Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Jud Ms 06 Myer Marcus Interview Finding Aid, Katharine Renolds Thomas

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Myer M. Marcus was born in Portland, Maine in 1914, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants Saul Marcus, a Portland clothier, and his wife Bertha Marcus, nee Goldstein. As a boy he enjoyed spending his free time at the Portland Boys Club on Plum Street. He attended North School and Portland High School, then spent one year at the University of Virginia before transferring to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Marcus earned his LL.B. in 1937 from Boston University School of Law, then returned to Portland to open the Marcus and Marcus law office on Exchange Street with his younger …

Lg Ms 039 Maine Frontrunners Archives Finding Aid, Katharine Renolds Thomas

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Maine Frontrunners was founded April Fool’s Day, 1995, inspired by the enthusiastic leadership of the legendary runner John Bean. The group has run Saturday mornings since then, through all kinds of weather. The Maine group is part of International Front Runners, an affiliation of GLBT running/walking clubs that have organized in many of the larger cities around the world. Inspired by Patricia Nell Warren's novel The Front Runner, the first Front Runner club began in San Francisco in 1974, and other FR clubs quickly began forming in the United States and then in Canada and abroad.

Date Range:

1994-2003 …

Lg Ms 037 Penny Rich Collection Finding Aid, Katharine Renolds Thomas

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Records and artifacts documenting the Maine Lesbian Gay Film Festival and Women's Community Project of Portland

Date Range:

1980s-1990s

Size of Collection:

7 ft.

Lg Ms 036 Michael Rossetti Collection Finding Aid, Megan Hendrix

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Michael Rossetti was chiefly responsible for creating and running Southern Maine Pride, and was the grandmaster at the 2006 Pride festival. The Papers contain records and artifacts documenting Southern Maine Pride and other Gay and Lesbian events from the 1980s to 2000.

Date Range:

1980s-2000

Size of Collection:

4 ft.

Lg Ms 033 Dawn Fortune Papers Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Dawn Fortune revitalized the Gay-Straight People's Alliance and ran the student newspaper at theUniversity of Maine at Farmington in the early 1990s. The Papers contains photographs and contactsheets, 2 folders of Pride materials, 4 VHS videos of programs/events by GASPP, a Central Maine Needs Assessment of LGBT teens compiled in 1996 by Fortune for the group Equal Rights For All (ERFA), and an essay Fortune wrote in 1988 entitled 'AIDS kills.'

Date Range:

1988-2002

Size of Collection:

1 ft.

Aa Ms 08 N. T. Swezey's Son & Co. Tin Sign Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

N. T. Swezey (Noah Terry) (1814-1888) was a flour merchant in New York City. He ran a successful business for over forty years at 176 South St., and was one of the founders of the New York Produce Exchange. This collection contains a reproduction of a sign advertising Northwest Consolidated Milling Company flour. The sign depicts the figure of a black child standing behind and slightly below the figure of a white child. The white figure is sitting on a container of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company’s flour and is holding a slice of white bread. Both children have …

Lg Ms 022 Larry Bliss Collection Finding Aid, Maeve Wachowicz, Elizabeth Sistare

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Lawrence (Larry) Bliss was born and raised in California, lived in Maine for twenty years, and returned to California in 2011. He holds Bachelor’s Degrees in History and Political Science and a Master's Degree in Urban Public Administration all from the University of California. He has worked as a middle school and high school teacher and coach and as Director of Career Services and Professional Life Development at the University of Southern Maine. He was elected to the Maine Senate in 2008, representing the 7th district, which includes his hometown of South Portland, as well as Cape Elizabeth and …

Lg Ms 032 Marty Sabol Papers Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Marty Sabol manages the Infectious Disease Program at the Public Health Division of the Portland Department of Health and Human Services. He oversees prevention efforts and healthcare services related to sexually transmitted and vaccine preventable diseases in the Portland area. He has served as vice-president of the Maine Public Health Association, as an advisor to the Equity Fund of the Maine Community Foundation and as a member of the GLBT Caucus of Public Health Workers with the American Public Health Association. In 1984, Sabol co-founded the Maine Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance (MLGPA), now known as EqualityMaine, serving as …

Aa Ms 11 Lee Forest Figurines Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Lee Forest, Director of Environmental Services at the University of Southern Maine, donated the figurines in 2002. In the early years of the twentieth century the commoditization of Aunt Jemima expanded beyond commercial flour mix to include a diverse array of products such as rag dolls, dish towels, cookie jars and salt-and-pepper shakers. Eventually, a husband was added, Uncle Mose, and two children, Diana and Wade. Household notions depicting the family continued to be produced into the 1960s, when the civil rights and black consciousness movements encouraged an examination of the symbolism behind representations of African Americans. The collection …

Aa Ms 09 Flynn Seal Presses Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Stephen Flynn discovered these two seal presses on Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Maine, in 1978. They were found in the remains of the Silver Sands Hotel, which had to be destroyed after damage caused by a storm. Two seal presses were from the Women's Ku Klux Klan organizations of Augusta and Bath, Maine. The one from WKKK chapter of Augusta, Maine reads: “Women of the Ku Klux Klan; Capital City Klan; Klan No 11 Augusta, Maine.” In the center there is a shield with a cross and the letters W, K, K, K, at the top, bottom, and sides …

Aa Ms 10 Ku Klux Klan Photograph Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

The Ku Klux Klan Photograph is a black-and-white image of a KKK march that took place in Lincoln, Maine in 1927. The print measures 8 inches by 9.5 inches.

