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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
We4: Leisure Quotes, Lance Gibbs Phd
We4: Leisure Quotes, Lance Gibbs Phd
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Welcome to the fourth exhibit in the series of “We Exist”. In this section we have selected quotes that represent and explain how Maine’s Black residents’ create the processes behind their engagement in particular leisure activities. The quotes also highlight the particular types of leisure activities that Maine’s Black residents suggest that they are involved in. The quotes are taken from transcripts of the oral history project "'Home Is Where I Make It': African American Community and Activism in Greater Portland, Maine”. The interview subjects are all native to Maine or are longtime residents of Maine. The original intent of …
Aa Ms 19 Eugene Jackson Papers, Emily Margaret Newell
Aa Ms 19 Eugene Jackson Papers, Emily Margaret Newell
Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)
This collection is comprised of family photographs, photo albums, bibles, hymnals, and newspaper from the early 20th century onward. The collection is organized into three series:
Series 1: Photographs
This series includes the personal photographs of Eugene Jackson’s friends and family as far back as the early 1900s. The most common themes and activities found in these photographs are leisure activities such as trips to the beach or the mountains, family get-togethers, professional portraits, and Christmas greeting cards.
Subseries 1.1: Loose Photographs
Loose photographs are organized into topical folders.
Subseries 1.2: Ruby Family Photograph Album
The photograph album includes black-and-white …
Aa Ms 01 Gerald E. Talbot Collection Finding Aid, David Andreasen, Kristin D. Morris, Karin A. France, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, Caroline Remley, Andrea Harkins, Kara Kralik, Anya O'Meara
Aa Ms 01 Gerald E. Talbot Collection Finding Aid, David Andreasen, Kristin D. Morris, Karin A. France, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, Caroline Remley, Andrea Harkins, Kara Kralik, Anya O'Meara
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Description:
Gerald E. Talbot was the first African American to be elected to the Maine State Legislature. He served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1972 to 1978, and worked with the Maine chapter of the NAACP and the State Board of Education. He also took part in the struggle for civil rights in other parts of the country, as well as in Maine. The Collection includes Talbot’s personal papers, records of his term in the Maine House of Representatives, of his work with the NAACP in Maine and with the State Board of Education. The Collection contains books, …
Leadership From Within: Founders, Advocates, And Organizational Networks Operating In Maine's Immigrant Community, Samuel Robert Kenney
Leadership From Within: Founders, Advocates, And Organizational Networks Operating In Maine's Immigrant Community, Samuel Robert Kenney
Honors Projects
Much of the discourse surrounding African immigration to Maine has centered on the provision of public services that facilitate community development and integration. This project investigates different types of leadership strategies employed by African individuals in Maine that advance community objectives. When African immigrant leaders are empowered to affect public policy, they re-frame traditional conceptions of aid-dependency and vulnerability commonly applied to African immigrants in media and popular culture. Through leadership in nonprofit and civic spheres, African immigrant community leaders translate grassroots connectivity with informal networks into meaningful influence in the realm of public policy. This project focuses on the …
Abdurraqib, Samaa, Iris Sangiovanni, Samar Ahmed
Abdurraqib, Samaa, Iris Sangiovanni, Samar Ahmed
Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection
Samaa Abdurraqib is a Black, queer, Muslim woman living in Portland, Maine. Abdurraqib was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She attend the University of Ohio, and later the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a PhD in English Literature. After graduating she worked as a visiting professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Next she went on to work the American Civil Liberties Union in Maine as a reproductive rights organizer. She now works for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Her advocacy and organizing work has included places such as Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, …
Making It Work Before The Movement: African-American Community And Resistance In 1940s And 1950s Portland, Maine, Justus Hillebrand
Making It Work Before The Movement: African-American Community And Resistance In 1940s And 1950s Portland, Maine, Justus Hillebrand
Maine History
African Americans in Portland, Maine, in the 1940s and 1950s made up less than 0.5% of the population. As a consequence, discourse on race was more subtle than it was in other parts of the country. The Portland black community, as in other small northern New England cities, lacked the numbers for broad public or political action. Instead, African Americans developed individual and informal strategies of resistance aimed at broadening opportunities in education, employment, and housing. African Americans “made it work” by congregating in their own church, persevering in their own educational goals, operating their own businesses, and owning their …
