Oral histories

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This collection consists of twelve interviews that concern the 1980 Indian Land Claims Settlement Act. Conducted by David Slagger, the interviews explore various tribal, state, federal, legal, and historical perspectives on the legislation, as well as opinions on the long term cultural and economic effects.

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Personal stories, narratives, and anecdotes about the great January 1998 ice storm.

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The collection consists of six interviews done by Joan Brooks and Jack Beard focused on the history of the Airline Road (Rt. 9 from Bangor to Calais, ME) and the Airline community ca. 1900.

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Series of interviews by historian Barry H. Rodrigue on life in Alaska.

Scope and Contents This collection contains 38 cassette recordings of interviews with residents of the towns of Alexander and Crawford, Maine, conducted under the auspices of the Alexander-Crawford Historical Society between the years of 1980-1991. Topics range from aspects of the history and lifeways of the area; to Townsend House; the School in the Woods; mills; stage routes; blueberries; Princeton; Pembroke; woods work; lakes; Alexander Frost; ghosts; and many other topics pertaining to Alexander and...

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A photo collection of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Acadia National Park from 1934-1935.

Scope and Contents A collection of fourteen series deposited by University of Maine graduate student, Russell Carey between March, 1992 and November, 1993. The collection features videotaped and or audio interviews with workers at the American Thread Company’s wooden spool mill in Milo, Maine, and contributed to research for Carey’s Master’s thesis entitled 3,750,000,000 Perfect Wooden Spools (University of Maine, 1994) (See NA 2329). The collective oral history of the mill’s workers documents conditions,...

Scope and Contents Anna Sevigny, interviewed by Julia Hunter, 1977, Hanover, New Hampshire. Series of interviews with about her life history. Topics covered include Irish immigrant ancestry; education levels; misunderstandings of different cultures; living conditions as a new arrival to the United States; disposition of parents. Also included is information about North Hartland, VT - description of social life and mills in the region as well as tenants; learning women's roles; chores; marriage; sewing and...

Scope and Contents Material collected for ANT 325 (Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork), fall 1985. Class materials collected pertaining to Halloween traditions in Maine. Eight-two individual accessions including tapes and transcripts and note cards containing citations of Halloween references in late 19th and early 20th century Maine newspapers. Interviewee ages range from 8 to 88 years old. Topics discussed include costumes; trick or treating; school and parties; Halloween treats; Finnish Easter; pranks;...

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This collection contains student papers from ANT 326 and 431 Folklore, the Environment, and Public Policy Collection. Topics of some of the papers include traditional medicine, basket making, environmental sustainability, energy resources, etc.

Scope and Contents The Argyle Boom Collection consists of approximately seventy-five hours of tape recorded interviews (now digitized). The interviews deal with Argyle Boom, which was one of several locations at which logs that had been cut upriver and floated or “driven” down the Penobscot River were sorted before being sent on to the lumber mills in Old Town, Orono, Veazie, Bangor, and Brewer, Maine, from approximately 1900 to 1930. The material includes interviews with people who had worked on the boom and...

Scope and Contents Aroostook Oral History Project, 1971-1972, which resulted in a collection of 119 cassettes (now digitized), totaling 73 hours, with interviews of more than 150 people covering a wide range of topics; i.e., early county history, early farming and machinery, the Aroostook War, railroading, lumbering, potato farming, maple sugar making, folksongs, folklore, folk medicine, politics, town meetings, cross-border migration, smuggling, Indians, sporting camps, schools and schooling, tall tales,...

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Materials donated by Barry H. Rodrigue (primarily of USM).

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Interview notes and cemetery information about Atusville, an African-American community in Maine.

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A series of interviews about country music in Maine recorded for a class (AY 123, AY 325) taught at the University of Maine by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives in 1975. Most focus on country music in the 1930s in the Bangor, Maine, area. Topics covered include bands and performances and country music on the radio.

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This collection includes a series of interviews done by Margaret Owings conducted in 1981 for Ay 125 Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork taught by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives at the University of Maine. The interviews focus on Burwash and Lakenwild, lakeside developments and recreational areas on Big Lake in Washington County. The Burwash project is one of the main subjects (Burwash is a lakeside development located near Machias, Maine).

