FOLK/Preservers Cultural and historical organizations join National Folk Festival to highlight wonders of the world from near and far

loading...

A number of Maine’s cultural and historical organizations are taking part in this year’s National Folk Festival in Bangor, Maine. At one end of the site, next to Pickering Square where the children’s activities are located, the following organizations offer children’s activities and educational materials.

The Maine Discovery Museum

74 Main St.

Bangor, Maine 04401

The Maine Discovery Museum in downtown Bangor opened its doors in February 2001. The museum fills three floors with exciting interactive exhibits in seven major exhibit areas, making it the largest children’s museum north of Boston. Created by a huge volunteer effort, The Maine Discovery Museum outgrew its original name, Eastern Maine Children’s Museum, as it is a museum for all Mainers. Exhibits cover natural science, music, anatomy, art, geography, physics and children’s literature. The Maine Discovery Museum is an amusement park for your brain – a place families can visit again and again, rediscovering the joy of learning through play. The museum is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, and is closed Mondays, except some school holidays. For more information, call 1-207-262-7200 or visit the Maine Discovery Museum’s Web site at www.mainediscoverymuseum.org.

Hudson Museum

Maine Center for the Arts Building

University of Maine

Orono, Maine 04469

The Hudson Museum, located in the Maine Center for the Arts, is the University of Maine’s gateway for exploring and understanding the diversity of human experience. The museum’s permanent collections include pre-Hispanic Mexican and Central American holdings, American Indian collections from the Northwest coast, Plains, Southwest, Maine, South America and the Arctic, and artifacts from Oceania, Asia and Africa. The Hudson Museum features six permanent exhibits and hosts or develops two to four temporary exhibits each year. The museum offers guided tours and educational programs for elementary and secondary school children, university students and adult groups; lectures by distinguished anthropologists and archaeologists; and an annual Maine Indian Basketmakers sale and demonstration. The Hudson Museum Shop offers a fine selection of items ranging from Maine Indian baskets purchased locally to reproductions and merchandise based on the museum’s William P. Palmer III Collection of Mesoamerican Artifacts. The Hudson Museum is open 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturdays, and is closed Sundays, Mondays and holidays. Admission is free; fees are charged for some programs. For more information, call (207)581-1901 or visit the Hudson Museum’s Web site at www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum.

Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance

5 Main St.

PO Box 32

Old Town, Maine 04468

The Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, MIBA, is a nonprofit American Indian arts service organization, dedicated to preserving the ancient traditions of ash and sweet grass basketry among the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes in Maine. The goals supporting this mission are to preserve and document the tradition of basket making among the four tribes; expand markets for baskets in Maine and beyond; ensure a supply of high-quality brown ash and sweet grass for present and future generations; and provide outreach, education and apprenticeships to younger members of the tribes to ensure continuation of the traditions. The Wabanaki Arts Center gallery is located at 137 North Main St., Old Town, where visitors can view sweet grass fancy baskets, brown ash baskets, educational exhibits, carvings, jewelry and more. Sales at the gallery support the nonprofit activities of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For more information, please call 1-207-827-0391 or visit the Web site at www.umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum/miba.

At the other end of the site of the National Folk Festival, you will find a series of organizations presenting activities and educational materials about life in the Maine woods.

The Maine Folklife Center

University of Maine

Orono, Maine 04469

The Maine Folklife Center is a partner with the other key organizations in planning the National Folk Festival. The center’s role in the festival is to organize the craft and food demonstrations, craft marketplace, cultural organizations and children’s activities. The mission of the Maine Folklife Center is to enhance understanding of the folklife, folklore and history of Maine and Atlantic Canada, to encourage appreciation of the diverse cultures and heritage of the region and thereby to strengthen and enrich our communities. The center is a valuable part of the university’s research and public service programs. The Maine Folklife Center builds on more than 40 years’ experience working in an international context and is committed to utilizing new technologies and new media to carry the stories of our region from the 19th and 20th centuries into the future.

To fulfill our mission we:

Collect primarily through the use of recorded interviews, preserve, analyze and disseminate information about the region’s history and traditional cultures;

Maintain the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History’s audio, video, photograph and manuscript collections for scholarly and public use;

Offer courses and workshops;

Publish a journal and newsletter;

Maintain a Web page;

Produce audiocassettes and CDs;

Provide technical support for university faculty and students who use oral history in their own research;

Work with communities to document local folklore and history;

Present public programs including exhibits, festivals, seminars and documentaries.

The Maine Folklife Center is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday year-round. For more information, contact 1-207- 581-1891 or folklife@maine.edu or visit the Maine Folklife Center Web page at www.umaine.edu/folklife

Bangor Museum and Center for History

159 Union St.

Bangor, Maine 04401

The Bangor Museum and Center for History is the city’s center for historical research on local and regional topics. The museum is located in the Thomas A. Hill Historic House, which is an 1836 Greek Revival home designed by prominent architect Richard Upjohn, and it is on the National Register of Historic Homes. Trained docents provide guided tours of the house, which contains diverse exhibits, a Civil War museum and a gift shop. The museum collects and preserves artifacts, documents and photographs that reflect all aspects of the area’s past. It provides archival material and information for researchers and the public and mounts exhibits each year illustrating historical topics. Each year the museum and center sponsors activities including public lectures and special events, the Best of Bangor bus tours and educational programs. The museum also offers membership and volunteer opportunities. The Bangor Museum and Center for History is open to the public for tours April to December, noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For more information, call 1-207-942-5766 or visit the Bangor Museum and

Center for History’s Web site at www.bangorhistorical.org.

