NAFOH: Families & People

Here we have finding aids for collections of accessions focused on oral histories of and about individuals and families. As some of these collections were created around a theme (rather than based on a single donation or class), there is some overlap in the collections.

Related: If you find the finding aids on this page interesting, you may want to check out some of the following resources.

• Scott and Helen Nearing related resources: The Good Life Center, The Scott and Helen Nearing collection at Boston University’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, and The Scott and Helen Nearing Papers at The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods.
• Franco-American related resources: University of Southern Maine’s Franco-American Collection, Lewiston’s Franco Center, and UMaine’s Franco-American Programs including: The Franco-American Center, Franco-American Library, and Occasional Papers.

 

MF 002 “Anna May: Eighty-Two Years in New England”/ Julie Hunter Collection
Number of accessions: 1
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1977
Time period covered: 1900-1977
Principal interviewers: Julia Hunter
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: NA1653 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 cloth-making; food preparation; winemaking; entertainment; pets and livestock owned; travel and transportation over time; schooling; playing pranks; holiday celebrations; community church; lumbering; tensions with tourists; the introduction of electric light and telephones. There is also information about Franklin, NH – working in a hosiery mill; meeting her husband and courtship practices; training to be a nurse in Manchester, NH; living conditions with first marriage; strikes in the mills; moving to Boston, MA; her husband’s drinking problems; prohibition; entertainment and nursing in Boston, getting separated and moving to Woodstock, VT. Also covers social life during the Depression; her first car; getting divorced and living alone in Lebanon, NH; being a nanny; the Chicago World’s Fair; working in Florida during World War II; her second marriage; hobbies and volunteer work; travels; shoulder accident; life after Mr. Sevigny’s death; living in White River Junction, VT; learning to fly; and aging and living in a nursing home. See also Northeast Folklore XX: “Anna May: Eighty-Two Years in New England.” Recording: C 0020 – C 0037 / CD 0374 – 0404 27 hours. Photos: P05838 – P05856.

MF 008 Norman Cazden Collection
Number of accessions: 12
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1960 – 1999
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Norman Cazden
Finding aides: catalogs
Access restrictions: NA0857, 1395, 2578, 2581, 2582,
Description: Norman Cazden was a composer, musicologist, and faculty member of the University of Maine who had a long-standing interest in traditional American folk music. This collection reflects his career as both collector and composer and is comprises twelve accessions and approximately 60 hours of tape. See also Norman Cazden Papers in Folger Library Special Collections which also include tape recordings of Cazden’s own compositions and teaching tapes. Material related to Cazden’s involvement with Camp Woodland in the Catskill Mountains of New York can be found in the Norman Studer Collection at SUNY-Albany.

MF 015 Curran Family Homestead Project
Number of accessions: 18
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1996
Time period covered: early to mid-20th century
Principal interviewers: Tosca DeVito, Megan Foreman, Dena Winslow York, Shawna Chesto, NAncy Dudley, Barbara Sumner, Robin Fre, Melissa Johnson, Angela Herbert, Brandon Portwine
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of student interviews done for Edward D. “Sandy” Ives’ class focused on the Curran Family Homestead, a living history museum in Orrington, Maine. Interview topics include: memories of Alfred, Eddie, and Catherine Curran; dairy farming in East Orrington during the first half of the twentieth century; MA Crook and Sons Hillside Dairy; relationship between the Kimball family and the Currans; swimming in the Fields Pond in the summer; tobogganing on the Curran property in the winter; a genealogy of the Curran family; growing up in Orrington and spending time on the Curran farm; daily management of the farm; food preparation during the winter; an ice house; farm livestock; making alcohol during prohibition; working on the Curran farm; Alfred’s younger years; farming practices; life in Orrington in the early part of the 1900s; the layout of East Orrington in the 1920s – 1930s; East Orrington’s saw mill; and the Audubon Society.

