Displaying more than 40 rare books from the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, Bound to Art: Illustrated Books from the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library is part of an 18-month celebration of the facility’s 25th anniversary. The college’s book collection ranges from incunabula of printing’s infancy to the finely printed works of today’s flourishing book arts movement.

The Bates College Museum of Art exhibition Bound to Art, the first-ever exhibit of these holdings, presents a selection of illustrated books spanning nearly 500 years. It will be accompanied by a full-color illustrated catalog, with photography and design by Will Ash of the Bates Imaging and Computing Center (catalog ordering information here).

The show opens with a 6 p.m. reception on Friday, Jan. 14, and ends March 25. In addition, Katherine Stefko, director of the archives and the curator of Bound to Art, leads an informal conversation about the exhibition at 6 p.m. Monday, March 7, at the museum.

“There’s a remarkable range of history, forms of illustration and subject matter, from religion to biology and from physics to poetry,” says Stefko. “There really is something for everyone.

“These books are delightful. They’re just lovely.”

She adds, “I realized, as I began preparing the exhibition, just how lucky Bates has been to receive several significant collections of illustrated books,” holdings that go back to a collection of natural history and biology books from “Uncle Johnny” Stanton, a member of the Bates faculty from 1863 to 1906.

Other collections came from Arthur Peaslee, an 1890 Bates graduate whose donation of more than 100 books included many relating to the Italian poet Dante and his Divine Comedy; and from John Lovejoy ’58, whose gift reflected his interest in contemporary books from small presses.

Authors represented in Bound to Art include poet John Ashbery, adventure novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs, Chaucer, Coleridge, Dante, Frank O’ Hara, Ovid and Walt Whitman. Among the illustrators are Leonard Baskin, Gustave Doré and Marcel Duchamp. Maine artists, such as the late Martha Hall, are also represented.

One of the oldest books on display is a medical textbook from 1601 that shows the muscular structure of the larynx. “It made an incredible impact on the field of medicine,” says Stefko, “but it’s also regarded even today as one of the most beautiful medical textbooks ever published.”

Another highlight is Audubon’s Birds of America in the so-called Bien edition, named for its printer. This volume of stunning life-size prints is also called the “double elephant” edition, in reference to the paper size — about 30 by 40 inches — called by that term, which at one time was the largest that printers could accommodate.

Stefko also points to a four-volume set called The Poems, a 1960 collaboration between the New York School of poets and the second generation of Abstract Expressionist artists. Containing the only silkscreens that many of those artists ever made, the books were produced in a limited edition of 225 sets.

“To me, this is a great thing to be doing because so many people may not know that the Muskie Archives also possesses rare and fine-press books,” says museum director Dan Mills. “This exhibition will get the word out.”

Read about the museum’s other winter exhibitions.

Stunning examples of the book illustrator’s art, including rare Abstract Expressionist silkscreens and life-size bird prints by John James Audubon.

A video series exploring the notion of dialogue.

Paintings by Will Barnet, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Marguerite Zorach and other acclaimed artists associated with Maine.

These are a few of the temptations the Bates College Museum of Art offers in exhibitions opening with a 6 p.m. reception on Friday, Jan. 14, and ending March 25.

The museum, located in the Olin Arts Center at Bates, 75 Russell St., is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6158.

The shows are: Bound to Art: Illustrated Books from the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, an eclectic review of book illustrations based on volumes from Bates collections;

Dialogue, a video series, featuring artists from Amsterdam, Boston and New York;

and Selections From the Collection of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, representing a Maine museum devoted to American art and holding a superb assortment of works by Maine-related artists.

“Each of the three exhibitions is terrific in distinct ways, from the impressive overview of the archives’ holdings of illustrated books, to the important modernist works in the Ogunquit exhibition, to the profound and entertaining videos in the ‘Dialogue’ series,” says museum director Dan Mills.

“Together, they offer a quite extraordinary array of art spanning the centuries and a wide variety of media.”

Two 6 p.m. events related to the exhibitions are scheduled at the museum. On Thursday, Feb. 17: Dialogue video artist Rachel Perry Welty discusses her work.

