sandy Oliver, who will educate us with “Baked Beans to Whoopie Pies: A Bird’s-Eye View of Maine’s Food History.” Sandy has been active in food and food history for 39 years, starting in 1971 at Mystic Seaport Museum, where she developed a fireplace cooking program in an 1830s house. After moving to Maine in 1988, Sandy wrote Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century. She is also coauthor of The Food of Colonial and Federal America and Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie. Besides food history work, Sandy is a freelance food writer with the column Taste Buds appearing each weekend in the Bangor Daily News and regular columns in Maine Boats, Homes, and Harbors magazine and The Working Waterfront. Sandy and her husband Jamie MacMillan have lived on Islesboro for twenty years where they have a large garden, chickens, and sometimes raise pigs.

Unless otherwise indicated, programs are at 7 p.m. at the museum, with refreshments to follow. They are, as always, free and open to the public.