MF 025 Honest Woodsman Collection
Number of accessions: 2
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1980
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: William Warner
Finding aides: catalogs
Access restrictions: none
Description: This collection consists mainly of a series of interviews with David Priest, retired game warden, about his experiences as a warden, trapper, and guide.

MF 036 Maine Leaders Oral History Project
Number of accessions: 2
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1989
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: various
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: NA2026
Description: Interviews with Senator Margaret Chase Smith (1990), James Russell Wiggins (1988) (Editor of the Ellsworth American). The interviews were supported with funds from the University of Maine President’s Office.

MF 041 “Me and Fannie” interviews
Number of accessions: 1
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1972, 1973
Principal interviewers: Wayne Bean
Finding aides: transcript
Access restrictions: none
Description: NA0717 Ralph Thornton, interviewed by Wayne Bean for FO 107, 1972 and 1973, Topsfield, Maine. Series of interviews with Thornton, 87, talks about local history of Topsfield; woods work and river work; songs; stories. Also included: brief biographical sketch of Thornton. Song 1: “Ballad of Ann Briggs,” sung by Ralph Thornton. Song fragment about funny incident in lumbercamp. Song 2: “Dan Lane’s Crew,” sung by Ralph Thornton. Song about a lumber camp. Text: 792 pp. transcript with brief catalog. Recording: T 0473 – T 0501 13 hours. Photos: P00447 – P00449, P01812 – P01847. This series of interviews resulted in the publication of the 1973 XVI edition of Northeast Folklore (Me and Fannie: The Oral Autobiography of Ralph Thornton of Topsfield, Maine, ed. by Wayne Bean). Note: The Fannie in Me and Fannie refers to Ralph Thornton’s wife, maiden name Fannie Hamilton.

MF 045 “One Year Later: The Closing of Penobscot Poultry and the Transition of a Veteran Employee”
Number of accessions: 8
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1988 – 1989
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Alicia Rouverol
Finding aides: some transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: Traveling exhibit of photos and oral history text panels based on a series of interviews with Linda J. Lord in which she talks about the work she did for 20 years at Penobscot Poultry, her feelings about being unemployed after Penobscot closed and general conversations about her life in Maine. The exhibit traveled in 1988-1989 to East Millinocket, Orono, Machias, Portland, and Augusta, with panels, presentations, and forums occuring at each opening. Speakers and panelists included Jay Davis, Bernard Lewis, Dr. Richard Barringer, Dr. Paula Petrik and Carolyn Chute. Primary researchers were Cedric Chatterly and Stephen Cole. This project was funded by four grants from the Maine Humanities Council in 1989 and 1990. A book based on the exhibit, coauthored by Cedric Chatterley, Alicia J. Rouverol, and Stephen A. Cole, I was Content and Not Content: The Story of Linda Lord and the Closing of Penobscot Poultry, was published by Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000.

MF 061 “Tom Tilton: Coaster and Fisherman”/ Gale Huntington
Number of accessions: 1
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1979
Time period covered: late 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: Gale Huntington
Finding aides: transcript
Access restrictions: yes
Description: NA1278 Basis of Northeast Folklore XXIII: Tom Tilton: Coaster and Fisherman (1982). Tom Tilton, interviewed by Gale Huntington, Nancy Safford, and Nora Groce Kaplan, 1973 and 1979, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts. The interviews were mostly between Gale Huntington and his father-in-law Tom Tilton, but they were also joined by Nancy Safford in 1973 and Nora Groce Kaplan (and once by Tilton’s wife Laura) in 1979. All of the tapes are on file at the Dukes County Historical Society, Edgartown, Massachusetts, with duplicates here at the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. Tilton, 92, talks his work on the water around Martha’s Vineyard; his childhood during the late nineteenth century on Martha’s Vineyard; education; preparing salt cod; boxing a compass; childhood recreation; sailing to transport fish to New Bedford; May baskets; trapping fish, including methods, fish species, and prices; salvaging salable goods from the wrecked Port Hunter and disputes over salvage rights; bull-raking for quahogs; comparison of shoal vessels and keel vessels; cargoes carried on ships and why lime was dangerous; how to slip the anchor and when it was necessary; purification process for contaminated oysters; growing oysters; the transportation of goods to Martha’s Vineyard and seasonal patterns; dances; a near-shipwreck; swordfishing off the coast of Nova Scotia, including season, boat preparation, and techniques; use of sail and power on boats; different styles of dragging boats; tales of fishermen lost at sea; use of trunnels in boat construction; limited options for making a living available to him; his father’s lobstering; living on Nomans’s Land (Island) in the late nineteenth century; keeping fish alive in pockets; end of trap fishing; coasting; goods salvaged from wrecks; fishermen helping each other, particularly when the Coast Guard was occupied with military matters; alcohol and the rarity of drinking while at sea; wasted catches when fish were not iced properly; boating superstitions; potato bugs; and the importance of not giving in to fear in dangerous seas. RESTRICTED. Text: 252 pp. transcript. Recording: T 1340 – T 1345, T 1409 – T 1410 8 hours.