And on Monday, March 7: Kat Stefko, director of the archives and curator of Bound to Art, leads an informal conversation about books in the exhibition.

Director of Muskie Archives and Special Collection Library Kat Stefko; Bates' Muskie Oral History Project recently won the Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award, from the Oral History Association, for excellence in an oral history project. The Muskie project comprises some 400 interviews.

Asked to describe her job as an archivist, Katherine Stefko’s stock reply is, “I’m paid to read other people’s mail.” The joke is revealing. Director of archives and special collections at Bates, Stefko oversees the delicate work of gathering documentary materials that reveal the details — sometimes very personal — of history.

The Muskie Archives houses nationally significant holdings relating to the late Ed Muskie ’36. You’ve called him the hero of the 1968 presidential campaign, running with Hubert Humphrey.

It was the first time a presidential candidate advertised himself as having chosen a VP who could step up and be president. There was this fabulous political ad that Humphrey put out with the image and sound of an electrocardiogram and the line, “Who is your choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?”

We have film showing Muskie inviting a heckler to the stage. Muskie basically said to him, “I’ll give you 10 minutes to tell people your ideas, but in exchange your group has to be quiet and listen to my ideas.” He was extraordinarily genuine in wanting to understand everyone’s opinions before formulating a policy.

By extending that respect, he really gained a lot of ground with the antiwar protesters. Many political observers speculate that had the election been even a week or two later, Humphrey and Muskie would have come from behind to win.

You recently had vice-presidential scholar Joel Goldstein at the archives researching a book.

By necessity, archivists have to be generalists, so having somebody there with dedicated time to read through and make connections within the Muskie Papers has been incredible.

He has become a huge fan of Muskie, and wrote a lot of op-eds during this election year drawing parallels between the ’68 and 2008 campaigns. Goldstein has been particularly impressed by Muskie’s ability to inspire and sustain civil discourse.

You have a broad collecting mandate, between representing Muskie and other Bates people, and then officially documenting the College’s history.

We collect externally and internally — that’s important to realize. External to Bates, that’s usually me. I spend quite a bit of time working with alumni, their families, and other donors.

It’s always better if you talk to a person about their papers, because nobody can tell a story like the person who lived it. Also, giving one’s papers to an archives is not necessarily an easy thing to do — “Here’s my mail, make it publicly available.”

I talk to people about the historical importance of their materials. And I try to foster confidence so they understand that as an archivist, I’m ethically motivated to do the right thing, balancing the privacy needs of our donors with the research interest of our patrons.

What’s the on-campus process?

Internally, Pat Webber, the College archivist, works with people on campus to make sure that their records of historical value are preserved in the archives. We are authorized to collect from College offices, but there are other records being created at Bates with permanent value. So he goes to student-organization meetings in the evening to talk about the importance of their records.

The Outing Club, for instance, is celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2010, so they and their adviser, Judy Marden, have been thoughtful, with Pat’s encouragement, about their records. Last summer we received all their historic records.

How else do you interact with alums?

We get quite a few casual visits during Reunion and Homecoming Weekend. We’ve offered a historic film festival where we’ve shown old films from the collection, and those have been quite popular.

Whenever possible we try to instill in alumni that we really want material that tells the personal side, the unofficial version of Bates’ history — scrapbooks, letters home to Mom and Dad expressing what it was like to adjust to college in Lewiston. These are the types of materials that support cultural and social history, and they can make the past seem real to today’s students.

Who laid the groundwork for the collections of College records?

Harry Rowe ’12, who worked at the College for about half a century, was the unofficial College historian. Bursar Norm Ross ’22 was a diligent record keeper. And he passed the baton to Bernie Carpenter as treasurer. They did a great deal to make sure that early records survived. We’re extraordinarily lucky to have as extensive a historical record as we do.

How is technology changing what you do?

The speed of obsolescence creates monetary challenges. Where a piece of paper, even a black and white photograph, can live happily on a shelf for 500 years, an 8-inch floppy drive is already obsolete.

We’re constantly thinking about getting things into a stable format — by today’s standards — and then developing a strategy to deal with it when that format becomes obsolete.

