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Gardner, Ed, Ethan Bent

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Ed Gardner is a 62 year old gay male currently living in Falmouth and working in Portland. He grew up in Lewiston Maine and moved to Portland as a young adult. Starting from scratch, Ed was able to buy and sell buildings and found tremendous success over his long career as a real estate agent. Over the course of his life, Ed has fundraised and donated to a variety of Maine’s LGBTQ organizations. He was involved directly with the establishment of the Equality Community Center by first hosting LGBTQ tenants in his office space, and then helping to raise money …

Mf029 "Our Life, Our Work:" Lewiston Western Older Citizens Council / Marcella Sorg And Stefan Duplessis, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

The project "Notre Vie, Notre Travail-Our Life, Our Work" was initiated by the Lewiston Western Older Citizens Council by Diane Brown who worked there. Funded by the Maine Humanities Council, this project involved a series of bilingual interviews utilizing family albums to stimulate discussion about Franco-American culture, particularly as it pertained to work. That is, it concerned the following: how work reflected cultural values; work ethic; work/occupation patterns; how work was integrated with family life (or interfered with it); the history of work patterns in the Lewiston area, and about Franco-American culture and family life in general.

Lorraine Grace Libby Bowdoin Interview, Susie R. Bock

Lorraine Grace Libby Bowdoin Papers

Lorraine Grace Libby Bowdoin, Gorham State Teacher's College '59. A Portland native, she attended King Middle School and Portland High School. Mrs. Bowdoin taught for several school districts during her long teaching career and advocated tirelessly for mental health and elder issues.

Lorraine Grace Libby Bowdoin's physical papers are expansive and cover her entire life and career, including items from her attendance at Camp Laughing Loon as a child and young teen, her school assignments from elementary through graduate school, photos of her family and friends, items from her run as a Maine house representative, and several meticulously organized scrapbooks …

Oral History, Working Class Culture, And Local, Pauleena M. Macdougall

Publications

Stories of factory closings from many industries throughout the latter part of the twentieth century are common and numerous studies have documented the economic impact of these unfortunate events. In this case study of Brewer, Maine, oral histories with former workers at the primary source of local employment, Eastern Corporation, illuminate the nature of management-worker interactions at the mill. Eastern’s former employee narratives reveal a surprisingly unified perspective regarding the closing of the mill that does not reflect the public narrative put forward by management and business leaders.

Life On The Farm In The Old Days, Sunny Stutzman

Maine Song and Story Sampler

Sunny Stutzman's story relates some basic differences between life on the farm in the old days and now, but also generally differences between life on the farm and anywhere else in society.

Interview With Ken Curtis By Andrea L’Hommedieu, Kenneth 'Ken' M. Curtis

George J. Mitchell Oral History Project

Biographical Note
Kenneth Merwin “Ken” Curtis was born on February 8, 1931, in Leeds (Curtis Corner), Maine. He was graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the Maine Maritime Academy and rose to the rank of lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. In 1959, he earned a law degree from the Portland University School of Law (now the University of Maine School of Law) and opened a private practice. A life-long Democrat, he served as Maine’s secretary of state from 1965-1966 before being elected govern in 1967, an office he held until 1975. He was chairman of the Democratic …

Interview With Carole Cory By Brien Williams, Carole S. Cory

George J. Mitchell Oral History Project

Biographical Note
Carole Cory was born September 14, 1970, in Nashua, New Hampshire, to Mitchell staffer Gayle (Fitzgerald) Cory and Donald Bruce Cory. Buzz Fitzgerald was her uncle and Gayle Cory’s brother. She worked for Senator Paul Wellstone between 1997-2002. At the time of this interview, she was systems administrator for U.S. Senator Patty Murray.

Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family background and connection to Maine; extensive discussion of her mother’s (Gayle Cory’s) family, childhood and positions with Senators Muskie and Mitchell in the U.S. Senate and her time as postmaster of the Senate Post Office; Gayle Cory’s illness and …

Interview With John Martin By Mike Hastings, John L. Martin

George J. Mitchell Oral History Project

Biographical Note
John Lewis Martin was born on June 5, 1941, in Eagle Lake, Maine. At the age of three, his parents moved from Eagle Lake to Brownville Junction; he grew up speaking French and English. Martin was graduated from Fort Kent Community School in 1959 and afterwards spent two years at the University of Maine, Fort Kent before transferring to the University of Maine, Orono, graduating in 1963. While doing graduate work, he was elected to the Maine state legislature as a Democrat in 1964. He served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1964-1994 and was speaker of …

Interview With Christine Williams By Brien Williams, Christine G. Williams

George J. Mitchell Oral History Project

Biographical Note
Christine G. Williams was born January 20, 1952, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Adelaide and Donald Williams, a Methodist minister. She earned a degree in history from Boston University. As a VISTA volunteer she taught on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota before returning to New England to teach at Brunswick High School in Brunswick, Maine, for the 1975-1976 school year. Subsequently, after teaching in New Hampshire for four years, she was hired by George Mitchell’s U.S. Senate office in 1982 and worked there until 1994, focusing on health care issues in the latter years. She later went to …

Acadian Food, Michael Corbin

Maine Song and Story Sampler

In short, Acadians did not allow harsh weather, poor soil conditions, and an uncertain (or even hostile) political conditions to limit their culinary choices.