MF 067 “Wildfire Loose” Oral History Project
Number of accessions: 37
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1976 – 1980
Time period covered: 1947
Principal interviewers: Joyce Butler
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: The “Wildfire Loose” Collection consists of a series of interviews conducted by Joyce Butler in preparation for her book of the same title about the fires in Maine in October 1947. See Joyce Butler, Wildfire Loose: The Week Maine Burned (Various Publishers, 1978, 1987, 1997).

MF 080 Nash Island Light Project Collection
Number of accessions: 2
Dates when interviews were conducted: primarily in 1998
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Anu Dudley
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of two interviews with Jenny Cirone, age 86, done on behalf of a group wishing to restore the Nash Island Lighthouse, by Anu Dudley in October, 1998. The interviews primarily focused on Jenny Cirone’s reminiscences of growing up on Nash Island, Maine, where her father was the lighthouse keeper. Topics include: raising and shearing sheep; fishing; lobstering; clamming; gardening; schooling; tending the Nash Island lighthouse; tourists; ice skating; hurricanes; games; boats; clothing; social life; storms; and wrecks.

MF 082 C. Richard K. Lunt Collection (Jones Tracy & Boat Builders)
Number of accessions: 25
Dates when interviews were conducted: primarily in 1970, but also 1963 & 1964
Time period covered: 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: C. Richard K. Lunt
Finding aides: indexes/transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: This collection consists of two series. The second series deals with boat builders and isn’t relevant to Tales and Stories. The first, Jones Tracy, is a series of interviews (NA2968- 2976) 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, Gus Phillips, and Phillip and Charles Carroll. The accession envelop contains brief listings of tape contents and topics discussed but interviews are not transcribed. Material appears to include many hunting and fishing stories, some genealogy of the Tracy family and other folklore and local history.

MF 097 Frank Spizuoco Dexter Town History Collection
Number of accessions: 6
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1963, 1964, 1965, 1970
Time period covered: late 19th and first half of 20th century
Principal interviewers: Frank Spizuoco
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews conducted by Frank Spizuoco from 1963 to 1970 of two residents of Dexter, Maine. Albert “Bert” Call, a retired Dexter photographer, talks about local history and about his working life before and after moving to Dexter, Maine in 1886, and Erma Bentley, a long-time resident of Dexter, records her memories about early Dexter residents and town history.

MF 118 Roger Mitchell/Don Mitchell Collection
Number of accessions: 2
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1976
Time period covered: 1900-1960
Principal interviewers: Roger Mitchell
Finding aides: full transcripts
Access restrictions: yes
Description: Don Mitchell, interviewed by Roger Mitchell, his son, in 1976. Series of interviews about Mitchell senior’s life and work as a woodsman and farmer formed the basis of Northeast Folklore XIX: “I’m a Man That Works.”

