Davistown Museum Summer 2006

Celebrate the NEW
at the Davistown Museum
July 22, 2006

New Show: MDI Womens Eye
work by the Mt. Desert Island Womens Art Collaborative and other MDI women through September
 

New Gallery: Maine Artists Guild Gallery
featuring work by 30+ Maine artists for sale to benefit the museum

New Cafe and Bookshop:
offering coffee, tea, cold drinks, light snacks, used and new books for sale, & a lovely porch

New Book: Norumbega Reconsidered:
                Mawooshen and the Wawenoc Diaspora by H. G. Skip Brack, museum curator,
who will read from and discuss his book

New Poetry/Essays: Annaliese Jakimides,
who will read from her poetry and essays featured in the new anthology The Other Side of Sorrow ,
current issues of Utne & Bangor Metro magazines, and forthcoming anthology Leaving Home. Her visual art will also be
on display.

New Musical Venture: John Whalley and Ellen Erickson
who will play and sing folk music selections

Reception: 3-5 p.m.
Potluck Dinner: 5-6:30 p.m.
Reading: 7 p.m.

Maine Historical Society Exhibit
Davistown Museum Curator H. G. Skip Brack was asked to participate in the new Maine Historical Society exhibit honoring collectors of historically significant artifacts:
"Passionate Pursuits - History in the Collector's Eye."
He selected tools from the Davistown Museum collection and will write about them and their significance to Maine history for the exhibit at the Maine Historical Society

Monday - Saturday:  10:00 am - 5:00 pm
   Sundays through October 31, 2007:  Noon - 5:00 pm
Maine Historical Society
489 Congress Street, Portland, ME 04101
207-774-1822
www.mainehistory.org
For more information see our page on the Davistown Museum Maine Made Traveling Exhibition.

The first special show that we mounted:
What Needs to Be Retrieved: The Marriage of Tools, Art and History
Summer 2005 - many pieces are still on exhibit
 It will celebrate the interrelationships of tools, art and history in the Davistown Museum and kick off an endowment campaign.
Artists include:  Alan Magee, Roger Majorowicz, John Whalley, Margo Klass, Eric Ziner, David McLaughlin, Tillman Crane, Donna Just and Peter Ross.
The opening is scheduled for Saturday, June 25, 2005.

Previous Open House

Tours:
Curator's tour, discussion and question/answer session: Noon and 3 PM
Music:
Blind Albert: 11 - 5
Children:
Art activity for children: Make a Simple Machines Sculpture
Demonstrations:
Blacksmiths - Ancient Ones -- contact: John Sundberg
Talks:
George O'Connor: "19th Century Precision Toolmakers of Central Maine." 2 PM
Artists:
PRINTMAKING DEMONSTRATION: Kathleen Kelly "Meandered Books:" Hand-made Books incorporating printmaking techniques: 10 - 1
Atlantic Art Glass presentation of their GLASSBLOWING process
ART ACTIVITY for children and adults: Make a Tibetan prayer flag (free) and/or design your own Davistown Museum tee shirt ($5/10)
LOCAL ARTISTS' AND ORGANIZATIONS' BOOTHS
Publications:
INTRODUCTION OF NEW MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS - latest edition of Registry of Maine Toolmakers and just published Tools Teach: A Guide for Teachers and Students - available for the first time; authors Skip Brack and Judith Bradshaw Brown available for questions/discussion
Food:
HOME-BAKED TREATS offered by the Liberty Volunteer Fire Department Women's Auxiliary 10 - 5
GRILLED TREATS prepared on site by Chef Brian Roberts, of Souse', Inc. Caterers, on natural hardwood Canadian charcoal: 11 - 3

For information and schedules: call 589-4900 or 288-5126, or e-mail judith@davistownmuseum.org.

 Previous Lectures by H. G. (Skip) Brack, curator

Northeastern Primitive Rendezvous, Orrrington

Curator H. G. Skip Brack spoke on Thursday, July 20, 2016 at 10 am

Title: Shipbuilding and Edge Tools of the 17th Century a show and tell presented the Northeastern Primitive Rendezvous at the Wiswell Farm in Orrington, Maine.

Thomaston Historical Society

Curator H. G. Skip Brack spoke on September 8, 2015

Title: Norumbega Reconsidered: Mawooshen and the Wawenoc Diaspora

Brief description:
A commentary on the kidnapping of 5 Native Americans by George Waymouth at Pemaquid in 1605, their transport to England, and their recounting the story of the Confederacy of Mawooshen. This confederacy was led by the Wawenoc Indians who lived between the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers. The last surviving Wawenoc was interviewed by Frank Speck in the early 20th century.

Pembroke Historical Society

Curator H. G. Skip Brack spoke on Monday, August 31, 2015

Description: History of iron-making and toolmaking in Down East Maine.

Washburn-Norlands Living History Center

Curator H. G. Skip Brack gave a lecture on Saturday, October 11, 2014, 1:00 pm as part of their Fall Festival

Location: the meeting house at the Norlands Living History Center

Topic: a discussion and display of the hand tools characterizing the early occupation of the former Cyrus Hamlin homestead by Israel Washburn in 1809 and their evolution into the tool forms characterizing the 1867 construction of the mansion still extant at the Norlands Museum.