Aa Ms 07 African American Maine Photograph Album Finding Aid, Elizabeth Sistare
Aa Ms 07 African American Maine Photograph Album Finding Aid, Elizabeth Sistare
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Description:
This collection consists of a wooden photograph album and three packets of loose photographs of African American women on vacation in Maine – about 15 women, and a total of 112 photos. They might have been traveling to Maine for a church group gathering [suggested by multiple photos of the All Saints by the Sea church] or as a woman’s group vacationing in Maine. Many locations are identifiable as being along the Mid-coast. Many of the photos are of Pemaquid Point, Boothbay, the shore line, and boats. The date range is 1940s and 50s. The album was purchased from …
Sam Gen Ms 01 Jean Byers Sampson Papers Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton, Susannah Clark
Sam Gen Ms 01 Jean Byers Sampson Papers Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton, Susannah Clark
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Description:
Jean Byers Sampson was a 1944 graduate of Smith College. Early in her post-Smith career, she conducted and wrote the 1947, “A Study of the Negro in Military Service,” which contributed to President Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces. Sampson moved to Maine in the early 1950s with her husband, Richard Sampson, a Bates College mathematics professor, and she played a unique and critical role in the state until her death in 1996. Over the course of her life in Maine, she served as the founder of the first chapter of the NAACP in Maine, local and …
Aa Ms 05 Cummings Guest House Register Finding Aid, Karin A. France
Aa Ms 05 Cummings Guest House Register Finding Aid, Karin A. France
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Description:
The Cummings family of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, ran a guest house from 1923 until 1993. Register in which guests signed themselves in or were signed in by staff at the Cummings Guest House, 110 Portland Ave., Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Includes signatures of family members who attended reunions after the Guest House ceased operation.
Date Range:
1923-1998
Size of Collection:
1 ft.
Aa Ms 04 Eastern Real Estate Archives Finding Aid, Patrick J. Mooney
Aa Ms 04 Eastern Real Estate Archives Finding Aid, Patrick J. Mooney
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Description:
The Eastern Real Estate Company was an association of African-Americans who bought and sold real estate in the Portland area from 1912-2001. The records in the Archives include articles of association, minutes, financial records, stock records, listings of stockholders, tax records, bank books and legal documents.
Date Range:
1912-2001
Size of Collection:
1 ft.
Aa Ms 03 Harold E. Richardson Papers Finding Aid, Susie R. Bock
Aa Ms 03 Harold E. Richardson Papers Finding Aid, Susie R. Bock
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Description:
Harold E. Richardson (1922-1993) was born in Portland and attended West School and Portland High School. Richardson was elected to the Portland Water District Board in 1963. He served on the Board until at least 1987, including a stint as president in the late 60s. He was very active in the Portland community: his contributions include service on the Maine State Law Enforcement Planning and Assistance Agency and membership in the Mt. Lebanon Masonic Lodge and Deering Lions Club, among many others. The Papers contain his scrapbook, documenting his many contributions to the Portland community, including serving on the …
Ms. Joanna Boley-Lee On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee
Ms. Joanna Boley-Lee On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Maureen Elgersman Lee.
Interviewee: Ms. Joanna Boley-Lee (age 66; born 1937 in Newark, New Jersey; lived in Maine for 8 ½ years)
“I think my closing reflections would be that when I came to Lewiston I remember walking across the bridge that goes across the Androscoggin, the extension of Main Street, just sort of looking out, and there was a black man with a camera and I thought, good, there's a black person. So I went up to him and I introduced myself, told him I was new in the area and he tells me he was visiting. I …
Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee
Reverend Albert Jackson And Mrs. Clemmie Jackson On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Maureen Elgersman Lee
Interviewees: Reverend Albert Jackson (born in Slabfork, Virginia; age 61; lived in Maine for 43 years) and Mrs. Clemmie Jackson (born March 1948 in Marengo County, Alabama; age 55; lived in Maine for 3.5 years)
“Well I like it. You know, I describe it as, ah, a place where you can shop. I notice when it rain, a lot of people go out to eat. They like to eat here in Maine. And I've noticed -- I've (inaudible) –but this is a good area to live in.”
Interviewer: “Are there any events in Lewiston and Auburn's …
Mr. James Sheppard On Leisure, Sanela Zukic
Mr. James Sheppard On Leisure, Sanela Zukic
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Sanela Zukic
Interviewee: Mr. James Sheppard (born in New York City in 1924; both his parents immigrated from Antigua in the West Indies to Canada, then they came to the United States in 1923; moved to Maine in 1971).
“But in addition to that we'd have lots of summer events: picnics and that sort. But that's separate; that's a different thing.”