And something I’ve been thinking about is that kids don’t keep diaries anymore — they keep blogs. How can we thoughtfully collect and preserve blogs? I don’t have an answer yet, but I know it’s something that we need to do.

Interview by Doug Hubley, photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

The Edmund S. Muskie Oral History Project, a decade-long Bates College effort to preserve memories and impressions of people who knew the late U.S. senator and secretary of state, has been chosen to receive an important award from the national professional organization of oral historians.

Andrea L’Hommedieu of Auburn, an oral historian who was central to the Muskie project, will receive the Oral History Association’s Elizabeth B. Mason Major Project Award on behalf of the college on Saturday, Oct. 18, during the association’s annual meeting, in Pittsburgh.

Given every other year, the Mason Award recognizes outstanding oral history projects in two categories, major and small. The awards go to projects that represent high standards of professional accomplishment, are noteworthy in their scholarly and social value, and advance both the understanding of an important historical subject and the disciplined practice of oral history.

The award committee cited the Muskie project as a “model for other Congressional collections and Centers to emulate.”

A native of Rumford, Maine, and a member of the Bates class of 1936, Edmund Sixtus Muskie would become a Maine governor, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state and a candidate for the White House.

Completed at Bates under the auspices of the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, the Muskie Oral History Collection is the result of one of the largest and most comprehensive oral history projects about a modern political figure ever undertaken.

Interviews were conducted between 1998 and 2007 primarily by L’Hommedieu and longtime Muskie advisor and friend Don Nicoll. The collection includes more than 400 interviews with individuals who knew, affected or were affected by Muskie over the course of his life and career.

Interviewees include Muskie friends and family, Maine and national politicians, journalists, gubernatorial and U.S. Senate staff, Senate colleagues, State Department officials, law practice associates and citizens affiliated with Muskie in a variety of programs. Opinions and topics vary broadly, collectively providing a nuanced, multifaceted picture of Muskie’s contributions to Maine, the United States and the world.

Funding for the creation, processing and online publication of the Muskie Oral History Collection was generously provided by the Edmund S. Muskie Foundation.

The oral history materials complement the Edmund S. Muskie Papers at Bates, some 3,000 linear feet of materials comprising letters and memoranda; press releases and news clippings; speeches, reports and reference materials; photos, film and videotape. Much of the collection documents Muskie’s 21 years in the Senate, where his accomplishments included the landmark Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972.

Joel Goldstein, an expert on the U.S. vice presidency, presents the lecture Campaigning for America: Edmund S. Muskie’s 1968 Vice Presidential Campaign at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library at Bates College, 70 Campus Ave.

The talk comes during the 40th anniversary year of Muskie’s vice-presidential campaign and the 50th anniversary of his election to the U.S. Senate. The event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact 207-786-6272.

Goldstein, the Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law at St. Louis University, is currently a visiting professor at the University of Maine School of Law and the Muskie School of Public Service. He has written books, numerous chapters and journal articles on the U.S. executive branch, constitutional law and admiralty law.

Goldstein may be best-known as an expert on the vice presidency. He has written widely on the topic and is frequently interviewed on it, and has consulted on vice presidential selections.

The late Muskie, a member of the Bates class of 1936, served as Maine governor, U.S. senator, vice presidential and presidential candidate, and U.S. secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter. In the Senate, he authored landmark environmental legislation including the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, regarded as two of the most important bills of the 20th century.

In 1968 Muskie ran with Democratic presidential candidate and then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey. “It is worth considering the example Muskie set when he, for the first time, campaigned throughout America and America discovered him,” says Goldstein.

“His vice-presidential campaign was unique in the annals of modern national campaigns. He spent an unusual amount of time articulating basic American values and imploring his audience to reconnect with them.”

The campaign came at a time, Goldstein explains, when many Americans were losing faith in their government and in politics. “Muskie, in speech after speech, defended the political system and challenged Americans to trust not only their government, but each other,” he says.

As a senator from Maine, a state with few electoral votes, Muskie was an unlikely choice for running mate, Goldstein says. Presidential candidates tended to choose nationally prominent politicians or those from states commanding a large number of electoral votes.

