Winter Lecture Series 2026
- Paul Ledman, presented The Freedom Trail and Underground Railroad in Portland. In the decades leading up to the Civil War, it became harder to reconcile the country’s professed ideal that “all men are created equal” with the reality that slavery allowed millions to be held in bondage. One contentious issue was the Underground Railway—a loose network that helped fugitives who were escaping from slavery. Citizens of Portland played a major role in that effort; some of their stories are noted on the markers of the Portland Freedom Trail. Paul Ledman will relate stories of the Freedom Trail to the historical background which made it necessary.
- Matthew Jude Barker presented The Blue and the Green: The Irish of Portland in the Civil War Era. Barker, a local expert, discussed topics from his most recent works, Becoming American, Portland, Maine’s Irish and the Making of Immigrant America, 1840-1861 and The Blue and the Green, The Portland, Maine Irish During the Civil War Era, 1845–1870. He brought to life an amazingly transformative era in Portland history, discussing events such as the Great Hunger, immigration, Neal Dow and prohibition, bootlegging and crime, the "Rum Riot,” the Know-Nothings and nativists, Irish occupations, abolition, the railroad, the Panic of 1857, the war years, the Fenians, the Great Fire of July 4, 1866, and the dedication of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, among many other topics.
- Jason Ur presented Colonial Burying Grounds as Archaeological Landscapes. In most New England towns, little remains of their 16th and 17th century landscapes, with one frequent exception: the burying ground. These places have not gone unnoticed: art historians have studied their gravestones, genealogists have cataloged their epitaphs, and archaeologists have recognized their headstone iconography. What's missing is the framework of landscape archaeology, an approach that treats these places as more than a collection of names and monuments. Archeologist Jason Ur talked about his current research mapping old cemeteries using new drone technology, and applying the landscape methods he uses to study the urban landscapes of ancient Mesopotamia to the mortuary landscapes of early Colonial towns.