“Between my wife and I, we saw to it that they did a lot of reading. And we did a lot of traveling. We did a lot of traveling to the Caribbean and South America, and we took …
Mr. Richard Terrence On Leisure, Rachel Talbot-Ross
Mr. Richard Terrence On Leisure, Rachel Talbot-Ross
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Rachel Talbot-Ross
Interviewee: Mr. Richard Terrence (age 57; born 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio; moved to Maine in October 1975)
“And, you know, raising my children is interesting in that as they grew older and as they noticed the very differences, they were starting to mix in very well. They were making friends, and, you know, they were involved in sporting activities and community.”
Mr. Richard Terrence On Education And Employment, Rachel Talbot Ross
Mr. Richard Terrence On Education And Employment, Rachel Talbot Ross
Quotes
Mr. Richard Terrence Full Interview
Richard Tarrence was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1945, the second-oldest of seven siblings. His parents moved to Ohio from the South in the 1930s; his maternal grandfather was a bishop in the AME church, and his paternal grandfather was a sharecropper. He was drafted in 1965 and spent four years in the Air Force, including time in Vietnam. He married his ex-wife, Loretta Wilson, who was from Maine, and they moved to Portland in 1975. He completed a degree in Criminal Justice at USM in 1979, and spent twenty-two years working for Allstate Insurance. …
Mrs. Emma Jackson On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman-Lee
Mrs. Emma Jackson On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman-Lee
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Maureen Elgersman Lee
Interviewee: Mrs. Emma Jackson (age 62; born 1941 in Atlanta Georgia; lived in Maine for 46 years; has three children)
“Because it wasn't ever in the - the -- the, ah, club scenes, or any scenes like that. Actually, we live, ah, a really sheltered life. We went to church. We were involved. But the church was our main focus and our main goal. And I -- and -- and our lives were wrapped -- revolved around that. So that might be -- which would be a reason why we didn't--”
Mr. Edgar Anderson On Leisure, Amber Panzella
Mr. Edgar Anderson On Leisure, Amber Panzella
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Amber Panzella
Interviewee: Mr. Edgar Anderson (Male; age 51; born 1950 in Chicago suburb called Harvey; Moved to Portland Maine in 1985)
“I just spent last weekend down in Massachusetts with-as I said before-with my daughter who played in basketball tournaments Saturday and Sunday, so we spent the weekend in Massachusetts playing basketball. This weekend her mom will spend time with her in Hudson, New Hampshire, playing softball. She's also a softball player…Yeah, and two weeks from now we're gonna be in Connecticut, and the week after that we'll be playing basketball in D.C. So we're very involved with …
Ms. Lucille Young On Leisure, Anab Osman
Ms. Lucille Young On Leisure, Anab Osman
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Anab Osman
Interviewee: Ms. Lucille Young (age 73; born 1928 in Jackson, Mississippi; moved to Maine in 1967) “[Barbeque] Yeah. We have four picnic tables in the backyard, and chairs, and we have a grill. And I have a swimming pool, so they’re always there. They’re always at my house. Which I’m trying to get rid of half of them, but I know it’ll never happen.”
Mrs. Rose Jackson On Leisure, Hamida Suja
Mrs. Rose Jackson On Leisure, Hamida Suja
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Hamida Suja
Interviewee: Mrs. Rose Jackson (age 66; born in Louisville, Mississippi; lives in South Portland for 39 years; married 34 years; has six children; had five children with her first husband; he died and she remarried and had a child with the current husband)
“And we would get together, like, have a fish fry on the weekend with our white friends, our white neighbors. And when we would get out and fish, my daddy and them would go down and get in the water and just muddy the water up with hoes-what you chop cotton with-and the fish …
Mrs. Odessa Barret On Leisure, Usm African American Collection
Mrs. Odessa Barret On Leisure, Usm African American Collection
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: -
Interviewee: Odessa Barret (born in Port Arthur, Texas, 1948)
“Life for me as a child was bitter sweet. I was between the youngest boy and girl so I was never alone. Church was the focal point of our lives. It was a time of "White Only" restrooms and drinking fountains, but we were spared a lot of that because we owned our own car so public transportation was not a worry for us. Traveling food for us was a basket of fried sausage and biscuits if it was morning and fried chicken and bread if it was lunch …
Mrs. June Mckenzie On Education And Employment, Aretha Williams
Mrs. June Mckenzie On Education And Employment, Aretha Williams
Quotes
Mrs. June McKenzie Full Interview
June McKenzie, a fifth-generation Mainer, was born in Portland, Maine, in 1929, one of twelve children. Her mother, Florence Eastman Williams, was a Portland native; her father, a truck driver, was a graduate of Tuskegee Institute. She graduated from Portland High School in 1947; she attended Northeastern Business College for one year, and took several classes at the American Institute of Banking while employed at People’s Heritage Bank, where she worked for twenty-two years. She married and had eight children, and at the time of this interview had two grandchildren. She is a longtime member …
Mrs. June Mckenzie On Leisure, Aretha Williams
Mrs. June Mckenzie On Leisure, Aretha Williams
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Aretha Williams
Interviewee: Mrs. June McKenzie (age 72; born 1929 in Portland Maine; fifth-generation Mainer; lived in Maine all her life)
“Oh, yes we do, and they're really big. My sister in Connecticut has, what, seven children, and my sister in the islands has three, and my other sister has one. And all our families and our grandchildren and everything, we all get together on Fourth of July and have a picnic at Sebago Lake, which started out as a big church thing. Our church did it every year, and we've just kept up the tradition.”