“Muskie’s campaign helped change the paradigm in vice-presidential selection away from traditional ticket-balancing criteria” and toward presidential qualities “that would impress the electorate as such.”

Goldstein’s first book, The Modern American Vice Presidency: The Transformation of a Political Institution (Princeton University Press, 1982), evolved from his doctoral dissertation. He is currently writing a book on the vice presidency as it has developed during the last 30 years. He is also working on studies of Muskie and of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis.

Goldstein received a doctorate in political science at Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, and a law degree from Harvard Law School. After Harvard he was a law clerk for Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts, and later practiced admiralty law for 12 years at Goldstein and Price in St. Louis.

Related Stories

Mar.28:
New exhibit includes rare photos of U.S. Sen. Edmund S. Muskie ’36

Mar.27:
Archives to receive papers of family prominent in history of Bates, Maine

First-year students Ed Muskie, at left, and Charles Taylor in their Bates dorm room in Roger Williams Hall, circa 1932. Below: Muskie waits to be called onstage during the Democratic National Convention in August 1968. (Photographers unknown. Photos courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library.)

A new photographic exhibit, including seldom-seen family images, depicting the late Maine statesman and environmentalist Edmund S. Muskie is on display at Bates College’s Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, 70 Campus Ave.

From Rumford to Washington: Edmund S. Muskie’s Life in Photographs is drawn from the Edmund S. Muskie Papers at Bates, an important documentary collection relating to this Maine native and member of the Bates class of 1936 who served as a Maine governor, U.S. senator, presidential candidate and U.S. secretary of state.

The archives is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please call 207-786-6272.

The semi-permanent exhibit coincides with the 40th anniversary of Muskie’s 1968 vice presidential campaign, when he ran with Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and with the 50th anniversary of Muskie’s election to the U.S. Senate.

The exhibit also marks the end of a $65,000, 15-month grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The grant enabled the archives to finish processing its Muskie holdings, including items received from the Muskie family in 2005, rendering these historic materials fully accessible to researchers for the first time.

“A lot of the Bates students who do research in the papers are able to make valuable connections between the political challenges and questions of 30 or 40 years ago and those of today,” says Muskie Papers archivist Christie Peterson, who curated the exhibit.

“I think some of them are surprised by how relevant Muskie’s career is to issues they care about personally today.”

The exhibition illustrates highlights of Muskie’s life, from his childhood in Rumford to his time at Bates, from his 1954 election as Maine’s governor to his service on the federal Tower Commission investigating the Iran-Contra affair. “There’s also a section devoted entirely to the environment, because that was the thread that ran throughout his life,” says archives director Kat Stefko.

“The exhibit draws entirely upon the Muskie papers,” says Stefko, and includes many personal photographs — including an image of the freshman student Muskie in his Bates dorm.

Much of the collection documents Muskie’s 22 years in the Senate, where his accomplishments included the landmark Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972. Totaling some 2,350 linear feet of materials, the college’s Muskie holdings include letters and memoranda; family scrapbooks; press releases and news clippings; speeches, reports and reference materials; and audiotape, photos, film and videotape.

A companion collection at Bates is the Muskie Oral History Project, comprising 442 interviews with individuals who knew, affected or were affected by Muskie.

The grant was Bates’ first from the NHPRC, the grantmaking arm of the National Archives. It enabled Stefko’s team to finish indexing the Muskie holdings and moving them into archival storage, ensuring the longest possible life for the materials. In addition, some 800 magnetic audio recordings were stabilized and digitized, and the collection’s computerized index was updated to make it more powerful and more compatible with national databases.

“During the period of the grant,” Stefko adds, “we worked with the Muskie family to lift the restrictions on material prior to 1947, so materials about his early life are now available for scholarly research for the first time. It allows people to really get to know his biography in a way that you wouldn’t before.

“There are, for instance, all of the letters that he wrote home to his sisters when he was a student at Bates, talking about how he’s balancing his academic schedule with student government or being a waiter” in a college dining room.

“This week we had General College Elections,” the young Muskie wrote in one of those letters from Bates, this one written to his sister Lucy in March 1935. “I was fairly successful. I was reelected president of my class and, in your senior year, that is the biggest honor you can get as far as offices go. In addition to that I was elected Vice-president of the Student Council.”

