Actor Danny Kaye, left, with U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine and actor Jimmy Stewart during the 1955 Overseas Press Club dinner. Photo courtesy of the Margaret Chase Smith Library

It’s not hard to localize Women’s History Month in Maine. You can start by learning about some of the amazing women from Maine who’ve left their mark on politics, literature and various other fields.

There’s Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan, the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the the classic anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” while living in Brunswick. Frances Perkins retreated to her home in Newcastle when she wasn’t helping reshape American labor laws as Secretary of Labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

There are also local self-guided tours and guided tours of sites important in the history of women in the U.S., as well as reading lists at Maine libraries and other events. Women’s History Month is celebrated annually in March.

TRAILBLAZERS

The Portland Women’s History Trail is divided into seven self-guided walks around the city, and introduces people to women from two centuries of history. The trail’s website features maps, routes and descriptions of each site. The Congress Street Walk, for example, highlights women at work and in the arts. One of the sites is the Curtis & Sons Chewing Gum factory on Fore Street (now Hub Furniture) where young women toiled in the late 1800s. Another is the Exchange Street building where Gail Laughlin (1868-1952), a prominent lawyer and suffragist, had her office in the early 1900s. The Congress Street walk also includes the “Little Water Girl” statue inside the Portland Public Library, which honors Lillian Ames Stevens (1844-1914), the second president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

Several sites on the Munjoy Hill walk focus on the homes of individual women, including Hattie Branch (1898-1995), a Black woman who worked at Union Station and as a housekeeper, and Edith Beaulieu, who raised her family on the hill while serving in the state Legislature in the 1970s and ’80s. There are also walks covering Gorham’s Corner, State Street, Stevens Avenue, Stroudwater and the West End. The walks range in number of sites from less than a dozen to about two dozen.

First Parish Church in Portland is one of the sites on the Congress Street walk of the Portland Women’s History Trail. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Embark Maine Tours in Bath runs a guided tour of women’s history in the City of Ships. The one-mile walking tour focus on the lives of women in Bath, from varying backgrounds, who stepped into public life between 1850 and 1920. One story shared on the tour is about Annie Hayden writing to her sweetheart Thomas W. Hyde (later founder of Bath Iron Works) in September of 1862, asking about his injury at the battle of Antietam during the Civil War. People on the tour also learn about Mary Heuston, an enslaved woman from South Carolina, brought to Maine in 1850 during a family vacation to care for children. With the help of the local African American community, Heuston self-emancipated and lived in Maine until her death in 1913. Tours are 90 minutes, cost $25 per person, and are scheduled this month for March 22 and 29.

A women’s history tour group in Bath, in front of a home shared by Annie Hayden Hyde and Thomas Hyde. Photo courtesy of Embark Maine Tours

Advertisement

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress, as a member of the House of Representatives from 1940 to 1949 and the Senate from 1949 to 1973. She gained national attention in 1950 for denouncing the methods used by Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy in his anti-communist crusade, in what came to be known as her “Declaration of Conscience” speech. At the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, people can schedule appointments to tour the archive, museum and public policy center. There are documents, awards, photos and other memorabilia from her political career. At some point in the spring, the library will likely resume normal operating hours, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A painted portrait of Margaret Chase Smith hangs within the former U.S. senator’s homestead in Skowhegan, where, in an attached library, there is a section devoted to her unsuccessful presidential run in 1964. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve in a U.S. president’s Cabinet, as Secretary of Labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945, and is recognized as the driving force behind such transformational New Deal measures as Social Security, the 40-hour work week, child labor laws and the minimum wage. When not in Washington, D.C., she lived at her family’s longtime home on River Road in Newcastle, which was declared Maine’s second national monument last year. Right now, people can walk the trails and grounds of the Frances Perkins National Monument, and see the house from the outside. This summer, the staff plans to open the self-guided exhibit about Perkins in the property’s historic barn, with a gift shop.

The Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, the site of Perkins’ longtime home. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

THE WRITE STUFF

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick is where the influential anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852) was written. It’s also where Stowe sheltered John Andrew Jackson, a formerly enslaved man seeking his freedom. People can see the room where Stowe wrote in the house, which is now owned by Bowdoin College and also houses faculty offices. The house is open most Thursdays and Fridays from noon-3 p.m., as well as by appointment. The house also hosts talks about Stowe’s life, and staff may do historical walks around Brunswick once the weather is warmer.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

The Portland Public Library has created a reading list for Women’s History Month, with a focus on contributions women have made to the nation. A few of the titles include: “Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion” by Michelle Dean; “The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote” by Elaine F. Weiss; “Modern HERstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History” by Blair Imani; “A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women who Desegregated America’s Schools” by Rachel Devlin; and “The Women of Hip-hop” by Sheila Griffin Llanas. The list has a total of 29 titles and can be found on the library’s website.

Copy the Story Link