Summer at Victoria Mansion | |
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In this newsletter:
- Brownstone Brews & Bites Recap and Thank You
- Victoria Mansion Research Featured in New England Museum Association Publication
- Colors in the Mansion Inspire New Branding
- We're Hiring!
- Upcoming Events & Programs
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Brownstone Brews & Bites Recap and Thank You | Rob Tod (center), Brewmaster and Founder of Allagash Brewing Company, speaks on the Mansion Ell Porch on July 14th. With him are Victoria Mansion Executive Director Tim Brosnihan (left) and Board President Drew Oestreicher (right). | |
Thank you to everyone who came out to our annual summer fundraiser with Allagash Brewing, Brownstone Brews & Bites! This marked our 18th year of partnership with and support from Allagash, and was the first time we've been able to host this fun summer event since 2019. Though the weather had been looking stormy in the forecast, we got lucky and couldn't have asked for a better Maine summer evening!
Thank you to our drink sponsors Allagash Brewing, Cellardoor Winery, and Green Bee soda, our food sponsors the Pink Waffle and Nothing Bundt Cakes, caterers Anania's Variety and Portland Pie Company, event sponsor Bird & Co., and to the Pete Kilpatrick Band for providing live music from the Parlor portico. And, of course, thank you to all of our volunteers, staff, and trustees for helping to make this event a success! All ticket sales directly support Victoria Mansion's ongoing historic preservation and educational initiatives.
We hope you can join us again next summer!
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Guests attend the 2023 Brownstone Brews & Bites event. Trustee Anne R. and volunteer Heather S. pour Allagash beer (right). | |
Volunteers Linda L. and Mary S. pour Cellardoor wine at the 2023 Brownstone Brews & Bites event. | |
Staff tour guides Erich C. and John B. pour Green Bee soda at the 2023 Brownstone Brews & Bites event. | |
The Pete Kilpatrick Band plays live from the Mansion portico for the 2023 Brownstone Brews & Bites event. | |
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Victoria Mansion Research Featured in
New England Museum Association Publication
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In the fall of 2022, Victoria Mansion's Director of Education & Public Programs, Staci Hanscom, attended the New England Museum Association (NEMA) Conference in Springfield, MA. She presented with colleagues from Historic New England, the Gibson House Museum in Boston, the University of Massachusetts - Amherst, and the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum in Hadley, MA on the topic of "Telling the Tales of What Didn't Happen Here: Interpreting the History of 19th-Century Enslavement at New England Sites".
Victoria Mansion is one of many sites in New England with ties to the domestic slave economy of the 19th century, though no individuals were enslaved onsite. The Mansion's original owner and commissioner, Ruggles Morse, amassed a fortune in New Orleans in the hotel business among other ventures; he also enslaved at least 27 Black individuals in New Orleans and permitted slave auctions to be held in his hotels. Despite the geographic distance between Maine and Louisiana, the unwilling labor of these individuals contributed significantly to Morse's ability to build his luxury summer home in Portland, and the city itself profited from the pervasive domestic slave economy through the importation of goods like sugar and cotton from southern states. Today we, like our fellow sites in New England, have been exploring the best ways to interpret this information. We also strive to interpret the lives of the individuals Morse and his wife enslaved as part of the Mansion's history and include their stories on our daily tours, which can be challenging without written records from the family or, importantly, any surviving material culture that may have been created or used by the individuals the Morses enslaved.
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Exhibition in Victoria Mansion's Stair Hall interpreting the lives of individuals known to have been enslaved by the Morses in New Orleans. | |
The information Staci presented at the NEMA Conference was drawn from research for our ongoing Unwilling Architects Initiative. NEMA staff approached Staci and her co-presenters in late 2022 to write an article for the conference recap issue of their publication New England Museums Now on the same topic as their presentation. Brittany Cook, Development & Communications Coordinator, who has been conducting research for the Unwilling Architects Initiative, assisted with the Mansion's contribution to the article. The conference presentation also spurred the creation of a Community of Practice through NEMA called "Interpreting Histories of Enslavement and Freedom", which is facilitated by the five co-authors of the New England Museums Now article and meets bi-monthly via Zoom.
Discoveries from the Mansion's research are ongoing, including several more since the NEMA article was written!
The New England Museums Now article can be read online here, and we encourage you to read our latest research on our Unwilling Architects Webpage here.
Thank you to NEMA for this opportunity! We look forward to this year's NEMA Conference taking place here in Portland.
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Colors in the Mansion Inspire New Branding | |
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You've probably noticed that our newsletter got a facelift! Mansion staff and committees have been hard at work with our graphic designer, Gina Platt, to establish a new branding suite of colors and fonts for Victoria Mansion moving forward. You'll see some changes to our online and printed materials over the next few months as we roll out these updates.
As Gina assembled possible colors for our branding update, she didn't have to look any further than the Mansion itself for inspiration! After a selection process, we've decided on our new branding color palette, as reflected in the colors you'll see throughout this newsletter in our headings, links, and backgrounds. Many of the colors came from the decoratively painted surfaces in the Reception Room (pictured above, a panel from over one of the Reception Room doors). The conservation of the Reception Room in 2017-2018 revealed several beautiful shades from Giuseppe Guidicini's artistic vision from which we could draw new inspiration.