MF 124 John Kelly, Jr. Collection
Number of accessions: 5
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1970-1974
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: John Kelly, Jr.
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: Copyright retained by interviewees.
Description: A collection of five accessions, mostly interviews conducted by John Kelly, Jr., in 1971 and 1974 mostly dealing with Kelly’s family and with life and fishing in Long Harbor, Newfoundland.; and rum running in Quincy, MA.

MF 125 David Ingraham Collection
Number of accessions: 12
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1970s – 1980s
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: David Ingraham
Finding aides: brief indexes
Access restrictions: none
Description: This collection consists of a variety of interviews and other accessions about writing songs in Maine, by David Ingraham. Ingraham was a local songwriter and singer from Ellsworth, Maine. Seven of these accessions consist of recordings of Ingraham talking about his songwriting and singing songs he composed about local people and incidents. The other 5 accessions include interviews with other songwriters and singers about the process of writing songs; interviews with local people about the incidents Ingraham described in his songs, and about traditional songs and how they related to local history in Ellsworth and Chesterville, Maine.

MF 131 Dell Turner / John T. Meader Collection
Number of accessions: 9
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1980-1982
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: John T. Meader
Finding Aides: full transcripts
Access Restrictions: none
Description: A series of interviews conducted by John T. Meader with his grandfather, Dell Turner, and others about Dell Turner. Begun as a class project in Sandy Ives’s Maine and the Maritimes Folklore class at the University of Maine and continued in his Fieldwork in Folklore and Oral History class, this series is the basis for Dell Turner: The Stories of His Life. Northeast Folklore XXVII: 1988.

MF 148 Margaret “Mimi” Killinger/ Helen Nearing Collection
Number of accessions: 6
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1999 & 2001
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Margaret “Mimi” Killinger
Finding aides: some transcript
Access restrictions: yes (NA3862)
Description: Interviews by Margaret “Mimi” Killinger about Helen Nearing and Scott Nearing (simple living advocates).

MF 159 Luther Lovely Collection
Number of accessions: 10
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1987-1988
Principal interviewers: Luther Lovely
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: A series of interviews by Luther Lovely conducted in 1987-88 with his siblings about their childhood in fort Fairfield, Maine.

MF 160 Fisheries/ Ted Ames Collection
Number of accessions: 33
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1995-1997
Time period covered: late 19th century and 20th century
Principal interviewers: Ted Ames
Finding aides: some transcripts
Access restrictions: The copyright is retained by the interviewees in most cases.
Description: There are two parts of the Fisheries/ Ted Ames Collection, but both are recordings by Ted Ames that have to do with fisheries. Part one a series of interviews by Ames about the fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine and Penobscot Bay fisheries. Part two is recordings from the Localized Fishery Stocks conference attended and recorded by Ted Ames about the implications of localized fish stocks on October 31 and November 1, 1997.

MF 174 Fannie Hardy Eckstorm
Number of accessions: 5
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1934, 1995, 1977, 1997
Time period covered: 19th and 20th centuries
Principal interviewers: Pauleena MacDougall
Finding aides: catalogs/transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: Since volume XVI of Northeast Folklore was written about Eckstorm (Fannie Hardy Eckstorm: A Descriptive Bibliography by Jeanne Patten Whitten, 1975), it seemed appropriate to create a collection that brought together interviews that focus primarily on her.

MF 190 Judge Albert Béliveau/ Barry H. Rodrigue Collection
Number of accessions: 4
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1994-1997
Principal interviewers: Barry H. Rodrigue
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: none
Description: Series of interviews by historian Barry H. Rodrigue on Judge Albert Béliveau and Franco-American life in Maine during the 19th and 20th century. The Albert Béliveau papers are held at the Franco-American Collection, Lewiston-Auburn College, University of Southern Maine. It is quite a sizable collection of materials spanning his life (1887-1971).

MF 198 Good Life Center
Number of accessions: 16
Access restrictions: Credited must be given to the Good Life Center as well as the MFC.
Description: Scott and Helen Nearing recordings, donated by Warren Berkowitz of the Good Life Center for a co-ownership of the material.