More Muskie Archives news:

• Expert on vice presidency to discuss Muskie’s 1968 campaign

• Garcelon family to donate papers

– Office of Communications and Media Relations

First-year students Ed Muskie, at left, and Charles Taylor in their Bates dorm room in Roger Williams Hall, circa 1932. Below: Muskie waits to be called onstage during the Democratic National Convention in August 1968. (Photographers unknown. Photos courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library.) A new photographic exhibit, including seldom-seen family images, depicting the late Maine statesman and environmentalist Edmund S. Muskie is on display at Bates College’s Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, 70 Campus Ave. From Rumford to Washington: Edmund S. Muskie’s Life in Photographs is drawn from the Edmund S. Muskie Papers at Bates, an important documentary collection relating to this Maine native and member of More Muskie Archives news: • Expert on vice presidency to discuss Muskie’s 1968 campaign • Garcelon family to donate papers the Bates class of 1936 who served as a Maine governor, U.S. senator, presidential candidate and U.S. secretary of state. The archives is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is open to the public at no charge. For more information, please call 207-786-6272 or e-mail muskie@bates.edu. The semi-permanent exhibit coincides with the 40th anniversary of Muskie’s 1968 vice presidential campaign, when he ran with Democrat Hubert Humphrey, and with the 50th anniversary of Muskie’s election to the U.S. Senate. The exhibit also marks the end of a $65,000, 15-month grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The grant enabled the archives to finish processing its Muskie holdings, including items received from the Muskie family in 2005, rendering these historic materials fully accessible to researchers for the first time. “A lot of the Bates students who do research in the papers are able to make valuable connections between the political challenges and questions of 30 or 40 years ago and those of today,” says Muskie Papers archivist Christie Peterson, who curated the exhibit. “I think some of them are surprised by how relevant Muskie’s career is to issues they care about personally today.” The exhibition illustrates highlights of Muskie’s life, from his childhood in Rumford to his time at Bates, from his 1954 election as Maine’s governor to his service on the federal Tower Commission investigating the Iran-Contra affair. “There’s also a section devoted entirely to the environment, because that was the thread that ran throughout his life,” says archives director Kat Stefko. “The exhibit draws entirely upon the Muskie papers,” says Stefko, and includes many personal photographs — including an image of the freshman student Muskie in his Bates dorm. Much of the collection documents Muskie’s 22 years in the Senate, where his accomplishments included the landmark Clean Air Act of 1970 and Clean Water Act of 1972. Totaling some 2,350 linear feet of materials, the college’s Muskie holdings include letters and memoranda; family scrapbooks; press releases and news clippings; speeches, reports and reference materials; and audiotape, photos, film and videotape. A companion collection at Bates is the Muskie Oral History Project, comprising 442 interviews with individuals who knew, affected or were affected by Muskie. The grant was Bates’ first from the NHPRC, the grantmaking arm of the National Archives. It enabled Stefko’s team to finish indexing the Muskie holdings and moving them into archival storage, ensuring the longest possible life for the materials. In addition, some 800 magnetic audio recordings were stabilized and digitized, and the collection’s computerized index was updated to make it more powerful and more compatible with national databases. “During the period of the grant,” Stefko adds, “we worked with the Muskie family to lift the restrictions on material prior to 1947, so materials about his early life are now available for scholarly research for the first time. It allows people to really get to know his biography in a way that you wouldn’t before. “There are, for instance, all of the letters that he wrote home to his sisters when he was a student at Bates, talking about how he’s balancing his academic schedule with student government or being a waiter” in a college dining room. “This week we had General College Elections,” the young Muskie wrote in one of those letters from Bates, this one written to his sister Lucy in March 1935. “I was fairly successful. I was reelected president of my class and, in your senior year, that is the biggest honor you can get as far as offices go. In addition to that I was elected Vice-president of the Student Council.” – Office of Communications and Media Relations

The descendants of 19th-century Maine Gov. Alonzo Garcelon, who played a key role in the choice of Lewiston as the home of Bates College, will donate an extensive collection of family papers and other materials to Bates.

