Margaret Chase Smith Library
Newsletter
A Newsletter for Friends of the Library
Vol. 39, No. 3
As we head into the fall season, the staff of the Margaret Chase Smith Library is planning many exciting events! National History Day in Maine will be hosting teacher workshops and focus groups, field trips will commence, we continue to update the facility with new storage materials, and we are routinely refining our emergency planning to better protect our collections We hope everyone continues to be safe and healthy.
In this issue, you will learn about our recent library activities, educational opportunities, and various researchers and visitors. Each staff member has written what they have been doing over the last few months. Be sure to scroll all the way down and check out our up coming events section to see what’s on the horizon.
Directions
by David Richards
If this column wasn’t called Directions, it would be called Connections. Elsewhere in the newsletter, you will read about a new interactive exhibit. “Connections to Margaret” invites viewers to see the ways their lives are connected to Senator Smith’s. We are not all going to serve in Congress, but we all have families, homes, hobbies, memories, and favorites. One of the things I love about my job is seeing the web of relationships that get made between the past and the present, and hopefully to the future as well.
I was reminded of connections during the recent Margaret Chase Smith Appreciation Day on August 26th. One of the visitors was Robin Lisherness. For over three decades from the mid-1970s until 2010, he was involved in the award-winning speech and drama program at Skowhegan Area High School. Speaking of connections, the head of the program when he arrived was Elizabeth Merrill, who was Margaret Chase Smith’s neighbor across the street and the grandmother of our current maintenance worker, Amos Reid.
Mr. Lisherness came carrying scrapbooks his mother had compiled over the years. Some of the articles they contained pertained to Margaret. One was about a student who had won an award for re-creating Senator Smith’s “Declaration of Conscience.”
What had first caught my eye as Mr. Lisherness strode down the hallway was the military jacket with squadron insignias that he was wearing. The story he told was that it had belonged to Senator Smith’s long-time chief of staff, General William Lewis, and that she had given it to him after Bill’s death. In addition, she also presented him with one of her husband Clyde’s suits for use in a drama production. I enjoyed learning about Mr. Lisherness’s connections to Margaret, which he had then passed on to his students through the years.
What really made my day, though, was meeting a teacher at the other end of the educational spectrum, someone who was at the beginning of his career rather than in retirement. Neal Young was one of the last visitors to show up and came with his wife and eleven-month-old daughter. He was a local Social Studies teacher, who wanted to learn more about Senator Smith. What caught my attention about him was the passion he proclaimed for teaching the Constitution to young people. Bless you, Neal Young!
I was gleeful to introduce him to several relevant connections. The first was that his colleague at Lawrence High School in Fairfield, Maine, Tyler Duran, was married at Margaret’s home and his wife, Sarah, is Margaret’s great grandniece. The more important connection, however, was what Senator Smith always kept in her pocketbook that is still kept next to her bed in her house-- a copy of the United States Constitution.
These two encounters were the perfect brackets for Margaret Chase Smith Appreciation Day and kickoff to the new academic year. I am reassured to know that there are still young educators like Neal Young eager and enthusiastic to show students how the Constitution can connect “we the people” from many into one, if we don’t let our house become divided by petty partisanship and righteous rancor, as in the days of McCarthyism in the past and alas, also too often in our own present day.
Robin Lisherness with Drama Class students from Skowhegan Area High School (1978)
Clyde Smith’s Suit in a SAHS Theatrical Production
Senator Smith’s Pocket Copy of the Constitution
Communication Corner
By John Taylor
National History Day in Maine 2023
Another successful season of National History Day in Maine is in the books! In June I spent nearly a week representing our program and helping to coordinate the NHD national contest at the University of Maryland. It was the first in-person national event in four years and it was great to be back. After landing in Baltimore and traveling to College Park I spent my first day helping with final preparations and assisting new coordinators getting acclimated to the UMD campus. Then we were off to the races. My days were filled with greeting and checking-in competitors from all over the world, meetings with the Maine student delegation, running around campus to give Maine competitors words of encouragement before their judge times, judging senior papers, traversing Washington DC with our students, visiting Senators King and Collins, touring the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress, and celebrating our national winners at the award ceremony!
