Liam Riordan lectures at MMA Delano Hall. Photo by Aaron Paley.
Speakers and Lectures
Each year, the Castine Historical Society brings in speakers for its Annual Meeting, as well as for special events or subjects. These lectures are recorded and made available to everyone.
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Annual Meeting Lectures
Annual Meeting 2022
Following a brief CHS business meeting, nationally-known artist, Robert Shetterly, gives a talk on portraits he has painted and the stories of the people who affected him the most with their courage & commitment.
Annual Meeting 2021
Maine Maritime Academy instructor Captain Richard F. Miller gives a talk entitled “The Square Rigged Ship: Form & Function – Then and Now.” Captain Miller is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Marine Transportation at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. His classes of instruction include Terrestrial Navigation (Coastal Piloting), Celestial Navigation, Seamanship, Electronic Navigation, Meteorology, and Marine Weather Routing.
Annual Meeting 2019
Christopher Timm, Curator of Exhibits for the Maine Maritime Museum, gives an illustrated talk called “Maine and the Caribbean: A Plantation? A Paradise?” Mr. Timm discusses how Mainers have long traded with, fought over, and traveled to the Caribbean. He looks at how has our view of the region changed over time, and looks at the role of Maine’s ships and mariners.
Annual Meeting 2018
Castine summer resident and writer Lee Smith gives a talk entitled “BELIEVE IT OR NOT! Fact….or Fiction?” The author of 17 works of fiction, Lee has received many awards including the North Carolina Award for Literature and an Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Annual Meeting 2016
Peter Davis, Castine resident and award winning author and filmmaker, is the speaker at the 50th Annual Meeting and makes observations about the Society’s first half century. His talk is entitled, “Happy 50th Birthday, Castine Historical Society: Some Truths, Lies and Consequences of Your First Half Century.” Mr. Davis’ bio can be found HERE.
Annual Meeting 2015
Building and Grounds Committee Chair Marcia Mason, Contractor Steve Shea, and former Curator Paige Lilly speak about the construction of the renovated Grindle House.
Annual Meeting 2014
Gail Winkler, distinguished preservationist and design historian, discusses the thinking that went into the interior design decisions for the restoration of the Historical Society’s acquisition of the Grindle House. Dr. Winkler’s bio can be found HERE.
Special Speakers
The 13th Annual Deborah Pulliam Memorial Lecture with Carl Little
Guest curator for the Clark Fitz-Gerald exhibition Carl Little will deliver an illustrated lecture. In “Clark Fitz-Gerald: Castine’s Celebrated Sculptor-in-Residence” Little will highlight the life and work of the famed 20th-century sculptor, providing context for his place in modern sculpture, in Maine and beyond. The talk will feature photographs, sketches, caricatures and other materials from the Fitz-the Castine Historical Society, part of the gift of the artist’s children Leah and Stephen Fitz-Gerald.
Cotton’s Ocean: Castine and the Antebellum Cotton Trade
Dr. Stephen J. Hornsby gives a talk on “Cotton’s Ocean: Castine and the Antebellum Cotton Trade.” The lecture focuses on the importance of the trans-Atlantic cotton trade for the growth of the shipbuilding and shipowning industries in Maine before the Civil War, and how Castine fit into this world of oceanic commerce.
Perfected Visions of the Past: Maritime Maine in Almost 2020 Hindsight.
Lincoln Paine, noted maritime historian, author, editor, and curator was the speaker for the 12th Annual Deborah Pulliam Memorial Lecture on July 15.
Voting Down the Rose: Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage
Anne Gass gives a talk entitled “Voting Down the Rose: Maine’s Fight for Woman Suffrage,” based on Anne Gass’s great-grandmother, Florence Brooks Whitehouse. Florence was a novelist, painter, vocalist, and mother of three sons when she first joined the suffrage movement in 1914.
Deborah Pulliam Memorial Lecture 2019
Richard Ames, Guest Curator for our 2019 exhibit “Risky Business: Square-Rigged Ships and Salted Fish” gives an illustrated talk on his research on Castine’s square-rigged ships and maritime trade in the 19th century.
Deborah Pulliam Memorial Lecture 2018
Tomlin Coggeshall, grandson of Frances Perkins and founder of the Frances Perkins Center, delivers a lecture entitled “Molly Dewson and Frances Perkins: Two Powerful Women.”
Stephen Fitz-Gerald
The Castine artist Clark Fitz-Gerald (1917-2004) created many works in his long and successful career. In this talk entitled “Treasures from Clark Fitz-Gerald’s Sketchbooks”, the audience views a digital sampling of these visual treasures with commentary by his son, Stephen, who is also an artist.
Susan Ware
Women’s historian and Molly Dewson biographer Susan Ware gives a talk entitled “Two Lifelong Partnerships: Molly Dewson and Polly Porter, and the Historian Who Wrote About Them.” Additional information about Ms. Ware can be found HERE.
Frederick Church’s Paintings of Maine
Noted art historian and author John Wilmerding joins the Castine Historical Society for a special event celebrating the opening of the Samuel L. Grindle House. A bio for Mr. Wilmerding can be found HERE.
Here’s Looking At You, Castine
Members of the Castine Arts Association present a tribute to the town historically, literarily, poetically, photographically, and anecdotally. Includes special appearances by Mary Appleman, Harry Kaiserian, Paul Gray, Dixie Gray, Sandy Dinsmore, and Riva Berleant.
Jim Stone
Noted historian and educator Jim Stone takes us on a historical tour of Castine through the ages, much as he used to walk tourists through the town on an architectural tour.
