Winter Lecture Series
Each winter, we sponsor a series of public talks exploring how people and events helped shape New England into what it is today. We just wrapped up our 16th season of providing enriching experiences to our community from notable experts on various historic topics!
We rely on donations and event ticket sales to fund our conservation efforts and this lecture series. Your donations are so appreciated. Some of you remember the lecture tip jar we keep on our welcome table next to the cookies! We also have a PayPal virtual tip jar: Donate to Spirits Alive today. Thank you!
Lecture Archives
We have been presenting public lectures that educate us on the history of our city, state, and country since 2008. Here is a listing of those who have participated as well as their lecture subject matter.
- 2026 Lecture Series
- 2025 Lecture Series
- 2024 Lecture Series
- 2023 Lecture Series
- 2022 Lecture Series
- 2021 Lecture Series
- 2020 Lecture Series
- 2019 Lecture Series
- 2018 Lecture Series
- 2017 Lecture Series
- 2016 Lecture Series
- 2015 Lecture Series
- 2014 Lecture Series
- 2011 Lecture Series
- Kim MacIsaac of Fifth Maine Regiment Museum - The Forest City Regiment: Death, Mourning and Loss
- Tom Desjardin, PhD, Chief Historian, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands - Civil War Heroes and Heroines Buried in Evergreen Cemetery
- Margaret Creighton, Professor at Bates College - Dead Men’s Pockets: Gettysburg Bodies and Other Stories
- 2010 Lecture Series
- Salem State College professor Emerson Woods Baker II - Native Americans of Casco Bay
- Author Jim Nelson - Privateering on Casco Bay
- Maine State Historian Earle Shettleworth - The Development of Munjoy Hill
- 2008 Lecture Series
- Joy Giguere - Death & Commemoration on the Frontier: An Analysis of Early Gravestones in Cumberland County, Maine, 1720 to 1820
- David Watters, Director of the Center for New England Culture and professor of English at the University of New Hampshire - Stranger, Stop and Cast an Eye: A Cultural History of New England Burying Grounds
- Earle Shettleworth, Director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission -The Day Portland Burned: July 4, 1866