The Margaret Chase Smith Library has been the primary organizer and sponsor of NHD in Maine for a decade, and we are proud to say that 9 out of those 10 years we have had a national winner. This year our Outstanding Affiliate Award winners were Carolyne Sauda and Kathryn Busko from Bangor High School and Cora Berry, Clara McDuffie, and Simone Sites from Greely Middle School. Saud and Busko earned the award for their Senior Group Documentary about Senator Edmund Muskie entitled Mr. Clean’s Water Act: A New Frontier in Environmental Legislation. To see their submission click here. Berry, McDuffie, and Sites received recognition for their Junior Group Exhibit entitled Frances Glessner Lee: “Mother of Forensic Science”. They also made it to the final round of judging and ended with a fifth place ranking in the country. Finally, our national medalist was David Gilbert from Greely Middle School. He was awarded the Discovery or Exploration in History Award for his Junior Individual Documentary entitled On Top of the World: The Frontiers Faced by Matthew Henson and Robert Peary in their Quest for the North Pole. To see the winning documentary click here.
Fifty-seven students qualified to participate at the national contest. Twenty-eight of them were able to compete in this year’s national contest. We hope more will be willing to travel down to Maryland next year to partake in the fun!
Speaking of next year, plans for the 2024 contest season are underway. It’s the 50th anniversary of the national program. To celebrate we will be using their very first theme; Turning Points in History. Teacher workshops will hopefully be happening in Bangor this fall. My colleague Nicole Rancourt from the Maine Humanities Council and I will be traveling to Presque Isle, Machias, and Farmington within the next two months to try and expand the program using grant funds we received from the National Endowment for the Humanities. More exciting news is in the pipeline, but I cannot share with you just yet. Be sure to visit our webpage to keep up to date!
Carolyne Sauda and Kathryn Busko from Bangor High School.
David Gilbert from Greely Middle school shaking hands with NHD Executive Director Cathy Gorn.
Cora Berry and Clara McDuffie pictured with their teacher Katie Cassesse from Greely Middle School.
learning Lounge
by Kim Nelson
Even with the rainy summer, the library was able to have some fun with visitors and programs. The mudpies and fireflies slime program co sponsored with Skowhegan Free Public Library and their Summer Reading Program was originally scheduled for the end of June but it rained on both the original date and the rain date. The earlier postponed slime program took place on Margaret Chase Smith Appreciation Day in August. On that rainy Saturday, around 50 children and parents came to make mudpie slime which included cute plastic veggies and potting soil or to make fireflies slime with glow in the dark powder and glow in the dark bugs. It seemed that both parents and children enjoyed the fireflies slime as it was easily the more popular and messier table. Gabrielle, the new youth librarian at Skowhegan Free Public Library, decided to mix both to create a new type of slime. Currently unsure how that experiment fared. None of the Margaret Chase Smith Library staff made any slime, an oversight on our part we are sure. Participants had the opportunity to have some free snacks courtesy of the Library including bags of cotton candy (invented near the year of Margaret Chase Smith’s birth) as well as rock candy. Most children took home a packet of coloring pages pertaining to Senator Smith. Even with this being an indoor event, most of the slime did manage to stay on the tables or in the take home buckets. The glow in the dark plastic bugs went home with participants or were donated to the Skowhegan Free Public Library where, unfortunately, they are not the type of bugs the library’s pet frogs can consume, but I am confident the little critters will find their way into another program there.
Another indoor event this year was John Meader and his Northern Stars Planetarium hosted by the Margaret Chase Smith Library for the Skowhegan Free Public Library Summer Reading Program. It is my favorite program. Two separate age groups were able to enter into the dome and enjoy the different programs offered and learn about our solar system. The adults who entered the dome enjoyed the shows as well. I, personally, enjoyed listening to the ABC solar system program. Initial talks are happening at the Margaret Chase Smith Library to do an eclipse program next year for the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 with John Meader and the Skowhegan Free Public Library.
