Dunham playing his fiddle, Norway, ca. 1927 MMN #79936
Last week, a team from the Norway Historical Society finished a grant-funded exhibit on Maine Memory celebrating one of the town's more famous citizens: Alanson Mellen "Mellie" Dunham (1851-1931). The exhibit was online in time to kick off the second annual Mellie Dunham Shoe and String Festival, which takes place today in Norway.
Something of a Renaissance man, Mellie was both a master fiddler and a largely self-taught, and leading, snowshoe maker in his day. He played his music for Henry Ford, and he outfitted Admiral Robert Peary and his team in snowshoes for Peary's 1908-1909 North Pole expedition. The exhibit explores both sides of Dunham's creative and productive life.
Maritime historian Bud Warren shares his research on tide mills, and how human efforts to capture the energy of the tides to generate power dates back hundreds of years. His talk explores the historical background of tide mills in Europe and America, and their proliferation along the Maine coast. Drawing on resources at MHS, Bud will share the stories of the major tide mills in the Portland/South Portland area, and shed light on contemporary tidal energy activities. This presentation is part of an ongoing series related to our current exhibit, Wired! How Electricity Came to Maine.
Bud Warren is a retired teacher and popular raconteur in the mid-coast region. To date, he has documented more than 200 Maine coast tide mills. He is a co-founder of Tide Mill Institute.
Facilitator: Holly Hurd-Forsyth MHS Museum Registrar Holly Hurd-Forsyth provides a show-and-tell of recent or topical museum collection items, discusses how accessions are researched and processed, and trains participants how to search and use the MHS PastPerfect Online database. Registration details online.
