Maine's Capital Area

The Kennebec Historical Society’s December Public Presentation: Daylilies and Cellar Holes: Reading Rural Landscapes.

As a society, we know a great deal about famous people of the past, great historical architecture and important events of the past, but we are surrounded by common, everyday places that also represent history. Yet these ordinary things are in danger of becoming forgotten. Still, they are
accessible and interpretable if we take the time to look. This presentation is for anyone who is curious about the remnants and features of a bygone New England countryside. What are some common clues to the past? How do we read them? What can we find in our own back yards? Rob Sanford will show PowerPoint slides of common landscape features ranging from plants and trees to stonewalls, cellar holes, and other altered landforms that show the dynamics of human-influenced
change in the countryside. We will focus on some typical features and techniques for interpreting them as we process the “language” of the land in rural Maine.

Our speaker Rob Sanford lives in Gorham, Maine with his wife Robin and son Morgan. He is chair of the Department of Environmental Science & Policy at the University of Southern Maine, where he has worked since 1996. He has a BA in Anthropology and his MS and PhD in Environmental Science.
He is a Registered Professional Archaeologist and first got interested in landscape history as a child roaming the woods and fields associated with the family dairy farm. Working for the New York State Research Foundation and in Vermont brought him to doing historical resource surveys along highways as part of Environmental Impact Assessments. These surveys provided practical
experience in reading landscapes. He has coauthored books on archaeology, environmental science and environmental planning.

The Kennebec Historical Society Public Presentation will take place on Wednesday, December 16, 2015, at 6:30 p.m at the Augusta City Center, 16 Cony Street in Augusta.