By Frances Pollitt
From July 7 – October 2, 2021 an exhibit showcasing the advent of Green Acre may be seen at the Maine Historical Society in Portland, Maine. Nested within a larger exhibit focusing on Maine’s historic and present-day place in addressing social justice issues, the Green Acre story will be beautifully displayed in the Shettleworth Lecture Hall throughout the summer into the early Fall of this year, entitled “The Advent of Green Acre, A Bahá’í Center of Learning.”
Maine’s statewide digital museum, Maine Memory Network, a project of the Maine Historical Society, was launched 21 years ago in 2000 (www.mainememory.net) The Eliot Bahá’í Archives was an early contributor of digital images of photographs of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s 1912 visit to Green Acre, advertisements for the Inn and scores of other historical images that chronicle the early history of Green Acre. These historic images and the story of the people and aspirations of Green Acre on Maine Memory Network caught the attention of Tilly Lasky, curator at Maine Historical Society, who is one of the organizers of the upcoming exhibit “Begin Again: Reckoning with Intolerance in Maine.” Lasky invited Rosanne Adams-Junkins, who serves as archivist for the Eliot Bahá’í Archives, and Frances Pollitt, former staff member of Maine Historical Society, to create an exhibit which became entitled, “The Advent of Green Acre, A Bahá’í Center of Learning.”
In this historic year commemorating the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, we witness, with the launching of this exhibit at Maine’s foremost historical society in Portland, the wider community’s unfolding interest and attraction to the principles of the Faith.