The Maine Humanities Council recently awarded more than $20,000 in grants for Century Project programs throughout Maine.

Programs funded through these grants are a part of “The Century Project: Modern Times in Maine and America, 1890-1930,” a two-year initiative to stimulate public awareness of how the early 20th century help shape our modern identity.

Grants were awarded to:

Pembroke Historical Society to produce public programs about turn-of-the-century family life in Pembroke; the Centennial Club of the Tremont Historical Society to research historic buildings over 100 years old in Bass Harbor, Bernard, West Tremont and Seal Cove;

Whitefield Parent-Teachers Association to support a project by Whitefield School students who painted images from history on electric linepoles;

Fifth Maine Regiment Community Center of Peaks Island to present a semester-long program about turn-of-the-century island life to Peaks Island students; Belfast Historical Society to produce a 20th century history of Belfast;

L.C. Bates Museum of Hinckley to hold an exhibition and discussion of artist Charles D. Hubbard, who helped develop the Hinckley School philosophy in early 20th century Maine;

and Johnson Hall Inc., of Gardiner, to examine the works of 1930s Pulitzer prize-winning poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson, a Gardiner native.

Grants ranging from $50 to $750 are available for community history projects planned over the next two years by any nonprofit organization in Maine. Applicants will be assisted by a community history workbook and the council’s video. Application deadlines are March 15, June 15, Sept. 30 and Dec. 15.

For more information contact the Maine Humanities Council, P.O. Box 7202, Portland 04112, telephone 773-5051.

The Century Project is funded by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.