Round Table Interview With Mike Hastings, Anita Jensen, Estelle Lavoie, And Mary Mcaleney By Andrea L’Hommedieu, Michael 'Mike' M. Hastings, Anita Jensen, Estelle Lavoie, Mary E. Mcaleney

George J. Mitchell Oral History Project

Biographical Note
Michael M. Hastings, a native of Morrill, Maine, graduated from Tilton School (NH) in 1968 and Bowdoin College in 1972. Following a year of graduate study in Public & International Affairs at George Washington University, he worked for seven years as a foreign and defense policy aide to Senator William S. Cohen (1973-1980) and for four years for Senator George J. Mitchell (1980-1984). In October, 1984, he joined the international staff of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and moved to Africa. Over a span of eight years, he worked as a CRS development administrator in Kenya, Tanzania, Togo and …

Interview With Colleen Quint By Andrea L’Hommedieu, Colleen Quint

George J. Mitchell Oral History Project

Biographical Note
Colleen Quint was born on September 22, 1963. She grew up in Portland, Maine, attended Deering High School, and Bates College, graduating in 1985. She first met Senator Mitchell in the fall of 1985 while working as an intern in his Washington, D.C. office. She worked at the Christian Science Monitor for three years as editor for Western Europe and Great Britain, then returned to Maine for law school and practiced law for ten years. She is married to Bill Hiss, who was involved in the founding of the Mitchell Institute. At the time of this interview she …

Building Peapods, Eric Dow

Maine Song and Story Sampler

Eric Dow talks about how he came to build the type of boat known as a “peapod.”

Flunking A Test & Hiroshima, Lydia Franz

Maine Song and Story Sampler

The stories recounted here by Lydia Franz concern her experience in the United States Army as a cryptanalyst during World War II.

“They Lynched Jim Cullen”: Story And Myth On The Northern Maine Frontier, Dena Lynn Winslow York

Maine History

James Cullen was born in 1846 in Peel, New Brunswick. In 1864 he applied for a grant of land and began a small farm near his father’s homestead. From there, events unfolded, as Cullen crossed the border, married Rosellah Twist, and became one of the most celebrated villains in Aroostook County history.

The First Manure-Pitch, Mort Mather

Maine Song and Story Sampler

The Common Ground Country Fair (CGCF or “the Fair”) is Maine’s signature celebration of rural living, organic food and agriculture, and local enterprise.

Boat Launch, Pete Mcfarland

Maine Song and Story Sampler

Maine has a long and broad tradition of boat building, and in many coastal towns boat launches were a social event.

The Ounegan Mill Strike, Richard Davies

Maine Song and Story Sampler

This story describes a strike that took place at the Ounegan Woolen Mill in Old Town and explains how students at the University of Maine became involved.

Our Paper 07/1991, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.

Our Paper 06/1991, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.

The Little Mohea, Harvey Gurney

Maine Song and Story Sampler

"The Little Mohea," also known by many other names and spellings, is an old song that likely developed from an older English broadside song known as "The Indian Lass." Most folklorists agree that "Mohea" probably developed in its American form among sailors, and some even point to whaling ships specifically.

Bye-Bye Longjohns, Jim Cahill, Dot Ruppell

Maine Song and Story Sampler

"Bye-Bye Longjohns" is a musical representation of how most Mainers feel by the time March rolls around. For some, this feeling comes even earlier. The song was written in western Maine over the course of the late twentieth century.

The Spring Of ‘65, Eddie Rollins

Maine Song and Story Sampler

In the old days of the Maine Lumberwoods, March and April marked the end of cutting and hauling lumber for the winter. As loggers came out of the woods, either before returning for the river drives or just headed home until next Winter, many made their way to cities and went on drunken sprees that became legendary.

Our Paper 01/1991, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.

Our Paper 07/1990, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.

Our Paper 04/1990, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.

Jag Har En Vän (I Have A Friend), Chester Ringdahl

Maine Song and Story Sampler

"Jag har en van" is an old Swedish pietistic hymn, with words and music written by Nils Frykman in 1895. Swedish hymn writer Nils Frykman was part of the Swedish Free Church movement in old Sweden during the second half of the 19th century.

Our Paper 01/1990, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.

Our Paper 12/1989, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.

Our Paper 04/1989, Our Paper

Our Paper (1983-1992)

No abstract provided.