University of Southern Maine

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Annual USM Sampson Center Exhibition Examines Religion’s Impact on African American, LGBT, and Jewish Communities

July 28, 2006

The University of Southern Maine Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine will display its second annual exhibition, “Liberating Visions: Religion and the Challenge of Change in Maine, 1820-Present” from Thursday, October 26, 2006, through Sunday, January 26, 2007, in the exhibition space located on the Sixth Floor of the Glickman Family Library, Forest Ave., Portland. The opening reception will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Thursday, October 26, on the 7th Floor of the Library, A series of lectures by Sampson Center scholars will take place Thursday evenings from 6:30-8 p.m., on November 2, 9, and 16, also on the 7th Floor of the Library. All events are free and open to the public.  The exhibition is open during library hours (http://library.usm.maine.edu/about/hoursfall2005.htm), for more information, call 780-4275.

This Sampson Center exhibition will be curated by the scholars representing the three collections housed in the Center: Maureen Elgersman Lee from the African American Collection of Maine; Howard Solomon from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection; and Abraham Peck from the Judaica Collection. The exhibit will examine religion’s impact—intellectually, socially, politically, and economically—on the African American, LGBT, and Jewish communities in Maine.

Established in 1997, the Center is named for the late Jean Byers Sampson, a Lewiston resident who was a founding member of the first NAACP chapter in Maine, served as executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, and as chair of the University of Maine System Board of Trustees. The Center’s purpose is to promote interest and knowledge about Maine's diverse cultural fabric. The African American Collection of Maine includes the personal collection of former state legislator and civil rights advocate Gerald E. Talbot; the Judaica Collection includes the family papers from Sumner and Rosalyne Bernstein, leaders in Maine's legal and civic communities; and among the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Collection are the papers of Portland activist Frannie Peabody and photographs by Annette Dragon.

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