Collecting area: Maine

Longtime partners in work and life, Norine Kotts and Cheryl Lewis met in San Francisco in 1980. Kotts, daughter of a law enforcement officer and a homemaker, whose family who moved frequently, was a freelance photographer; Lewis, a biracial Chicago native and daughter of a furniture maker and a schoolteacher, who grew up in Rockland County, N. Y., was an art student in the Bay Area and a lifelong cook. They moved back to the house Kotts was sharing with a group of lesbians, in Somerville, Mass., and eventually into the world of food collectives, restaurants, and hospitality. In 1982, along with two co-founders, Kotts and Lewis opened the cafe Beetle’s Lunch in Allston, a Boston neighborhood. Named “1983 Best Punk Restaurant” by Boston magazine, Beetle’s Lunch became known as a welcoming alternative community space situated at a convergence of queer and feminist politics, new concepts in art and music, and the changing food scene, with a dash of idealism, especially on the part of its young feminist founders. Relocating to Portland, Me., in 1985 Kotts and Lewis opened Café Always, playing a significant role in fostering and shaping that city’s burgeoning food culture: as Portland’s first restaurant to employ local farmers and incorporate local ingredients into the daily menu, Café Always garnered national attention. After selling the business in 1995, the couple opened Aurora Provisions, a gourmet food and wine shop with an in-store restaurant and catering service, which they ran until selling it in 2001. As consultants they continued to participate in and influence the food scene in Portland, helping to launch Portland favorite El Rayo Taqueria in 2009.

The Kotts and Lewis Papers provide glimpses into the formation and operation of several notable New England food establishments, documenting the creative, professional, and personal aspects, as well as the food itself. The collection contains menus, photographs, business plans, correspondence (including a set of letters Kotts wrote to her mother on the backs of menus), recipes and cookbooks, memorabilia, and a guest book filled with diners’ comments. Kotts and Lewis are also the subjects of a series of oral histories conducted by sociologist Janice Irvine.

The Society of Friends has had a long, but discontinuous history in Lewiston, Maine. After periods of activity from 1785-1851 and 1867-1911, Quaker worship in Lewiston was revived in 1972, leading to reinstatement of a monthly meeting in 1980. Oxford Hills Monthly Meeting was set off from Lewiston in 1993.

The records of the Quaker meeting in Lewiston, Maine, cover its third and most recent iteration, including minutes from 1980 to 1993 ad a handful of state of society reports. The collection also include limited documentation of the Oxford Hills Worship Group prior to its setting off as a monthly meeting in 1993.

Florence Porter Lyman (1870-1960) was born into the Chapin Moodey family in the late 19th century. She married Charles Wendell Porter, a Northampton lawyer who spent his summers in Northern Maine, in 1894. After her first husband’s death in 1899 she continued to spend her summers in Maine. She then married Frank Lyman of the prominent Lyman family in 1903. They had three children together and lived in both Northampton and Brooklyn. During her summers in Northern Maine, Florence Porter Lyman stayed in touch with her many family and friends who lived in Massachusetts and New York.

This collection contains almost forty years of Florence Porter Lyman’s in-coming correspondence. Letters refer primarily to domestic matters including: her first husband’s train accident and death, her engagement and re-marriage to Frank Lyman, and the birth of her three children.

After meeting as a worship group for thirty years in Fort Fairfield in the northern reaches of Maine, Maple Grove Monthly Meeting of Friends was set off Unity Monthly Meeting in 1890. It was a part of Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting until it was laid down in 1962 to Vassalboro Monthly.

The single volume of surviving records from Maple Grove contain a nearly complete run of minutes for the duration of the monthly meeting, lacking only the last seven years.

The archaeological anthropologist Alan McArdle received his masters degree (1975) from UMass Amherst for a demographic study of 17th century Hadley, Mass., followed by a doctorate (1986) on late 19th century mortality change and industrialization in the region. He remained at his alma mater for most of his career, becoming Associate Director of Analytical Studies in the Office of Institutional Research, and has been active in local historic preservation efforts.

McArdle took extensive photographs of colonial cemeteries in Hadley, Mass., and in nearby towns Amherst, Belchertown, and Shutesbury, as well as additional images in Concord, Mass., and in Kennebunkport, Wells, and York, Maine.

Firm based in Portland, Maine, that supplied “merchandize” to local merchants in Maine, as well as in several locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and northeastern Massachusetts. Firm undertook international “adventures” as well. Ledger includes general accounts for merchandise, bills receivable and payable, cash, profit and loss, storage, and truckage, as well as accounts generated with certain ships.

Founded in coastal Camden, Maine, the Midcoast Friends Meeting began as an independent worship group in 1962 and was set off as Camden Monthly Meeting in 1964. After the meeting moved to Damariscotta, it changed name in 1972 to Midcoast Friends Meeting.

The records of Midcoast Monthly Meeting (formerly Camden Monthly) are comprised of a nearly unbroken run of minutes from 1964 to 2009, lacking only 2002.

Beginning in 1972, worship group meetings met in Orland (Maine) in the care of the Midcoast Monthly Meeting. By 1979, the Orland Worship Group was set off as the Narramissic Valley Monthly Meeting. The meeting has been a member of the Vassalboro (Maine) Quarterly Meeting since 1979.

The single folder of records from the Narramissic meeting contains a partially complete set of minutes of monthly meetings from December 1992 to September 1994, lacking Apr, May, Aug and Oct 1993, and Mar 1994, as well as State-of-the-Society reports for 1992, 1993, and one unidentified year. It also contains a written statement of support for same-sex marriage.

Quaker worship began in Fairfield, Maine, in 1784, under the care of Falmouth Quarterly Meeting, resulting in creation of a preparative meeting in 1803 under aegis of Sidney Monthly. Fairfield Monthly Meeting was set off in 1911, changing its name to North Fairfield in about 1935.

Documentation of North Fairfield Monthly Meeting is quite scant, consisting only of an incomplete set of newsletters and meeting calendars, 1979-1994, and some extracts from meeting minutes, including two referring to acceptance of same sex marriage. The early minutes of the meeting are apparently lost.

The Orono (Maine) Monthly Meeting of Friends began meeting as an independent worship group as early as 1960, but in 1969, continued as a worship group in 1969 under the care of the Vassalboro (Maine) monthly meeting. They continued as a worship group until 1973, when they were set off as an independent monthly meeting, and a member of the Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting. In the 2010’s, membership fluctuated with members moving out of state, and new members arriving and joining, though membership remained small. In the late 2010s, membership dropped again and the meeting shifted to being a worship group as of 2017.

The largest portion of the collection consists of a partially-complete set of minutes from 1971 to 2007 (lacking 2001-2003), that included annual State of the Society Reports; these have been filed separately for easier identification. The collection also has a substantial set of treasurer’s reports from 1973-2000 (lacking 1993), and a set of newsletters from 1977-1991. There is one report from a constituent preparative meeting–Still Waters Conservative Friends Meeting–in 2005. In addition, there are several folders with correspondence, committee reports, and some vital and administrative records.