Date Range:

1927

Size of Collection:

0.10 ft.

Lg Ms 031 Dale Mccormick Papers Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Dale McCormick was the first woman in the country to complete a carpentry apprenticeship with the carpenter’s union and is a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters local 1996, having been a carpenter and contractor for 30 years. In 1988, McCormick founded Women Unlimited, a program that successfully trains women on welfare to compete for high-paying jobs in trade and technical occupations. In 1984, McCormick helped found and became the first President of the Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance (now called EqualityMaine), which advocates statewide for civil rights and better treatment for lesbian/gay/bi/transgender/and questioning people. She was a co-founder …

Lg Ms 027 Diane Elze Papers Finding Aid, Elizabeth Sistare, Nicholas Martin

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

A 1978 graduate of the University of Maine, Orono, Diane Elze began her volunteer career working for the YWCA Fair Harbor Shelter in Portland, Maine. She was an activist in the LGBT community in the Portland area in the 1980s and 1990s. Among other activities, she was a founding member of the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance, worked on the AIDS Project, and founded the LGBT youth group, Outright. She also edited the newsletter Moving, The Newspaper of the Maine Association of Handicapped Persons and founded the statewide gay and lesbian newspaper, Our Paper. Elze earned a Master’s Degree …

Lg Ms 030 Allen Bernstein Collection Finding Aid, Elizabeth Sistare

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Allen Bernstein was born on June 19, 1913 in Nashua, New Hampshire. He holds a MA in Economics from the University of Chicago. Bernstein enlisted in the Army in 1940 and fought in WWII, doing clerical work in the U.S., until 1944 when he was dishonorably discharged for being openly gay. After the war he married a woman– who knew he was gay – and had two sons. He then moved to Maine to work for the Maine State Labor Department as a Labor market analyst. After retirement in 1978 he became involved in providing volunteer services to the …

Aa Ms 07 African American Maine Photograph Album Finding Aid, Elizabeth Sistare

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

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 …

Lg Ms 029 Margaret Cruikshank Papers Finding Aid, Christina E. Walker, Anthony Marvullo

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Margaret Cruikshank (b. 1940) has not only led a distinguished career in academia but is also the author of numerous works. Cruikshank’s earliest writings include reviews, essays and articles that have appeared in a variety of periodicals. Other publications include The Lesbian Path (1980), The Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement (1992), and Learning to Be Old: Gender, Culture, and Aging (2003). After earning her Ph.D., Cruikshank began teaching English at colleges and universities throughout the Midwest. In 1975, Cruikshank moved to Minnesota where she continued to teach university level English and also helped establish Mankato State University’s first women’s …

Lg Ms 028 Robin Lambert Collection Finding Aid, Elizabeth Sistare

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Robin Lambert was politically active in Maine for more than 40 years, was for many years the most prominent Republican to publicly support LGBT civil rights, and persuaded many in his party to join him in that struggle. He was one of the founders of the Maine Lesbian Gay Political Alliance (MLGPA)(now EqualityMaine) in 1984, and was twice recognized by MLGPA for his outstanding work for civil rights. As an early advocate of addressing the issues surrounding HIV and its impact on the state, Lambert was a founding member of both The Maine Health Foundation and The AIDS Project …

Lg Ms 026 Michael Martin Papers Finding Aid, Nicholas Martin

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Print materials collected by this AIDS activist, primarily about the AIDS epidemic and treatment, including The AIDS Project in Maine.

Size of Collection:

1 ft.

Sam Gen Ms 01 Jean Byers Sampson Papers Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton, Susannah Clark

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

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 …

Lg Ms 025 George Daniell Artwork Finding Aid, Susannah Clark

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

George Daniell, photographer and artist, lived the second half of his life in a coastal community near Bar Harbor, Maine. Originally from Yonkers, he worked as a freelance photographer in New York and Europe for most of his early career. In the 1930’s, he made his first visits to Monhegan Island and Grand Manan Island, capturing images in photographs and paintings. For many years he owned a house on Fire Island, and spent winters in Key West, and these locations also feature prominently in his work. He is best known for his photographic portraits of well-known artists and literary …

Aa Ms 06 Home Is Where I Make It - Oral History Collection Finding Aid, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

This oral history project was directed by Dr. Maureen Elgersman Lee, of USM, and Rachel Talbot Ross. The interviews were conducted by local high school students. The Collection includes transcripts, photographs and audiotapes from the two phases of the project, which documented African American life in the Greater Portland and Lewiston-Auburn areas.

Date Range:

2001-2003

Size of Collection:

1 ft.

