Denmark Historical Society promotes, preserves and stimulates an interest in the history of Denmark, Maine. We collect and share the history of Denmark from its earliest recorded history to the experiences of our newest residents.
Denmark is a small, yet diverse, town in southwestern Maine. We have an awesome sense of community pride and teamwork. The Society is happy to show you how the history of Denmark has developed and evolved over the years; and to address any specific interests you may have.
The first meeting of Denmark Historical Society was held at Denmark Public Library Wednesday, November 8, 1989 at 7:30 PM for the purpose to collect, preserve, and make available historical and genealogical material relating to Denmark through exhibits, educational programs and publications.
Winifred ‘Winnie’ Moore was selected as moderator and Sylvia ‘Sue’ MacDonald as secretary. Other members at the first meeting were Allene Westleigh, Patricia Owens, Robert Owens, Dorothy Osgood Brooks, Kathryn Griffith and William Cutler. A bylaw committee was established and it was decided to hold monthly meetings on the third Wednesday of each month. In 1991 our society incorporated.
Our charter members set to work collecting all available historical records; and encouraging Denmark residents to donate their family history and artifacts. Our friends and community members continue to donate or let the Society scan materials. As a result the Society has a large collection of reference materials and photographs that represent all aspects of Denmark’s family life and community events. And, with today’s technology, we can scan your documents and return them to you immediately. We can even come to your house to do the scanning.
We encourage older residents to present their life experiences while attending school, community activities, and working and living in Denmark. And we work with elementary school children, through our Local Stories program, to help them learn and understand their heritage.
Over the years Denmark Historical Society has held Doll Shows, and invited local speakers of interest such as Roland Blake and Thomas Johnson who talked about the history of Denmark at the first program given in the new Denmark Public Library, Percy Lord who discussed logging in the 1940’s and 1950’s, and Robert Linnell spoke about Denmark’s civil war soldiers and Merle Moore talked about the early years of the fire department. We held a Pow Wow, and Stan Cohen gave a talk on Maine’s Civil War soldiers with an emphasis on Denmark soldiers.
Recently we have teamed with Denmark Public Library and Denmark Arts Center to present an author series of talks. Many other programs, shows and speakers have been hosted by the Society through the years.
The Denmark Historical Society has evolved from a small town operation to an organization reaching out to a broader community. In the recent past years we have created a website with active content, a Facebook presence, and we have volunteers from within the community who help in organizing and preserving our collection. We are eager to share our collection, for example, we are just beginning a project to digitize our image collection of photographs and postcards as well as our historical records of Denmark to have them become Internet-accessible.
Denmark Historical Society continues to collect; research and preserve Denmark’s history.