Thank you to Gina and our branding committee for helping us select our new color palette and fonts!
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Museum Site Manager
General Purpose
Victoria Mansion seeks to hire a weekend Site Manager. This is a part-time position of 24 hours per week (generally three eight-hour days), comprising the periods May 1-October 31 and during the Mansion’s holiday season (the day after Thanksgiving through the first week in January). The Site Manager is responsible for opening and closing the Mansion, greeting visitors, overseeing daily museum shop operations, and providing customer service. There will be occasions when the Site Manger may be asked to work evenings to help cover an event. The option for the 3 days would be either: Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Saturday, Sunday, Monday. The starting pay is $15 an hour. Paid training is provided.
For more information and to apply, please check the job posting on our website.
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Upcoming Programs & Events | |
Keep an eye on our Events page for tickets and more information about upcoming programs. | |
Above: the five Libby children, (L to R) Alice, Mary Louise, Edith (center), Ralph, and Harold. | |
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Victoria Mansion is pleased to offer a two-day, in-person course this September through the University of Southern Maine's (USM) Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). OLLI classes are open for all learners ages 50 and above.
In collaboration with the Maine Irish Heritage Center and the Portland Bridget Project, class instructors Staci Hanscom and Michelle Josephson will cover the lives of individuals from the Libby family in the late 19th to early 20th century, and the domestic staff and caretakers of the Mansion, many of whom were immigrants or children of immigrants.
For more information and to enroll, please visit OLLI's webpage, or check out the full course catalogue.
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Above: a demonstration of the Pepper's Ghost technique as illustrated in the French publication Le Monde Illustré, 1865. | |
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For the first time since 2017, our outdoor Victorian Fair will return to the Mansion lawn this October, with an "odd" twist! Join us for A Bizarre Victorian Bazaar: An Exposition of Oddities and the Obscure. This one-day fair kicks off the Halloween season with an educational (and entertaining!) take on Victorian folklore, camera trickery, Spiritualism, and more.
Learn how two girls tricked several newspaper readers into believing they had captured photos of fairies, how purported mediums conducted séances, and why some elite Victorians held mummy unwrapping parties. Have your palm read, create Victorian crafts, and much more! This fair is designed for all ages, with activities and games for kids throughout the day. Plus, performances from Portland Ballet's production of Tales by Poe, and live music by the Shank Painters!
Keep an eye on our Events webpage, and our Facebook and Instagram pages, as we announce Bazaar happenings over the coming weeks, and for info on when tickets will go on sale.
Victoria Mansion will not be running regular tours on October 7th, but the house will be open for event attendees to tour.
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Support Victoria Mansion's Annual Fund! | |
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Victoria Mansion relies on the support of our community near and far to help us realize our mission to conserve, maintain, and restore this one-of-a-kind property and share its history with the public. Our mission is put into practice every day, with preservation often happening in the public eye. Ongoing research initiatives help us better represent the Mansion within the context of its period to scholars, students, and our everyday visitors.
Support from our community helps us fund the much-needed care this historic structure requires, allowing us to consult with some of New England's top experts in historic preservation, as well as to bring our history curriculum, A Century of Change, to Maine classrooms at no cost to schools.
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When you give to the Annual Fund, 100% of your gift goes directly to support Victoria Mansion, making the greatest possible impact on our educational and curatorial programs, restoration initiatives, and ongoing maintenance—all while allowing us to move the Mansion’s top priorities forward. | |
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Support Victoria Mansion
through a Donor-Advised Fund
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Do you have a charitable investment account, and want to make an impact on the arts in the Greater Portland community? Consider a gift through your Donor-Advised Fund to Victoria Mansion. Your contributions are invaluable in helping us preserve and share this National Historic Landmark for our local, national, and international community, from students to scholars and beyond.
Please contact Ann O'Hagan, Director of Development, at (207) 772-4841 ext.101 or aohagan@victoriamansion.org to learn more about supporting Victoria Mansion through your Donor-Advised Fund, or naming Victoria Mansion a beneficiary.
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We are looking for docents to join us for 2023!
For more information or to sign up, please email Stacia Hanscom, Director of Education & Public Programs at shanscom@victoriamansion.org.
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Members enjoy year-round free admission, discounts in the Museum Shop, and invitations to exclusive events. Become a member today to assist in our conservation efforts and receive the first news about upcoming Victoria Mansion events and programs. | |
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The Staff of Victoria Mansion
Timothy Brosnihan, Executive Director
Ann O'Hagan, Director of Development
Stacia Hanscom, Director of Education & Public Programs
Siobhan Lindsay, Conservator
Brittany Cook, Development & Communications Coordinator
Molly Kingsbury, Museum Shop Buyer & Merchandiser
Sue Flaherty, Visitor Services Coordinator
Michelle Josephson, Senior Site Manager
Sarah Coughlin, Scheduling Coordinator
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