George W. Mitchell day camp children and chaperones came in July to spend some time playing Margaret Chase Smith bingo, learning about the archives, being a researcher in the museum, and getting a tour of the Senator’s home.
This field trip reminds the staff that school groups will soon be visiting the library once they are settled into their new school year. If you know of any schools or teachers who would like to visit the library, please have them contact the library for more information. We love to talk about Margaret Chase Smith with students.
A thank you to all who voted on the name for the new elementary school, the Margaret Chase Smith Community School. It is currently being constructed in Skowhegan. It is a lasting legacy to our dear Senator.
Making mudpie slime!
John Meader’s Planetarium set up in our seminar room.
Veggies at the ready for the mudpie slime.
Research Roundup
by Nicole Potter
Exhibitions
The Margaret Chase Smith Library was thrilled to open three new exhibitions this summer!
The first was a hosted exhibition curated by a student for the National History Day (NHD) in Maine 2023 competition. Developed by Sadie Williams, a Waterville Senior High School student and recipient of the NHD Margaret Chase Smith Maine Exhibition Award, “Working Women: Maine Female Shipbuilders During World War II” examines what was an essential contribution to the war effort. Sadie’s informative poster board is accompanied by photographs that highlight Senator Smith’s support of Maine’s shipping industry and the women who worked in the shipyards as well as materials about the NHD in Maine program. This exhibition will be on display through the fall at the Library.
Second is an exhibition developed by the Library’s staff in celebration of Skowhegan’s bicentennial. “Mapping Skowhegan: Celebrating the Bicentennial Through Margaret’s Eyes” takes a look at both the changes to Skowhegan’s landscape over the past two hundred years and the landmarks that would have made up the town that Senator Margaret Chase Smith knew and loved. This is achieved through a combination of photographs, documents, and artifacts from the Library’s collection alongside four maps courtesy of the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine. Three of the four maps were produced before the birth of Margaret Chase Smith, née Margaret Madeline Chase, on December 14, 1897, with the fourth being published in 1898. The changing landscape shown in these maps was the backdrop to Margaret’s childhood and influenced her relationship with the town for the duration of her life. This exhibition will be on display throughout the end of the year.
Third is an interactive exhibition that we hope all visitors to the Library will engage with! Opened on Margaret Chase Smith Day, 2023, “Connections to Margaret” encourages you to consider how many ways you are similar to Senator Margaret Chase Smith. It can be difficult to remember that, despite her long list of credentials and accomplishments, Margaret had many traits, characteristics, habits, and experiences that many of us can relate to. She adored her dogs, was the eldest of her siblings, routinely enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich (especially if it was burnt), and could play the piano. The exhibition provides a tangible opportunity to see all of your points of interaction with Senator Smith (and with your fellow visitors). We will be keeping an eye on this project throughout the rest of 2023 and into 2024 and sharing images of it in the Margaret Chase Smith Library Newsletter and on our social media channels. Keep an eye out to see all our “Connections with Margaret”!
Professional Development
Just a few weeks ago I was thrilled to attend a workshop led by the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) which was held at the Portland Museum of Art. Titled “Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Salvage,” the workshop covered risk assessment and mitigation, emergency preparedness and response, and related emergency planning topics. What I most appreciate about it was the hands-on portion of the day where I was able to practice salvage techniques for formats found in the Margaret Chase Smith Library’s collections, this included books, documents, photographs, and audiovisual materials. All of these materials were submerged in water for a portion of the workshop before they were salvaged. These are essential techniques to learn since so many disasters that can befall cultural institutions include the introduction of water to one degree or another.
While I have been trained in emergency preparedness and response previously, this was a fantastic opportunity to brush up on past knowledge and also gain some new insights. I was happy with what I was able to bring back to the Library to add to our institutional knowledge and disaster plan. Additionally, I look forward to putting my new skills to the test in a few weeks when the Library is due to hold a staff disaster training day ourselves.
Nicole Potter installing the Skowhegan Bicentennial exhibit.
Visitors engage with Connections to Margaret exhibit.
Nicole Potter doing hands-on training during the NEDCC Disaster Workshop at the Portland Museum of Art.
Upcoming events
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