Capital Punishment

was abolished in 1876, restored in 1883, and abolished again in 1887, although attempts to restore it have continued to the present. (Michigan was the first state to do so, in 1847.) Nevertheless, Maine has one of the lowest murder rates in the United States, while large “death penalty states” such as Texas and California…

Chamberlain, Joshua L.

Joshua L. Chamberlain (courtesy Maine State Museum)

(1828-1914) was born September 8, 1828, in Brewer the eldest of five children. He worked on his father’s farm and, like many other promising young men, taught school for a time. Entering Bowdoin College in Brunswick in 1848, Chamberlain studied the traditional classical curriculum and showed particular skill at languages. At First Parish Church, he…