BOWDOIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1972 to Present Day

ORGANIZED 1972; INCORPORATED 1973

(WITH 31 CHARTER MEMBERS)

Quoted from the history gathered from the minutes of the Historical Society by Charlene B. Bartlett and Jane E. Bickford.

Purpose: To bring together at frequent intervals those who are interested in the collection and preservation of historical subjects, including history now in the making.

On October 1, 1972, an organization meeting for a Bowdoin Historical Society was held at the home of Jayne and Carl Bickford with 13 persons present. In December it was decided to start a scrap book of Bowdoin events, and in February of 1973 the first fund raising activity took place with a food sale at the IGA in Lisbon Falls. Also in February Dr. Marius Peladeau of the Maine League of Historical Societies spoke to the Bowdoin group and the Society joined the League. A gift of copies of Three Months With the New York Herald by Capt. John Potter was accepted.

​On May 2, 1973 the Society was incorporated by the State of Maine with By-laws which provided for the offices of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and five Trustees. Elections were to be held on a yearly basis in October. Much later, after Bowdoin College transferred to the Society the responsibility for administering the Viola Coombs Trust Fund and caring for the Regular and Particular Calvinistic Baptist Church and adjacent cemetery, the Society also elects a Trust Fund Trustee annually for a total of three trustees.