Lg Ms 021 Maine Civil Rights March & Rally Committee Archives Finding Aid, Maeve Wachowicz

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

The Maine Civil Rights March & Rally Committee was formed in response to the February 1998 repeal of the civil rights law which had been enacted in May 1997. They organized a march, rally and fundraising entertainment event on Oct. 18, 1998. They followed these events with a vigil in memory of Mathew Shepard, with services held in several parts of the state on Oct. 18, 1998. The Committee also sponsored an "Interfaith Vigil Against Hate Violence" in Bangor on Oct. 7, 1999. The Archives contains some records of the Committee, blank cards representative of an effort to have …

Lg Ms 020 Equal Protection/Portland Archives Finding Aid, Maeve Wachowicz

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Equal Protection/Portland (EP/P) was a volunteer organization formed in Portland, Maine in 1992 that campaigned to uphold a Human Rights Ordinance passed by Portland’s City Council. Ultimately the ordinance was upheld in a referendum vote on November 3, 1992. That year was contentious for LGBT issues around the country and gay rights figured prominently in a presidential election for the first time in the race between Bill Clinton and George Bush. The Archives contains EP/P administrative files and campaign materials, such as flyers, brochures, press releases, survey results, audio recordings, and a bus banner. Articles reflecting national attention to …

Lg Ms 019 Westbrook Citizens For Equal Rights Archives Finding Aid, Maeve Wachowicz

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Westbrook Citizens for Equal Rights (WCER) was a Political Action Committee (PAC) registered in Westbrook, Maine in June of 2002. WCER was formed to promote civil rights in Westbrook, and notably campaigned to uphold the Westbrook Human Rights Ordinance of 2002. The archives contain materials from both the “Vote Yes” and “Vote No” campaigns on the Human Rights Ordinance referendum, such as flyers, pamphlets, campaign signs and stickers, advertisements, volunteer instructions, and correspondence. There is also information on the 2003 election in Westbrook, and on similar ordinance campaigns in Falmouth, Maine, and in Kalamazoo and Traverse City, Michigan, in …

Lg Ms 018 Maine Won’T Discriminate Archives Finding Aid, Karin A. France

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Maine Won't Discriminate (MWD) was an organization created to work toward passing LGBT civil rights legislation in Maine and to advocate against/for citizens referenda that would have overturned/sustained such legislation. The Archives contains organizational records as well as print and audiovisual material created and used by the organization. The majority of the materials relate to MWD’s ultimately successful efforts to oppose referendum Question 1 in 2005, which read: “Do you want to reject the new law that would protect people from discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations and credit based on their sexual orientation?” The materials include polling …

Lg Ms 011 Northern Lambda Nord Archives Finding Aid, Michelle E. Smith, Kristin Morris

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

One of the earliest gay and lesbian groups in the state, NLN began in 1979 as a support network for the rural LGBT community, located in Aroostook County, with members in Maine and New Brunswick. By the mid-1980s, NLN had added an outreach component, working to educate the local community on LGBT identity and acceptance and health and HIV/AIDS issues. They also started a Gay-Lesbian Phoneline which grew into the Maine HIV/AIDS Hotline. The group disbanded in 2000, but re-formed in 2006. The Archives contains an extensive collection of organizational records, promotional materials, photo albums and artifacts.

Date Range: …

Lg Ms 017 Susan Farnsworth Papers Finding Aid, Karin A. France

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Susan Farnsworth earned her undergraduate degree from Bates College in 1969 and her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maine School of Law in 1976. She has worked in several city and state government positions, including Maine State Representative from 1988-1994. Farnsworth has also been active in the LGBT community, serving as a member of the Executive Committee and an organizer of “Yes on 6” PAC in the Statewide Referendum Campaign in 2000. The Papers consist of working papers, publications, and other materials.

Date Range:

1970s-1990s

Size of Collection:

2.25 ft.

Jud Ms 03 Macabee Club Archives Finding Aid, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Macabee Club was a club of Jewish high school students in Portland from 1955 to the 1970s. The Archives contains organizational records of the group, including meeting minutes, newsletters, and event programs.

Date Range:

1955-1972

Size of Collection:

1 ft.

Jud Ms 02 Portland Jewish Community Center Uso Guest Book Finding Aid, Karin A. France

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

The Jewish Community Center on Cumberland Avenue in Portland, Maine was the site of United Service Organization (USO) social events, held regularly from at least October 1943 to September 1946. Most of the servicemen (and some women who were nurses) who attended events at the Community Center were in the Navy, stationed on shops docked or anchored in Casco Bay. These social events were sometimes held out on the islands. Although hosted by the Jewish Community Center, anyone was welcome, regardless of religion. Eleanor Edison Taft saved this ledger listing the names of attendees at the USO events when …

Jud Ms 01 Annetta Kornetsky Girl Scout Collection Finding Aid, Karin A. France

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Annetta Kornetsky was the Scout leader of Girl Scout Troops 109 and 177, sponsored by the Portland Jewish Community Center, between 1956 and 1958. The Collection contains records of Troops 109 and 177, including meeting agendas, finances, handbook pages, and minutes from November 1956 to March 1958.

Date Range:

1956-1958

Size of Collection:

0.08 ft.