Maurice "Jake" Day (born in Damariscotta in 1892) spent much of his career at Disney and MGM Studios as an illustrator and animator. 

While working on the film Bambi, Day urged Walt Disney to use a white-tailed deer and not a mule deer for the Bambi character. He had two orphaned deer from Maine, Bambi and Faline, sent to California to be used as his models. He also had the film's photographers visit Baxter State Park. The wildlife scenes in Bambi are based on the photos from the trip to Maine.

Scene from Bambi, 1942

 

Sports

The first full-blooded Native American to play Major League Baseball was Penobscot Nation's Louis Sockalexis, born in 1873 on Indian Island. He played for the Cleveland Spiders (now the Indians). Legend has it the team was re-named in his honor.  

Louis Sockalexis, ca. 1890

Current Exhibits

Museum

Dressing Up, Fitting In, Standing Out: Adornment & Identity in Maine (Through May 27, 2012)

Lecture Hall Gallery 

"Having in Paris a Great Success": French Fashion, 1928-1936  

(through December 31, 2011)  

Next First Friday Art Walk: December 2, 5-8pm.  

Fall & Holiday Hours  

MHS Museum   

Longfellow House Tours  

Saturday Tours Only: 10am-4pm

Holiday Season (11/25-12/31):  

Mon-Sat, 10am- 4pm, Sunday 12-4pm

For hours, directions, and admission coupons visit us online.  

 
Image: Loading Deer, Strong Station, ca. 1915

Thanks to the presence of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, Franklin County became a popular hunting destination for out of state "sports" in the early 1900s. This image is one of nearly forty recently uploaded by the Strong Historical Society. Strong is one of three communities building a website in Maine Memory this year through the Maine Community Heritage Project. To see the other images that Strong has added, click here. 

MHS News

TLC for the Longfellow House 

Photo by John Ewing/The Portland Press Herald

It's been nearly a decade since the restoration of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House was completed. Maintaining the house is a significant, ongoing undertaking. This fall, the house had some much-needed work done: the brickwork on the front (Congress Street) side was re-pointed, and all woodwork on that side was repainted.  

In the coming weeks, the front columns of the house will be replaced. This is all a good thing: with more than 60 cruise ships visiting Portland, 6,000+ people visited the house between June-October, one of the busiest periods we've ever seen.  

The Portland Press Herald recently featured a photograph of the work. A special thanks to the craftsmen who work with such skill and care: painter Mark Drew of Cape Neddick, carpenter Caleb Hemphill of Falmouth, and masons Richard Irons of Restoration Masons and his son Rick Irons, both of Limerick. Your membership and support makes this work possible: thank you! 

From the Collections  

Library Finding Aids 

Arthur Waterman in front of Maine Motors Co.

MHS is committed to making information about its collections as broadly accessible as possible. The full catalog is available online, and we are now turning our attention to finding aids.  

Finding aids outline the contents and structure of manuscript collections. There are currently approximately 500 finding aids for MHS collections available in print to researchers who visit the Brown Library. Our goal is to make those finding aids available online in a variety of formats that are easy to find and use.  

Library staff attached the first to a Minerva catalog record, for the Waterman and Wolf family collection. We are mapping out the process and resources needed to get the rest of our finding aids online. To view the Waterman finding aid, click here. Soon to come: the finding aid for the John Calvin Stevens collection. 

This Week at MHS    

Thursday, November 10, 7pm  

Tales from an Art Detective: Tracing Nazi-era Provenance at the MFA  
Presenter: Victoria Reed, Curator for Provenance, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Eglon van der Neer (1634-1703), Portrait of a Man and a Woman in an Interior, Museum of Fine Arts

Celebrate the Season with MHS

Learn about all our holiday season events here!

Programs & Events

11/19 Museum Shopper's Day, 9am-3pm

Gilsland Farm, Maine Audubon Society, 20 Gilsland Farm Road (off Rt. 1), Falmouth.  

11/25 - 12/31 Museum Store Holiday Bazaar   

Monday-Saturday, 10am-5pm, Sunday 12 Noon-5pm 

Download our special Celebrate the Season  

Program Book online!