NAFOH: Social Issues

Here we have finding aids for collections of accessions focused on various social issues. 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, The Scott and Helen Nearing Papers at The Thoreau Institute, and Maine Organic Farmers and Gardners Association (MOFGA).

 

MF 038 Labor Relations in Maine
Number of accession: 54
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1969-1974
Time period covered: early-to-mid 20th century
Principal interviewers: Charles O’Leary, Jay McCloskey, Ken Morgan, Kevin Madigan
Finding aides: indexes and some transcripts
Access restrictions: yes
Description: This is a combination of two collections that both deal with labor issues in Maine (MF 038 Maine State Federated Labor Council Collection and MF 127 Labor Relations Project). The original MF 038 is “A collection of 24 accessions featuring interviews conducted from 1969-1973 under the auspices of the Maine State Federated Labor Council. Topics range widely over the spectrum of organized labor issues in Maine, but seem to deal primarily with unions, union organizing, and elections. Interviewees include top ranking union officials as well as lobstermen, longshoremen, bricklayers, quarry workers, textile and paper millworkers, sulfite workers, iron workers, shipbuilders, railroad workers, typesetters, building trade workers, electricians, garment workers, and shoe makers. Also represented are union organizers, labor historians, and publishers of labor periodicals such as “Labor News.” MF 127 is “a series of five interviews conducted in the spring and summer of 1974 , one by Charles O’Leary and four by Kevin Madigan. Focus of the interviews includes labor unions, right to work laws, strikes, featherbedding, union negotiations, State Labor Council, labor-management relations, carpenters, boot and shoe workers, women in industry, and relations between the international and the locals of individual unions.”

MF 068 Women in Maine Project
Number of accessions: 58
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1974-80
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: various
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: NA0887, 1089, 1131, 1318
Description: The collection consists of a series of interviews conducted from 1974 to 1980 by students for a course (IDL 105, Women in Maine: An Autobiographical Approach) taught by Mary Ann Hartmen in the department of Speech and Communications at the University of Maine. Students asked a variety of informants for their opinions about the present and future roles of women in Maine. Each informant discussed this in the context of their own lives and experiences, therefore the individual interviews cover a wide range of topics. See individual accessions for more details.

MF 106 Deo McKaig / “Value Formation in Lesbian Lives” Interviews
Number of accessions: 10
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1986
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Deo McKaig
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: NA1952
Description: A series of interviews by McKaig for her Master’s Thesis: “Value Formation in Lesbian Lives.” Due to the sensitive nature of the material, only the first names of the interviewees are given.

MF 121 Maine Organic Farmers and Gardners Association (MOFGA)
Number of accessions: 52
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2000-2004
Time period covered: mid-to-late late 20th century
Principal interviewers: Pauleena MacDougall, Pamela Dean, James Moreira, Anu Dudley
Finding aides: some transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: This collection consists of interviews with individuals associated with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and the Common Ground Fair. Themes include the process of beginning to farm organically, the early development of MOFGA and its growth; the Common Ground Fair and its expansion; marketing organic food; farming strategies; raising livestock; and MOFGA’s interactions with conventional farmers and the wider community.

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 also Scott Nearing (simple living advocates).

MF 150 WST 301 Women Studies
Number of accessions: 15
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2006
Time period covered: 2nd half of the 20th and early 21st century
Principal interviewers: various
Finding aides: index
Access restrictions: no restrictions on interviews; video may not be copied
Description: A series of interviews with women activists conducted by students in WST 301: Intermediate Topics in Women’s Studies, spring 2006, taught by Susan Iverson.

MF 153 David Slagger Collection
Number of accessions: 12
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2008-2011
Time period covered: later half of 20th century
Principal interviewers: David Slagger
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: some do not have release forms
Description: This collection consists of twelve interviews that concern the 1980 Indian Land Claims Settlement Act. Conducted by David Slagger, the interviews explore various tribal, state, federal, legal, and historical perspectives on the legislation, as well as opinions on the long term cultural and economic effects.

