History Commons^™

Mabel Haskell's Wedding Gown, Jacqueline Field

Maine History

No abstract provided.

“To Conserve The Best Of The Old”: The Impact Of Professionalization On Adoption In Maine, Mazie Hough

Maine History

The Good Samaritan Home Agency has served young pregnant rural women from throughout the state of Maine since 1902. In its first four decades, the Home attracted more women than it could serve by incorporating rural values of self-reliance and hard work into its philosophy and organizational structure. Women came to the home to deliver their children and stayed for a required six-month residency. Taking advantage of inexpensive childcare and job placement provided by the Agency, many women gained the opportunity to remain in the city; keep their children, obtain jobs, and marry. By the 1940s, pressure from state and …

“You Speak Very Good English For A Swede”: Language, Culture, And Persistence In Maine’S Swedish Colony, Katherine Hoving

Maine History

In the summer of 1870, a small group of Swedish immigrants arrived in northern Maine with the intention of establishing a farming colony in a place they called New Sweden. Despite many difficulties, the community has persisted and maintained a strong sense of its Swedish heritage. A demographic study of those who lived in the Swedish colony during its first sixty years suggests that language retention played an important role in keeping both the community and its identity alive. Katherine Hoving completed her Masters of Arts in History at the University of Maine, Orono, in December 2001. She is currently …

Sufficient Unto Themselves: Life And Economy Among The Shakers In Nineteenth-Century Rural Maine, Mark B. Lapping

Maine History

Community self-sufficiency was an ideal that both defined and informed the Shaker experience in America. During the nineteenth century the Shakers at Sabbathday Lake Colony in New Gloucester, Maine—today the last remaining Shaker Colony in the nation— developed a sophisticated economic system that combined agricultural innovation, a far-reaching market-based trade in seeds, herbs, and medicinals, mill-based and home manufacturers, and “fancy goods” to supply the developing tourist sector. They practiced both selective cloture and a profound degree of market savvy as they confronted the maturing market economy. Mark B. Lapping is Professor of Public Policy at the Muskie School of …

The Lynching Of James Cullen: Anomaly Or Archetype?, Stephen P. Budney

Maine History

Stephen P. Budney received his Masters Degree in History at the University of Maine and his Ph.D at the University of Mississippi. He currently teaches history at Pikeville College. He is the author of several articles and is currently writing a biography of abolitionist and reformer William Jay. He resides in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife and four dogs

Assessing The Concept Of Human Rights In Africa, Paul J. Magnarella

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Human Rights in Africa: The Conflict of Implementation by Richard Amoako Baah. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000. 123pp.

The title of this book is somewhat more expansive than its contents. The author, a native Ghanaian who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee and teaches government at South Texas College, reports on an interesting study of human rights/human dignity conceptualizations among the Akan people of Ghana. The Akan constitute about 60% of Ghana’s 14 million people and consist of five major groups: Fanti, Ashanti, Akim, Brong, and Akwapim. A sizable Akan population also lives …

Adams County Grave-Stonecutters, 1770-1918, Nancy Delong

Adams County History

Stonecutting in Adams county followed all the general developmental trends and stages exhibited by the craft in other parts of Pennsylvania. Adams county, nonetheless, evolved its unique approach to gravestone art, for rural early American stonecutters were by and large highly unique artistic individuals.

The earliest prominent stonecutters maintained high artistic standards as well as exhibiting a high degree of creativity. These were craftsmen of the Scots-Irish Bigham family of Marsh Creek and the Pennsylvania-German Meals family, centered at Bender's Cemetery, Butler township. A third outstanding Adams county stonecutter was the predecessor of Barnet Hildebrand of East Berlin. This artist …