The tools were on display at the meeting house starting at 11:00 am.

Lincolnville Historical Society Summer Speakers Series

Curator H. G. Skip Brack gave a lecture on Wednesday, August 20, 2014 at 7:00 pm

Lecture/Exhibit at Plymouth, MA Public Library

Toolmaking and Toolmakers in Plymouth County and Vicinity: 1630 through 1827

Monday, May 13, 2013 at 7:00 pm

The exhibit will be in the library for the month of May. It features early edge tools made in New England and representative tools from early American industries, such as those used by coopers and shipwrights.

Lecture at the Belfast Historical Society & Museum

Belfast Edge Toolmakers

10 Market Street
Belfast, ME 04915

Friday, April 24, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Lecture at Colonial Pemaquid

Guns, Iron, and Pathogens: European-Indigenous Communities’ First Contact
at Colonial Pemaquid, Bristol, ME
www.friendsofcolonialpemaquid.org

July 28, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Lecture for the Georges River Land Trust

“The Mills Along the St. George River & Their Relationship to the Shipbuilders of the Waldoboro Customs District”
Rockland Public Library Community Room
Sponsor: Georges River Land Trust
www.grlt.org

August 22, 2008  7 p.m. Rockland Public Library Community Room   

Thomaston Public Library Lecture

Norumbega Reconsidered: Mawooshen and the Wawenoc Diaspora
The search for the edge tools of early New England shipwrights, what that search accidentally located, and the resulting encounter with the Native American communities that lived along the Maine coast in prehistory.

A small selection of edge tools will be brought as an example of shipsmith's tools dating from the 18th and 19th century.

Hand Tools of New England
H. G. (Skip) Brack
Yarmouth Historical Society 2006 Program Series
American Legion Log Cabin, 7:30 PM

Fascinated with hand tools?
Would you like to know more about those old tools sitting around your house?
As the owner of Liberty Tool in Liberty and Hulls Cove and curator of the Davistown Museum,
Skip Brack is renowned as a hand tools expert.
This is a great chance to bring in your tools for identification.
Skip will also discuss selections from Yarmouth Historical Society and his own collection.
www.yarmouth.me.us

Montpelier, the General Henry Knox Museum in Thomaston
will host a historic hand tool demonstration by Davistown Museum curator Skip Brack
on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at 2:00 pm.
www.knoxmuseum.org

Atlantic Challenge Foundation
Winter/Spring Lecture Series
643 Main St. Rockland, ME
(207) 594-1800
Topic: Edge Tool Production: 19th Century and Early 20th Century Sources vs. Contemporary Sources
Treasure and History in the Tool Shed
A Maine Antique Tool Roadshow

Come hear SKIP BRACK, founder of Liberty Tool and curator of The Davistown Museum, discuss the history and value of hand tools in Maine with a focus on edge tools common to woodworking trades. The public is encouraged to bring any favorite antique or contemporary tools for identification and evaluation-our very own
"Antique Tool Roadshow"! Brack will also pass around tools from his Museum collection for discussion and comparison, and will outline what makes certain tools important and desirable, how and where they were made, and ways to collect and identify them.

 Free and open to the community

Maine Historical Society
Portland, ME
Topic: The Florescence of Maine Shipbuilders
Skip Brack, a prominent Maine tool historian, will trace the "florescence" of shipbuilding in Maine in the 19th century.  The Maine shipbuilding industry reached a pre-industrial peak in the 1840s, a time when shipyards and waterfront communities up and down the coast thrived and bustled with activity.  Brack will trace the rise of that boom, the central role that craftsmen and handmade, steel-edged tools played in it, and examine how industrialization first drew on and then replaced the skills of those craftsmen leading to a long decline in Maine's shipbuilding industry.

Maine Maritime Museum
Bath, ME
Topic: The Florescence of Maine Shipbuilders
The presentations will begin Saturday morning, in Long Reach Hall.  Presentations by our speakers will continue, at a leisurely pace, until noon on Sunday.  Be sure to register in advance in order to receive a complete schedule of events and other details.
Skip Brack, curator/founder of the Davistown Museum and proprietor of the Liberty Tool Company will speak about the peak of the Maine shipbuilding industry in the mid-19th century, focussing on the tradesmen and tools that made it possible.

To ensure reservations, please send payment to:
Maine Maritime Museum
243 Washington Street, Bath, ME 04530
www.mainemaritimemuseum.org
For more information, call 207-443-1316, ext. 322
Confirmation will be sent upon receipt of payment.
 

Other Events That were Held at the Museum

Intermediate Archival Workshop

Cost $10
Presenter: Ellen Dyer
A hands-on workshop designed to enhance the archival skills of those who already know the basics.  The focus is on processing, describing, and arranging collections, appraisal, non-paper formats, and disaster planning.
Co-sponsored by Maine Archives & Museums and the Cultural Resource Information Center.
Registration:
By phone: 207 287-7591
By email: maine.cric@maine.gov
By mail: Intermediate Archival Workshop/CRIC
84 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0084