This presentation will explore Margaret Chase Smith’s connections to the University of Maine and why the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center and Margaret Chase Smith Library are affiliated with the school.
Margaret Chase Smith was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1940 and then the United States Senate in 1948, making her the first woman in the United States to serve in both chambers of Congress. She never attended college. Her formal connections with the University of Maine began in 1948 and eventually came to the point that the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center was named after her in 1990. The Margaret Chase Smith Library at her home in Skowhegan became part of the University in 2012.