PEJEPSCOT HISTORICAL SOCIETY Executive Director Larissa Vigue Picard at the Pejepscot Museum and Research Center on Park Row in Brunswick, where a 1700s-era birch canoe is on display. PHS is celebrating 130 years this year.
For 130 years, Pejepscot Historical Society has worked to preserve the history of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell.
PHS is planning to exhibit selected pieces from its 100,000-item collection this year, including some that have rarely — if ever — been seen by the public. Examples include a letter signed by President John Quincy Adams and one of the nation’s oldest baseball bats dating from the 1860s. Also on display is the museum’s famous, 1700s-era Wabanaki birch canoe that was recently restored.
A DISPLAY CASE holds items from Joshua Chamberlain, as seen at the Joshua L. Chamberlain Museum Library. The case holds the boots Chamberlain wore at the Battle of Gettysburg.
A BASEBALL BAT that was made and used on the same day: Oct. 20, 1860. Made by John Furbish of Brunswick, lathe-turned. The game for which it was used was one of the earliest baseball games: Sunrise Club of Brunswick vs. Bowdoin College. Sunrise won, 46-42 — there were different rules in those days. The National Baseball Hall of Fame confirmed in 2011 that it’s one of the oldest bats created and resides in the PHS collection.
State historical societies formed in the years following the American Revolution, in order to establish an identity separate from Britain. Maine’s historical society formed in 1822, a couple of years after the region broke off from Massachusetts and became its own state.
Local historical societies, however, took longer to form. But the impetus was similar to their statewide counterparts — to track the progression of a community and preserve their history and identity for future generations.
How historical societies view local history has been changing with the times, highlighting the accomplishments of women and minorities — groups that are often overlooked.
“Originally, it was about celebrating the town founders — i.e. white men — and celebrating things like local businesses and economic prosperity,” Picard said. “Over time, most communities have come to realize that their history is a lot more broad and deep. I and most of my colleagues in Maine are very interested in exploring people whose stories have not been typically been written or talked about.”
The Brunswick area’s past is noted for connections to famous historical figures such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Joshua Chamberlain. Those figures may overshadow other important aspects of the history of the southern Midcoast, however, such as the textile industry and the presence of the Franco community. Through various programs and lectures, PHS has tried to shine a light on that part of history.
“That’s what people really want to know about. They want to know about the smaller stories,” Picard said. “People you wouldn’t have read about in a textbook.”
PHS and the community
The society owns and operates the
Joshua L. Chamberlain House Museum and the Skolfield-Whittier House, both of which are open to the public from Memorial Day to Columbus Day. That’s in addition to the Pejepscot Museum and Research Center on Park Row. Those three iconic properties require a lot of work to maintain.
“They’re grand and they’re beautiful to look at,” said Picard, “but they’re important to the history of the town.”
For example, PHS has undertaken a $70,000 project to repair seven chimneys at the museum.
“We’re in the process now restoring the dining room and breakfast room and back hallway of the Skolfield-Whittier House,” said Picard.
When completed, it will signal the restoration of the building’s first floor.
All that takes time and effort. PHS runs with a minimum staff, in addition to volunteers and a board of directors and strategic planning committee.
“It’s people who are committed,” Picard said. “That’s how this place has been sustained over the decades.”
The community can support PHS by attending PHS events, in addition to making donations, volunteering and becoming PHS members.
What makes PHS special, according to Museum Services Manager Catherine Cyr, is that community involvement.
“There are so many people who have an interest in what PHS does and local history, which is so encouraging,” Cyr said. “The collection we have here is also pretty spectacular.”
‘My place in the world’
Exploring the PHS collection, Picard said, “is like Christmas all the time.”
“I’m fascinated by old things, particularly objects,” she said. “Letters and documents and photographs are wonderful — that archival material is amazing for research. But there’s something about an object that you do not immediately know all the facts about.
“You have to ask yourself who made it, or who owned it,” Picard added. “To me, it’s a personal way to learn about people from the past.”
She has served as executive director at PHS since 2015, and credits, in part, her grandfather’s storytelling prowess for instilling in her a personal love of history.
“His best stories were family stories,” Picard said. “That planted the seed in me for a love of understanding where I came from and where my place in the world was and the people who had come before me.
“I’ve been thinking about the psychology as to why humans collect their past,” she added. “It’s about grounding yourself in a place and having the story of where you came from … understanding how it came to be. It’s a way to understand our legacy and look back at the things that people used in an earlier time — the stories, memories, the words people wrote down — to try to put ourselves in a context of a larger narrative.”
Like Picard, Cyr said she has a “love and passion” for historical objects, said PHS has been an intricate part of her education.
“The nitty-gritty, fun research happens when you don’t quite know what it is, and you’ve got to dig and put those puzzle pieces together,” Cyr said.
When she learns about an object Cyr said she is learning about “the people of the past.”
“Those objects are the first stepping stones that show us what they did and how they lived,” she said. “We don’t have time machines to go back and talk to them, but their objects can talk to us.”
Call PHS at (207) 729- 6606 or visit pejepscothistorical.org for more information, including how to volunteer or donate.
jswinconeck@timesrecord.com
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