Drugs, armed conflict, and free trade. Sound familiar? The First Opium War of the early 1840s, with British and Chinese fighting over the opium trade and Chinese sovereignty, opened up Chinese ports to the world. Maine’s merchant mariners aboard Maine-built ships soon thereafter entered the Chinese import and export trade. The trade aboard Maine-built ships lasted into the turn of the 20th Century. In the meantime, Maine sea captains and their families brought back souvenirs, stories, and an economic understanding of China. Presented on Thursday, May 30, 2019 by Cipperly Good, Curator of the Penobscot Marine Museum.

Video by George Kerper

Video by George Kerper

Video by George Kerper

Videos by Belfast Community Media

Cathleen Miller, Curator of the Maine Women Writers Collection at UNE, Melissa Hays, Ruth Moore Days organizers, Muriel Davisson and devotee Jane O’Rouke discuss how the novels of Mary Ellen Chase, Elisabeth Ogilive, Ruth Moore, Miriam Colwell and Louise Dickinson Rich provide different portraits of the people and the state of Maine.

Video by George Kerper

Jeff “Smokey” McKeen founded Pemaquid Oyster Company on the Damariscotta River in 1986 and now raises over a million oysters a year. He has been written up in the New York Times and Yankee Magazine, and is featured in Mario Batali’s American Farm to Table: Simple, Delicious Recipes Celebrating Local Farmers.

Video by George Kerper

Captain John Worth of Maine Maritime Academy has worked and taught students aboard tugboats on Penobscot Bay over the course of his exciting career. He will share experiences and discuss the history of assisting cargo ships in the navigation of the Penobscot Bay and River.

Video by George Kerper

Video by George Kerper

Earle G. Shuttleworth Jr., Maine State Historian and Director and State Historic Preservation Commission, will present The Land and Sea of Three Maine Women Photographers: The Real Photo Post Cards of Thurza Toss, Minnie Libby, and Josephine Townsend.

Video by George Kerper