Hidden History Tour of the University of Maine (Tour) - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. Native American Studies in the Dawnland

Visitors to the University of Maine may have noticed the new signage throughout campus recognizing Penobscot language place names.The first bilingual sign was installed in the fall 2018 in front of Corbett Hall, which houses the Wabanaki Center. The word wαpánahkik is printed on the sign with the translation “in the Dawnland,” the Penobscot name for their homeland. While the signs help instill the important truth that the Orono campus is situated on Marsh Island, within the Wabanaki and Penobscot homeland, most people know little to nothing of the history of Wabanaki people's active contributions to the University of Maine for the past century. Read more in the Backstory and Context section.

2. Proud and Out: Early LGBTQ Activism on Campus

Inclusive events like Pride Week, Gay Thanksgiving, and Lavender Prom are popular on campus in today’s environment, but a safe and vocal LGBTQ+ community did not exist at the University of Maine until the student group Wilde Stein was founded in 1974. Students today seeking an inclusive community can find a number of different resources in Memorial Union, including the Rainbow Resource Center, located near the center kiosk on the second floor. Read about the efforts of students from the 1970s, like UMaine alumni Sturgis Haskins, to establish a safe community for LGBTQ+ students on campus and change public perception.

3. Finding Their Voices: Student Activism on Campus

Before jumping into the backstory of student activists on campus, please read the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that are placed around this plaza named in his honor. Dr. King and other leaders of the ciil rights movement inspired students across the nation to join together in peaceful protest, and make their collective voices heard. From the Vietnam War, to apartheid in South Africa, to the recent death of George Floyd, students and faculty at the University of Maine have raised their voices for causes they felt strongly about, at all costs. The civil rights movement of the 1960s influenced generations that followed to fight for equality, justice, and inclusion. Students at UMaine, as on campuses nationwide, were largely at the forefront of these movements. Read more below.

4. Students in Service: The Class of 1944

This building is named in honor of students who served in World War II from the Class of 1944. Many students put their education, and sometimes new marriages and families, on hold to serve their country. One member of the class, Stephen L. Jacobs, who himself was the recipient of the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, worked diligently to collect the stories of his fellow classmates who served. Read more about this brave class in the Background section below, and check back soon for an extension to this post on women during wartime.

5. From Depression Era Hungry Hollow to Bumstock (VIRTUAL STOP ONLY)

While this land may look like just a vacant lot to current students and passersby, a hundred years' worth of alumni could probably tell you a great story about this location. What started as a kindly offer from a farmer for a few struggling students to live on his land turned into an entire ramshackle colony by the Great Depression. Although the university tore down and replaced the cabins, the outsider spirit of the original "cabineers" of Hungry Hollow lived on through future generations of residents, including author Stephen King. The site was famously home to the annual end-of-year blowout known as Bumstock, inspired by Woodstock, which began in 1973. Read more about the layered lost history of this site below.

6. Williams Hall Named For Noted Black Mathematician Grad

In the spring of 2021, the UMaine system’s board of trustees approved renaming Clarence C. Little Hall for mathematician Dr. Beryl Warner Williams, a Bangor native who held two degrees from the University of Maine.

7. UMaine's Ugly Ties to the Field of Eugenics and the KKK

No building on campus has attracted as much recent attention as Little Hall, named for Dr. Clarence or "C.C." Little, former UMaine president and leader in the field of eugenics. He often spoke out on racial purity, and the need to sterilize those deemed unfit to reproduce. Racist and nativist views were pervasive across the United States at time, including in Maine. UMaine alum DeForest Perkins was the Grand Dragon of the Maine Ku Klux Klan during Little's time as President. Explore their complicated story below, and check out a recent report on the Little Hall renaming in the resources at the end. *Please note than the next stop in the tour is virtual only due to distance and lack of remaining structures.

8. Red Summer Racial Violence Comes to Campus

The beautiful Cyrus Pavilion holds a dark secret. One cold night in April of 1919, two Black brothers from Boston, Samuel Edward and Roger Davis Courtney, were tarred and feathered here by their white peers. The brothers, who had escaped another attack earlier in the night, were hunted by a mob and lead four miles back to campus by horse halters. The event was part of a larger series of attacks nationwide against African Americans that year known as the Red Summer. The event was lost in the archives until recently, and omitted from local press at the time. Read more in the Backstory.

9. A History of Black Student Success on Campus

Early Black students at the University of Maine were only a generation removed from slavery, and grew up in a world that afforded them very few educational opportunities. Many communities did not even offer schooling for African Americans beyond elementary education. Black alumni like Frederico Matheas ('07) and Ada V. Peters ('27) excelled both academically and socially, and went on to have remarkable careers, defying racist stereotypes about the capabilities and potential of Black students. Their families were both prominent in Bangor's small but established Black community at the turn of the century. Read more about Fred and Ada in the Backstory below.

10. First Female Faculty Members Leaders in Their Fields

Historian Dr. Caroline Colvin, entomologist Dr. Edith Patch, and other early female faculty members persevered through similar challenges faced by female students. While each of these women struggled to get their foot in the academic door, they made waves in their fields once they were given the opportunity, paving the way for generations of female academics that followed. Read all about the impact of these two women's work below in the "Backstory and Context" section.

11. Women Overcame Obstacles to Acquire an Education in Early Years

Female students were not admitted to the university during the institution's first 5 years, and continued to face other limits imposed on their educational experience, from where they lived to what majors were considered suitable. There was absolutely no housing on campus for female students for the first half century until Balentine Hall opened, named for Elizabeth Abbott Balentine, the first female staff member at UMaine. Read the backstory below for more on these remarkable women.

This Tour is a Virtual Museum or Site Tour.

Hidden History Tour of the University of Maine

Created by Karen Sieber on March 31st 2021, 10:30:16 pm.

Get a QR Code for this tour

Description

The "Hidden History Tour" aims to highlight key people, moments, and places in University of Maine campus history that often go overlooked. We wanted to upend the usual campus tour that highlights buildings named for famous alumni or donors, or current cutting edge facilities (we have those, too). The tour moves through history chronologically and explores real people and local connections to moments from Women's History, Black History, Labor History, Native American History, LGBTQ+ History, Military History, and Political History. The tour also highlights quintessential student experiences found on nearly any campus, from struggles to pay tuition or find affordable housing, to debaucherous end-of-year festivals to blow off steam before finals. The collective stops on this tour illuminate how campus history *IS* U.S. history, just on a smaller scale. Each stop includes archival resources, many from the University of Maine Fogler Library Special Collections. Scroll down for more on the project or click the arrow button to start the tour!

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