Castine History Partners
Castine History Partners (CHP) is a collaboration originally established to create virtual history tours for Castine, and CHP continues to work to support a variety of learning opportunities around the history of Castine. The partners include Castine Community Partners, Castine Historical Society, Castine Touring Company, Maine Coast Heritage Trust, Maine Maritime Academy, Wilson Museum, and Witherle Memorial Library.
Fall 2025
mači-pikʷátohsək: A Wayfinding Walk
Majabigwaduce, also known as Castine, is known for its unique historical signs first installed by the Village Improvement Society in 1908. While these panels are considered by many to be a distinctive part of the town’s character, they reflect outdated historical interpretations and contain problematic content, often focusing on European colonization while invisibilizing Wabanaki history and sense of place and erasing the traces of Castine’s Black residents.
The Wayfinding Walk will use signage as a central theme, examining both the stories these signs tell and the histories they leave out, encouraging participants to critically reflect on visible elements of the commemorative landscape while learning about Penobscot worldview, wayfinding techniques, and relationship to place.
In the Library Collection
Witherle Memorial Library maintains a dynamic collection of books and materials, with new titles being added regularly in its commitment to Castine History Partners efforts. To request a book please click on the cover/image.
Note: Some titles were published at a time when the terminology and cultural understanding surrounding Indigenous peoples differed significantly from our own. They contain language, including the term ‘Indian,’ as well as descriptions and historical perspectives that are now considered outdated, inaccurate, and stereotypical.
Recommended Online Resources
Maine Department of Education Wabanaki Studies
Interdisciplinary resources for educators for the classroom and other learning environments individually or as a whole unit.
Books and Book Contributions by Wabanaki Authors in Fogler Library
Lists books and sections of books by Wabanaki authors, all of which are available through awihkhikaní-wikəwαm (“book house,” or “Fogler Library,” in the Penobscot language).
UMaine Hudson Museum Wabanaki Studies
Teacher resources for Maine Studies and Maine Native American Studies.
The Prince Project
Prince Project works to uncover the role of enslavement in Maine’s early past and share the research in an effort to help rewrite inaccurate historical narratives.
Maine-built and -captained Vessels in the Slave Trade
Includes slave ship statistics and descriptions.
Black History and the History of Slavery in Maine
A lesson by Kathleen Neumann, Maine Historical Society, which presents an overview of the history of the Black community in Maine and the U.S.
African American History in Maine
This collection highlights documents from the Maine State Archives that tell the story of African-American history in Maine during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Maine Anti-Slavery Efforts
The Maine Anti-Slavery Society, formed in 1833, was integrated with Black and White members and included both men and women, unusual for the time period.
Portland Freedom Trail
A two-mile walk which passes through the city’s oldest and most historic areas related to its African American population.
African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts
Manuscripts and rare published works that serve as a window upon the lives of African Americans in Massachusetts from the late seventeenth century through the abolition of slavery under the Massachusetts Constitution in the 1780s
Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database
Explore the voyages that relocated more than 12 million enslaved Africans across the world.
Maine Calling: Maine’s Role in the Slave Trade
Maine Calling Show with Kate McMahon & Meadow Dibble