Celebrate Spring into Summer with Main Street Bath and the Patten Free Library! Visit Library Park for lawn games, baked goods, giveaways, and fun for all ages. With support from Country Farm Furniture and Centre St. Arts Gallery.
For a complete schedule of Spring into Summer events click here.
Participants will dive deep into the shallow waters of vernal pools to take a closer look at their seasonal nature and the impact it has on amphibian and invertebrate life cycles. Participants will learn that these species-rich spring pools help support food chains for a variety of animals living in adjacent ecosystems. Ages 7-12.
Tuesday, May 10
5 p.m. in the Community Room and on Zoom
“The Living New Deal” researcher Andrew Laverdiere gives a glimpse into the vast scope of FDR’s legacy in the context of what was going on in the state of Maine at the time and a discussion about the economic philosophy that made his efforts successful both nationally and internationally. Given that President Roosevelt’s actions generate controversy still to this day, a panorama of FDR’s enemies and their legacy will be touched upon.
“The Living New Deal” is a public history project out of the University of California Berkley that documents the New Deal’s massive legacy to the United States. Because New Deal public works were rarely marked, the era’s contribution to American life goes largely unseen and unappreciated.
This presentation will take place in the Community Room and live on Zoom. Registration is required for the Zoom webinar only. With support from West Bath Historical Society.
Register for This EventFriday, May 6
4:00 pm
The Teen Library Council is back! Let your voice be heard and help shape the future of Teen programming as we plan Library events, make friends, and enjoy our beautiful Teen Space. Grades 8-12. Meets the first Friday of every month.
Saturday, May 7
2 p.m.
In the Community Room and on Zoom
Join local author Fredric B. Hill for a lively discussion of local history and a reading from his latest book “A Flick of Sunshine.”
Hill’s talk will focus mainly on the story of a shipwreck, survival in the latter days of the great three- and four-masted sailing ships, and Bath’s prominence in shipbuilding in the mid and later 19th century. Will Jackson, a “Bath Boy” (as sailors from the city of ships were often known) was born at the beginning of the Civil war. He was the grandson of William Donnell Crooker, who, with his brother, led one of the most successful shipbuilding companies in the middle of the century before they ran into hard times, the panic of 1857, and fiscal challenges. Because of the decline of the shipyard, Jackson, Hill’s great-uncle, went to sea at age 21. He was the youngest, lowest paid, and last member of the crew and effectively saved all members of the (Sewall) ship Rainier when it wrecked on a reef in the Marshall Islands in January 2, 1884- only to get marooned there himself for several more months.
This program will be presented in the Community Room and live on Zoom. Books will be available for purchase at the event and at Mockingbird Bookshop. Registration is required for the Zoom webinar only. With support from Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc.
Frederic B. Hill was a reporter, correspondent and editorial writer for The Baltimore Sun, including tours as Bureau Chief in London and Paris, covering Europe and southern Africa. His award-winning articles on corruption in Baltimore county and the state of Maryland led to major reforms and convictions of high-level government officials. He was Foreign Affairs Director for Sen. Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. (R., MD) in 1985 and 1986, and assisted and advised the senator on a number of path-breaking legislative achievements, including the U.S. sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid regime and several arms control initiatives.
He then helped establish and headed the State Department’s first Office of Special Programs. The office conducted policy planning exercises (wargames) and senior-level discussions on security, political, economic and global issues for the Department of State and key national security agencies from 1986 to 2006.
A native of Maine and graduate of Bowdoin College, he is the author of “Ships, Swindlers and Scalded Hogs, the Rise and Fall of the Crooker Shipyard in Bath, Maine” (Down East Books, 2016) and co-editor with Stephens Broening of “The Life of Kings; The Baltimore Sun and the Golden Age of the American Newspaper “(Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Mr. Hill wrote the preface of the collection and a chapter detailing his investigative articles on corruption in Maryland which led, indirectly through subsequent investigations, to the resignation of Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew.
Another book, Dereliction of Duty: The Failed Presidency of Donald John Trump, was published by Amazon Books, in summer 2020. With endorsements from senior State and Defense department leaders and journalists, the book is a collection of his op-ed columns on national security issues and the former president’s disdain for the rule of law for national and regional newspapers, including the Dallas Morning News, The Baltimore Sun, the Bangor (Me.) Daily News and Portland Press Herald.
His most recent book, A Flick of Sunshine, written with his son, Alexander Jackson Hill, has just been released by Lyons Press in February, 2022 after a Covid-related delay. Two more books, a biography of Senator Charles “Mac” Mathias, Jr. and a collection of short stories of a popular Maine author, Richard Matthews Hallet, are due to be published this summer.
He is a member and former president of Maine’s First Ship, an organization building a reconstruction of the first vessel built by English settlers in North America, at Popham Beach, Maine, in 1607-08, and for ten years was co-director of a leading doubles squash tournament, the Maine/Maryland at Meadow Mill (M4) Doubles Championships.
He resides in Arrowsic, Maine and Baltimore. Email address: fhill207@gmail.com
Show us your book themed treats! Submissions are open to any kind of food, with any kind of literary inspiration. Fill out the form below by April 30 and win a prize. Winners in each category will receive a $25 gift card to Now You’re Cooking, and the Grand Prize winner will receive a dozen macarons from Thayer Treats.
Open to the following categories:
Children/Family
Teen (ages 12-18)
Adult (18+)
Need ideas? View our Facebook live events with Kaite Thayer from Thayer Treats:
Friday, March 25 at 4 p.m.: Dragon Egg Sugar Cookies
Friday, April 1 at 4 p.m.: Very Hungry Caterpillar Pull Apart Cupcakes
Friday, April 8 at 4 p.m.: Book Cakes
With support from Now You’re Cooking.
The Sagadahoc History and Genealogy Room announces the eighteenth annual Town History Series!
The Town History Series is a long-standing Patten Free Library tradition that brings together Patten Free Library’s member communities to learn about and celebrate each town’s local history. The town of Arrowsic, Bath Historical Society, Georgetown Historical Society, West Bath Historical Society, and Woolwich Historical Society each select a speaker to present on an aspect of their local history. All programs take place at 10 a.m. and will be presented live on Zoom and recorded and streamed on BCTV.
Click on the individual listing below to learn more and register online. Recordings will become available below and on the Town History Series playlist the week after they are live.
January 22: Arrowsic
Gift or Purchase? Right to the Land, Arrowsic 1717 | Sheila Spear
January 29: West Bath Postponed due to weather
February 5: Bath
The Reconstruction of Maine’s First Ship | Jim Parmentier
February 12: Georgetown
Captain Spinney – Seguin Ornithologist | Jeanne McGowan
February 19: Woolwich
From Apples to Ale: A History of Montsweag Farm | Allison Hepler
February 26: West Bath
The Geology of West Bath and its Influence on the Early Years | Jim Brophy
This year’s Town History Series is dedicated to Joseph Charles Seigh, who volunteered in the History Room for over 22 years. Joe was instrumental in the creation of the Memory database, used for looking up obituaries and one of the unsung treasures of the History Room. Joe died this past July and will be greatly missed.
Build a literary snowperson and win a Gift of Bath Gift Card! Fill out the form below between January 3 and February 18 with a photo of your creation. Winners will be announced February 25.
With support from Maine Street Design.
Ongoing in the Teen Space and the Community Room
Bring your gifts and use our wrapping supplies. Pick up some free art or a YA book while you’re here.
With support from David Matero Architecture and Country Farm Furniture.