David Garcelon, Alonzo Garcelon’s great-great-grandson and a surveyor living in Concord, Mass., on March 27 announced his donation to Bates of hundreds of manuscripts, photographs and other artifacts dating back to the 18th century.

Alonzo Garcelon, a Lewiston native, was a surgeon who served in both houses of the Maine Legislature and as Maine governor. He was also prominent in Lewiston business affairs and co-founded the Lewiston Journal newspaper. Garcelon taught at Bates and served as a college trustee. The college’s football field, on Central Avenue next to the new dining Commons, is named after him.

David Garcelon will donate his family’s papers to the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, a facility at Bates whose holdings include extensive and important materials relating to the life and career of Muskie, the late Maine governor, U.S. senator and secretary of state, and environmental advocate.

The Garcelon donation includes hundreds of pages of original manuscripts and research conducted by David Garcelon relating his family to the histories of Bates, Lewiston and Maine, as well as the United States and 18th-century France.

The collection bears, too, on the history of the Pullman Palace Car Co., the well-known manufacturer of railroad rolling stock and one of the world’s largest corporations at the beginning of the 20th century. Charles A. Garcelon, son of Alonzo, served as Pullman’s chief operating officer from 1889 until 1906.

“It is the family’s desire to preserve the collection and hopefully add to it through research projects by Bates College students and others,” the donor wrote in a statement to the college. “It is also the family’s wish that others with Garcelon family artifacts will contribute to the collection at Bates, in honor of the family and in honor of Bates College.”

He wrote that the “Garcelon family is proud of Bates,” noting too that he and other Garcelons are convinced that Alonzo Garcelon focused his “hard work and contributions to Bates College . . . because he wanted the children of the area to have access to the finest education possible.”

– Office of Communications and Media Relations

The Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College kicks off its “Civic Forum on Reimagining Maine in the 21st Century” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., with a panel titled “Poverty and the Two Maines.”

Four panelists will share their perspectives and discuss means of addressing the problem of poverty in the state. Panelists include Hannah Pingree, House majority leader, Maine Legislature; Sarah Standiford, Bates class of 1997 and executive director, Maine Women’s Lobby; Naomi Schalit, opinion page editor, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel; and Eric Smith, Congregational outreach coordinator, Maine Council of Churches.

The Harward Center’s civic forum series explores civic, political and policy issues of significance to the Bates community, Maine and beyond. Additional panels this academic year include “Reimagining Globalism: Maine in the World’s Economy” on Jan. 16, 2008, and “Re-Imagining the North Woods: The Changing Environment of Maine” on Feb. 27.

All of these events are free and open to the public. Please contact the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College at 207-786-6202 for more information.

The Harward Center leads Bates’ efforts in community involvement, including programs in service-learning, community volunteerism and environmental stewardship. The center works with community partners to meet community needs and, in the process, to integrate civic engagement with the Bates educational experience.

Professor Lee Rybeck Lynd ’79, a pioneer in the sustainable production of ethanol fuels from abundant, inexpensive and renewable plant materials, gives two public presentations at Bates College in October.

At 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28, Lynd offers a lecture about ethanol made from cellulosic biomass — plant resources rich in cellulose — and its potential role in a more environmentally sustainable U.S. economy. The event takes place in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Lynd leads a biology seminar at 4:10 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29, in Room 204, Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Ave.

Both events are open to the public at no charge. The Oct. 28 lecture is sponsored by the biology department, the environmental studies program and the Maine IDeA [cq] Network for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE). For more information, please call 207-786-6490.

Lynd is a professor of engineering science and adjunct associate professor of biological science at Dartmouth. As a researcher, visionary and advocate, Lynd is known for his leadership in finding cost-effective methods for making cellulosic ethanol, which promises to be advantageous over conventional corn-based ethanol in many ways.

Lynd’s achievements were recognized last spring when he received the inaugural $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Sustainability Award.

Along with his Dartmouth commitments, Lynd leads biomass conversion research at a new U.S. Department of Energy-funded biofuels center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee. He is also chief scientific officer and co-founder of the for-profit, New England-based Mascoma Corp., one of several companies with cellulosic ethanol (CE) facilities planned or under construction.