Friends of the Maine State Museum 2012 Series “Highlights at the Maine State Museum” Continues on May 30

Kate McBrien, Curator of Historic
Collections, Maine State Museum

Friends of the Maine State Museum 2012 Series “Highlights at the Maine State Museum” Continues on May 30

Maine State Museum Curator Kate McBrien Presents Talk on the Story of Maine’s Malaga Island

Augusta, Maine - The Friends of the Maine State Museum continues its annual series of talks and programs, “Highlights at the Maine State Museum,” with a talk by Maine State Museum Curator Kate McBrien on Wednesday, May 30.  McBrien’s presentation at the Maine State Museum in Augusta is free of charge and begins at 6:30 p.m.

Kate McBrien is the curator in charge of developing the new Maine State Museum exhibition, “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives.”  Acclaimed as an open, thoughtful presentation that explores the poor, mixed-race community evicted from Malaga Island one hundred years ago, “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives” will be available for a special viewing following McBrien’s talk.

“The Malaga Island story is important to an understanding of racism, economics, social reform, and the role of government in the early 1900s,” comments McBrien.  “For nearly 100 years, Malaga Island, located at the mouth of the New Meadows River in Phippsburg, was scarcely spoken of, except negatively.  When archaeologists from the University of Southern Maine began excavations on Malaga, the long-missing fragments of peoples’ lives there began to re-surface.  Like the exhibition, my talk will look at those fragments, along with historical photographs and documents, to better understand the community and the forces that shaped its formation and demise.”

In addition to an overview of Malaga Island’s past, McBrien’s talk will include specific information on some of the individuals who lived there, as well as what happened to them after the eviction.

McBrien began her museum career at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  She worked at Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick, Maine and American Independence Museum in Exeter, New Hampshire before joining the Maine State Museum in 2008.

Kate McBrien’s lecture at the museum is the fifth in the Friends of the Maine State Museum’s 2012 winter/spring series of special programs and lectures.  The series is sponsored by the Friends and The Bank of Maine.  The series will conclude on June 27 with a talk by Paul J. Fournier, former Maine Guide, bush pilot, and photographer with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The Maine State Museum is located in Augusta, Maine in the State House Complex at 230 State Street.  For more information call (207) 287-2301 or visit the museum’s website at www.mainestatemuseum.org.