MF 162 Immigrants and Identity
Number of accessions: 16
Dates when interviews were conducted: February to June 2005
Time period covered: 2nd half of 20th century to 2005
Principal interviewers: Pauleena MacDougall, Maria Sandweiss, Katherine Durbin, Elizabeth Hardink
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: In 2005 the Maine Folklife Center and the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine proposed to study and present the ways that immigrants in central and eastern Maine connect themselves with their ethnicity. These fifteen interviews were conducted from February to June 2005 by the Maine Folklife Center staff with members of the local African, Hispanic, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European immigrant communities in preparation for the Folk Festival in August. An exhibit of panels consisting of interpretive text, excerpts from the oral histories, portrait photos, and objects was prepared by the Hudson Museum. This exhibit was temporarily moved to the American Folk Festival held on the Bangor Waterfront on August 28 and 29, 2005. At the festival members of the immigrant communities were invited to the Maine Folklife Center narrative stage to talk about their culture and to demonstrate aspects of their culture (such as food preparation, crafts, music, and dance). See also Accession 3850 for more information about the immigrant community who participated at the Folk Festival in August and for photographs (P09288-P09321) in the photo archives.

MF 163 Somalis in Lewiston, Maine Collection
Number of accessions: 7
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2003 and 2004
Time period covered: late 20th and early 21st century
Principal interviewers: Elizabeth Hoyt Hannibal, Dianne Schindler
Finding aides: some transcripts
Access restrictions: some restrictions on NA 3734
Description: This collection includes interviews with five Somali women living in Lewiston, Maine in 2003. The interviews were conducted by Elizabeth Hoyt Hannibal and Dianne Schindler for a project for ANT 425 taught by Dr. James Moreira at the University of Maine. Included is a narrative of how Hannibal and Schindler set up the interviews with Fatuma Hussein, Azeb Hassan, Hawa Kahin, Kiih Issa, and Ayan Ismail. Interviews took place in Lewiston at Daryeelka, Inc., a resource for families that assists them in becoming economically independent and active participants in community life. Photographs were taken but there was no film in the camera. Also included in the collection is a paper by Caterina Anderson at the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy “The Somalis of Lewiston, Maine: A Policy Perspective” written on May 10, 2004. Also included is a small collection of current articles with maps from the World Wide Web about Somalia and about Somalis in Lewiston.

MF 165 ANT 326 and 431 Folklore, the Environment, and Public Policy Collection
Number of accessions: 48
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2010 & 2011
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: various
Finding aides: none
Access restrictions: For many, the copyright was retained by the depositor.
Description: This collection consists of 48 undergraduate student research papers prepared for a course titled Folklore, the Environment, and Public Policy (ANT 326 and ANT 431), taught by Pauleena MacDougall in the spring semesters of 2010 and 2011 at the University of Maine in Orono. The course examines the interaction of humans with the environment from the perspective of folklore and reviews its impact on public policy at the local, state, federal and international level. Topics of some of the papers include traditional medicine, basket making, environmental sustainability, energy resources, etc.

MF 170 Betty Parker Duff / Class and gender roles in company towns in Maine and Kentucky
Number of accessions: 16
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1999-2002
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Betty Parker Duff
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: NA3345
Description: This collection consists of a series of interviews conducted by Betty Duff in connection with her PhD dissertation for the history department at the University of Maine. They were recorded in Millinocket, Maine and Benham, Kentucky, and focused on life in a company-owned or dominated towns.

MF 175 NAACP & Civil Rights in Maine Project/ Charles Lumpkins
Number of accessions: 13
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1990-91
Time period covered: 1940s-70s
Principal interviewers: Charles Lumpkins
Finding aides: transcripts and some indexes
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews by Lumpkins about NAACP & Civil Rights in Maine.

MF 186 LGBTQ
Number of accessions: 21
Dates when interviews were conducted: 190s -2000s
Time period covered: 20th and early 21st centuries
Principal interviewers: various
Finding aides: some indexes and transcripts
Access restrictions: NA 1952
Description: This is an arbitrary collection of accessions created in July 2014 to bring together interviews that deal with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues.

MF 192 Climate Change Institute 40th Anniversary Oral History Project
Number of accessions: 31
Dates when interviews were conducted: 2013-2015
Principal interviewers: Pauleena MacDougall and Adam Cilli
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: 31 interviews done in 2013-2015 by Pauleena MacDougall and Adam Cilli for the 40th anniversary of the UMaine Climate Change Institute. Note: in the MF192.pdf files the following items can be found: a final paper “’Between People and Nature’: The Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, 1973-2013” by Adam Lee Cilli and Pauleena MacDougall, notes on an unrecorded interview with Kristin Sobolik October 14, 2014, and the IRB application form which includes contextual information for the project.

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.

MF 203 Disability Rights Interviews
Number of accessions: 13
Dates when interviews were conducted: July 2015-March 2015
Time period covered: 20th century
Principal interviewers: Molly Graham and Keith Ludden
Finding aides: transcripts
Access restrictions: none
Description: Interviews with Mainers with disabilities and their advocates about disability rights in Maine and the nation.