“Well, my neighborhood …
Ms. Beverly Bowens On Education And Employment, Vanessa Saric
Ms. Beverly Bowens On Education And Employment, Vanessa Saric
Quotes
Ms. Beverly Bowens Full Interview
Beverly Bowens was born in Portland, Maine, in 1934, and grew up on Munjoy Hill. She had one older brother. Her father was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin; her mother’s family had been in Portland for generations. She graduated from Portland High School, attended Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, and then moved to New York City to attend Teacher’s College at Columbia University; as of this interview, she had a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a master’s degree in nursing administration, and a master’s degree in institutional education. She married a surgeon and they had one daughter; …
Mr. James Mathews On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee
Mr. James Mathews On Leisure, Maureen Elgersman Lee
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Maureen Elgersman Lee
Interviewee: Mr. James Mathews (age 59; born 1941 in Portland Maine; married with five children; lived in Maine all his life – lived in South Portland for over 26 years)
“Well, when we talk about the Mathews family reunions and also the Fisher family reunions, because they're a part of our family. We all evolved from the Mathews really, and, of course, my name is Mathews. We had a family reunion in Nova Scotia that I went to in 1998. It was July; I think it was the 14th thru the 16th, or something like that, …
Ms. Beverly Bowens On Leisure, Vanessa Saric
Ms. Beverly Bowens On Leisure, Vanessa Saric
We Exist Series 4: Quotes
Interviewer: Vanesa Saric
Interviewee: Ms. Beverly Bowens (born in Maine; age 67; left at 21 years old for about 35 to 40 years and then returned to Maine)
“Actually, I'm a product of my environment. So when I went to New York, I had difficulty getting used to, for instance, going to a party, 8 o'clock. And even though in New York a party starts at eight, no one comes until ten. I go to bed early, and I get up very early. And this is something that I found a little bit different when I was in New York. …
Mr. James Mathews On Education And Employment, Maureen Elgersman-Lee
Mr. James Mathews On Education And Employment, Maureen Elgersman-Lee
Quotes
Mr. James Mathews Full Interview
James Mathews was born at Maine General Hospital in Portland, Maine, in 1941. He had four siblings; his father, Oscar Mathews, Jr., was a cook for the railroad that ran between Portland and Boston, and his mother, Llewena Hill Mathews, was one of the first graduates of the Gorham Normal School. His father’s family emigrated from Nova Scotia. As a child, he lived with his aunt and uncle in South Portland; the family moved to another home in South Portland when the state took their home to build I-295. Mathews graduated from Portland High School …
Cummings Guest House Register Pages 097 And 098, Usm African American Collection
Cummings Guest House Register Pages 097 And 098, Usm African American Collection
We Exist Series 4: Cummings Guest House Register Excerpts
This is a detail from the Cummings Guest House Register. You can see a digital version of the full text HERE.
Cummings Guest House Register Pages 099 And 100, Usm African American Collection
Cummings Guest House Register Pages 099 And 100, Usm African American Collection
We Exist Series 4: Cummings Guest House Register Excerpts
This is a detail from the Cummings Guest House Register. You can see a digital version of the full text HERE.
Cummings Guest House Register Pages 080 And 081, Usm African American Collection
Cummings Guest House Register Pages 080 And 081, Usm African American Collection
We Exist Series 4: Cummings Guest House Register Excerpts
This is a detail from the Cummings Guest House Register. You can see a digital version of the full text HERE.