Bethel Historical announces lecture series

BETHEL — A wide variety of topics are to be discussed during the 2011 Bethel Historical Society Lecture Series. Lectures are among the many program offerings presented each year by the Society to advance an understanding of and greater appreciation for the local and regional past - with a particular focus on western Maine and the White Mountain region of Maine and New Hampshire.

Providing the first lecture on April 16 (2 p.m.) will be Benjamin Harris, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire, who will speak on "Dr. John George Gehring and His Bethel Clinic." The next lecturer on May 19 (7:30 p.m.) will be Jane E. Radcliffe, art historian and museum collections specialist, who will make a presentation on "Folk Art Murals of the Rufus Porter School: New England Landscapes 1825-1845."

Ms. Radcliffe is co-author of a new book on this subject and will sign copies after her illustrated talk. The third lecture will take place on June 16 (7:30 p.m.) and will feature Andrew DeRoche, Ph.D., Lecturer in American History at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who will present "From Bethel to Norway via the Congo: Margaret Joy Tibbetts and U.S. Foreign Relations 1949-1964."

This year's Hall Memorial Lecture, on August 12 (7:30 p.m.), will be given by Thomas A. Desjardin, Ph.D., Historian, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, who will speak on "Reluctant Warriors: Mainers React to the Outbreak of the Civil War." (This year marks the beginning of the sesquicentennial of the "War Between the States.")

Finally, the Society's 2011 Lecture Series will conclude with the first annual Stanley Russell Howe Lecture, which will be held on October 15 (2 p.m.).

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the "Weeks Act," which allowed the establishment of the White Mountain National Forest, Richard W. Judd, Ph.D., Col. James C. McBride Professor of History at the University of Maine, will discuss the topic, "Environmental Legacies: Land-Clearing, Forest Use, and Conservation in Northern New England, 1820-1920."

All lectures in the series are free and open to any interested person. All will be held in the exhibit hall of the Dr. Moses Mason House at 14 Broad Street. For additional information about each program, plus listings of other events and exhibits taking place in 2011, please visit the Society's website at www.bethelhistorical.org.