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Student papers on a wide variety of folklore and oral history topics, most focused on Maine traditions.

Collection Note

This collection consists of two interviews conducted by Pauleena MacDougall in November and December 2008 about the development of the Bangor waterfront. John M. Rohman was the CEO of WBRC, a firm of architects and engineers. Rodney McKay was Director of Community and Economic Development for the city of Bangor. Included in the collection is a copy of the Bangor Waterfront Master Plan and a Powerpoint presentation about Maine’s creative economy.

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Research materials from a family research project Harpaz did in the early 2000s. The project resulted in the publication of the book “Finding Annie Farrell: A Family Memoir” (2004), by Journalist Harpaz, then (2002) of Brooklyn New York. Part of the focus is on musical Farrell brothers, Augusta-area radio performers.

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This collection consists of a series of interviews conducted by Betty Duff in connection with her PhD dissertation for the history department at the University of Maine. They were recorded in Millinocket, Maine and Benham, Kentucky, and focused on life in a company-owned or dominated towns.

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Interviews of inhabitants of the Maine-New Brunswick borderlands. The interviews were conducted by members of the NEH Summer Teacher Institute, Borders and Borderlands: the Acadian Experience in Maine. The recordings are housed here with NAFOH and the Acadian Archives.

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Interviews about boat building in Brooklin, Maine conducted by Maine Folklife Center's Pauleena MacDougal. Interviewees are George Allen, Frank Day Jr., Eric Dow, Wade Dow, Gilford W. Full, Havilah “Haddie” Hawkins, Brian Larkin, Brion Rieff, James F. “Jimmy” Steele, J. Steven White.

Also included: 35 photographs (P09157 - P09175, P09271 - P09286): Brooklin, Hawkins, Sails and Peapods, Brooklin School, Joel White.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of two parts. The first, Jones Tracy, is a set of interviews (NA2968-NA2976) conducted by Richard Lunt in 1963 and 1964 which served as the basis for Lunt’s University of Maine M.A. thesis. Some material was also published as Jones Tracy: Tall Tale Hero from Mount Desert Island (Northeast Folklore, Vol. X). Interviewees recorded on tape include: Chauncey Somes, Ralph Tracy, Laurie Holmes, John Carroll, Robert Smallidge, George Tracy Reed, Lydia Storer, Clark Manring,...

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Series of interviews by historian Barry Rodrigue on immigration into Maine from Quebec along the route known as the Canada Road, which includes Route 201. The Canada Road ran from the Quebec border through Dennistown, Jackman, Moose River, West Forks, The Forks, and Caratunk, to Moscow and Bingham, Maine. 2373 Rodrigue, Barry H. July 1995.

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A series of CBC radio programs dealing with the folklore of the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

Scope and Contents This collection includes a series of interviews conducted by MFC staff with men who were enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s, who and served at one of the three camps run by ANP: the Eagle Lake or Bar Harbor camp, the Long Pond or Southwest Harbor camp; and the Ellsworth camp. Also included in the collection are interviews with women who married men from the camps and other local residents who remember the camps. Included are 226 photographs (P08475-P08701). In...

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Interviews done in 2013-2015 by Maine Folklife Center's Director Pauleena MacDougall and graduate research assistant Adam Cilli for the 40th anniversary of the UMaine Climate Change Institute. The interviews focus on the history of the Climate Change Institute, climate change in general, and the interviewees' specialties.

Scope and Contents In this series of six interviews, Clifford R. Murphy interviews New England country music musicians. Spanning from the 1930s all the way to the 2000s and multiple generations of musicians, these interviews provide an intimate look at country music in New England. As members of a close-knit community, the interviewees talk about each other, including other influential musicians like “Hal Lone Pine” Breau, Lenny Breau, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Wilf Carter, the various bands they were in,...

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This is an arbitrary collection of accessions created in June 2014 to bring together interviews that deal with country & western music. There are 44 series in NAFOH that relate to Country, Western, and Bluegrass Music, but 3 belong solely to this collection.

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The collection consists of three interviews about the history of Cowing’s Tavern in Lisbon Falls, Maine.