Jeniffer Cooley, left, and Brealynne Phelps browse exhibit materials at the Women Writers of Lincoln County exhibit. Cooley’s company, Bmalori Creative, also provided exhibit sponsorship. Submitted photo
The Lincoln County Historical Association has received a $3,700 grant from the Raymond McKinley Rideout Jr. Marguerite Waterman Rideout Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.
The association aims to build community by raising awareness of Lincoln County’s literary heritage through programs and exhibitions about the history of women writers of Lincoln County.
“This grant will help spotlight a remarkable number of talented women writers who have called our county home,” Executive Director Shannon Gilmore said in a news release from the association. “When we started this project, we knew about a handful of these women, but had no idea that we would discover dozens of influential and well-regarded novelists, biographers, poets, historians, children’s writers, essayists, and nature writers in our local history. Now, we are able to compile and share their stories so that we can all celebrate this special heritage.”
Exhibit organizer Alice Smith Duncan leads a tour of the Lincoln County Historical Association’s exhibit, Women Writers of Lincoln County, at the Old Jail and Museum in Wiscasset. Submitted photo
With her experience as a researcher and writer, Alice Smith Duncan has installed an exhibition on Women Writers of Lincoln County at the Old Jail and Museum in Wiscasset. The museum will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through the summer.
A lecture series and additional programming will offer opportunities for the public to engage with the topic in different ways. The next lecture is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, June 16, via Zoom, when New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Letts will discuss her book, “The Ride of Her Life” and its subject, Lincoln County writer and adventurer Annie Wilkins.
Programs will also be offered for children later in the summer. Mini pop-up exhibits will be on view in July at Lincoln County Historical Association’s other museums, Pownalborough Court House and Chapman-Hall House.
Lincoln County Historical Association is a nonprofit organization that provides stewardship for the 1754 Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta, the 1761 Pownalborough Court House in Dresden, and the 1811 Old Jail and Museum in Wiscasset.
For more information, visit lincolncountyhistory.org, or Facebook at Lincoln County Historical Association (Maine) or Pownalborough Court House Museum.
Association members, from left, Bill Sutter, Jim Kochan and Kim Dolce, talk beneath a displayed quotation from Jill Lepore on the influence of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, “The number of books that have done as much good in the world can be counted on the arms of a starfish.” Submitted photo
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