Leonard’s Mills

Maine Forest and Logging Museum

Route 178

Bradley, Maine

Leonard’s Mills is the centerpiece of the Maine Forest and Logging Museum Inc., a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1960 dedicated to keeping alive the forest industry of long ago. Located on 265 acres in Bradley on Blackman Stream, Leonard’s Mills contains the site of a pioneer settlement identified by the remains of a stone dam and several house foundations. Today, Leonard’s Mills breathes life once again as the museum continues an authentic reconstruction of a logging and milling community of the 1790s. Visitors find a water-powered sawmill, a mill pond and dam, a pit-saw structure, a blacksmith shop, an early American hovel, an authentic log cabin, a trapper’s line camp and a genuine Lombard log hauler. The museum also offers an extensive picnic area and an outdoor amphitheater. Visitors may also enjoy hiking nature trails through the adjacent forest. Educational tours are available, as are self-guided walks and volunteer opportunities. The museum also sponsors the popular Living History Days, a two-day event in July and October where the village comes alive with volunteers in period dress performing tasks typical of the season. Leonard’s Mills is open from sunrise to sunset daily. For more information, please call 1-207-581-2871 or visit the Leonard’s Mills Web site at www.bairnet.org/organizations/leonardsmills/lmillshome.htm.

Northeast Historic Film

379 Main St.

Bucksport, Maine 04416

Northeast Historic Film is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available to the public film and videotape of interest to the people of northern New England. Northeast Historic Film surveys moving pictures of northern New England and preserves and safeguards film and videotape through restoration, duplication and the provision of technical guidance and climate-controlled storage. It also promotes educational programs through screenings and exhibitions on-site and in touring programs. Lastly, it provides assistance to members of the public, scholars and students at all levels and members of the film and video production community, through providing a study center, technical services and facilities. Visitors also will enjoy the Alamo Theatre, film-related exhibits and gift shop. For more information, please call 1-207-469-0924 or visit the Northeast Historic Film’s Web site at www.oldfilm.org.

Nos Histoires de L’Ille

c/o Amy Morin

Old Town, Maine

In the fall of 1992, a group of interested residents of “French Island” in Old Town came together and began collecting the oral histories from the elders of the island, who were the last keepers of the stories. They named themselves “Nos Histoires de L’Ille” after the stories that bound them together. One result of the work the group began was a book, “Nos Histoires de L’Ille: History and Memories of French Island, Old Town, Maine 1999.” The collection of photographs from the project and all of the tape-recorded interviews are available to researchers at the Maine Folklife Center and the Old Town Public Library.

Page Farm and Home Museum

University of Maine

Orono, Maine 04469-4100

The Page Farm and Home Museum, located at the University of Maine, has a mission to collect, document, preserve, interpret and disseminate knowledge of Maine history relating to farms and farming communities between 1865 and 1940. The museum provides an educational and cultural experience for the public and a resource for researchers of this period. The museum contains a large collection of farm implements and household items, which are divided among three home exhibits. The remainder of the museum reflects the varied aspects of farming and farm life, including equipment and vehicles used for clearing land, harvesting and storing crops. The Heritage and Herb gardens are on-site as well as a one-room schoolhouse moved from Holden, Maine. Visitors will find the gift shop located in an old general store setting. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily May 15-Sept. 15., and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday the remainder of the year, except holidays. For more information, please call 1-207-581-4100 or visit the Page Farm and Home Museum’s Web site at www.ume.maine.edu/pfhm.

The Patten Lumbermen’s Museum

P.O. Box 300

Shin Pond Road

Patten, Maine 04765

The Patten Lumbermen’s Museum was established as a nonprofit educational organization to record the history of the lumber industry as it existed in the forests of northern Maine. The museum preserves that history and informs the general public of the logging heritage and accomplishments of the early inhabitants of the state of Maine. This is done by way of collecting and maintaining historical artifacts, documents, and other related cultural objects, and the interpretive presentation of them. Visitors to the museum find an 1820 logging camp, a blacksmith shop, and portable sawmill and shingle mill. Of the museum’s nine buildings, two house heavy equipment such as horse-drawn logging sleds, tote sleds, wagons and bateaux used in transporting supplies upriver to the camp. The East shed contains two massive Lombard log haulers, a road icing cart, primitive snowmobiles, a Holt tractor, a very early pulp truck and other equipment. The museum represents the very heart of the industry which contributed so significantly to the history and growth of the Pine Tree State. Visitors will also find outdoor reception areas and a gift shop. The museum is open seasonally: Tuesday-Sunday, Memorial Day to June 30; Friday-Sunday, July 1-Aug. 31; and Tuesday-Sunday, Sept. 1 through Columbus Day; and Monday holidays, all days 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information, call 1-207-528-2650 or visit the Patten Lumbermen’s Museum’s Web site at www.lumbermensmuseum.org.

Peavey Manufacturing Co.

P.O. Box 129

Eddington, Maine 04428

While not a cultural organization, the Peavey Manufacturing Co., located in Eddington, has been in business since 1857 when Joseph Peavey first invented the peavey logging tool while watching men trying to free a logjam on the Stillwater Branch of the Penobscot River. The company has changed hands over the years, and the product line has broadened, from the original logging tools to pole line construction tools, tree pruning poles, hardwood squares, moldings, dowels, turnings and industrial tool handles. Peavey is also the distributor of Taylor Water stoves for the state of Maine. Since before the Civil War, the Peavey Manufacturing Co. has been creating top-quality wood products known for their usefulness and durability. For more information, call 1-207-843-7861 or visit the Peavey Manufacturing Co.’s Web site at www.peaveymfg.com