Lydia Rolerson, who died on Christmas Day in 2006, served me the first food I ever ate cooked in an Islesboro island kitchen. Jamie and I visited the island in June 1980, my first visit, though Jamie had spent time here earlier, and knew Lydia’s son Darrell. So we visited with her that trip, happening
Major Inaccuracies
To the editor: Re:”Despite Questions, Pesticide Use Persists in Coastal Towns” [WWF Nov. 06] As a member of the Island Institute and a resident of the Town of Brunswick, I am writing to point out a series of major inaccuracies in the above mentioned article. On page 17, you state that the town of Brunswick
“Hands Clasped as if in Prayer”
Robert Peter Tristram Coffin was a Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet, an essayist, a Maine historian and chronicler — and in the fall of 1954 he was my Shakespeare professor at Bowdoin College. Sadly, the course lasted only a semester because he passed away in Portland during my sophomore midyear break in January 1955. I’ve always been grateful
High Tech, High Touch: Island Institute launches three-year strategic plan
The vision of the Island Institute is to be “a locally valued and broadly recognized partner finding solutions to challenges posed by local, state, national and international trends that threaten Maine’s island and working waterfront communities,” according to a new strategic plan for the organization. The Institute’s Board of Trustees approved a series of new
Grand Design goes musical: Newcastle theater to present a gritty saga
A 1700s shipwreck in the Bay of Fundy has family connections to Lincoln County, where a few hardy survivors settled after finally being rescued. The Heartwood Regional Theater Company of Damariscotta will present the gritty saga of the Irish ship Martha & Eliza this spring, in musical form. It’s the story of affluent Scots-Irish Presbyterians
Anthropology studies paved the way for Fellow’s assignment
Island Fellow Carly Knight is fascinated by the relationships of community, language and culture, and even as a college student, she had an affinity for islands. So it comes as no surprise that, as a senior working toward a degree in anthropology at Bowdoin College, she undertook a year-long independent study project, titled “The Wind
Resource at Risk: Can Downeast Maine save its dark skies?
Seventy-seven-year old David Westphal of Somesville remembers the first time as a child when he saw a sky milky with stars. “It was just awe and wonder,” he recalled. Growing up in rural Minnesota, Westphal didn’t know dark skies were rare; he only realized their value years later after traveling. Such experience helps him appreciate
New scholarship offered for island students
A new scholarship fund has joined the Island Institute’s array of opportunities for island students who wish to pursue higher education. “We are excited to announce the new Otter Island Fund, made possible by an anonymous donor whose family members have graduated from the schools named in the new scholarship,” said Peter Ralston, executive vice
NAACP to host Malaga forum
The forced eviction of the mixed-race residents of Malaga Island in 1912 and its aftermath will be the subject of a Feb. 12 forum in Portland, sponsored by the Portland Branch of the NAACP. Malaga, today a densely wooded oasis in the New Meadows River off Phippsburg’s shore, is now owned by the Maine Coast
Imperiled fish could help end jurisdictional feud
Here’s a trick to try if the ice gets thick enough: Go to Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island and stand next to the water. You’re on National Park land. Now, step onto the ice. Whose land are you on now? The answer depends on whom you talk to, and the