BETHEL – Dr. Joel Eastman, professor emeritus of history at the University of Southern Maine, will be the featured speaker at the first of the 2003 Lecture Series at the Bethel Historical Society’s Regional History Center at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, in the Dr. Moses Mason House Exhibit/Lecture Hall. His topic will be “The Cumberland and Oxford Canal, 1830-1870.” The lecture is free and open to anyone interested.

The society’s annual St. Never’s Day sale will be held on beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 24. Good useable items (no clothing) are needed for the sale and can be left at any time on the side porch of the O’Neil Robinson House. If pick-up is needed, call the society office at (207) 824-2908 or (800) 824-2910.

Also one May 24, the society will host the 24th annual Faye Taylor Memorial Art Show, beginning at 10 a.m. and continuing until 3 p.m. This year’s theme, “The Arrival of Airplanes in Bethel in the 1920s,” is designed to celebrate life the past.

The contest is open to all SAD 44 elementary students (grades one to six) and all finished works are due at the society’s Robinson House by 3 p.m. on Friday, May 23, to be considered for three levels of cash prizes, ribbons and certificates in three divisions.

The contest honors the memory of Faye Sanborn Taylor (1908-1972), a local artist, who was very interested in art for young people. She was a founder of the Bethel Historical Society in 1966 and served as treasurer.

The society’s history center is featured as an “Editor’s Pick” in the 2003 edition of Yankee Magazine Travel Guide to New England.

Further information about the society and its activities may be obtained by calling (207) 824-2908 or (800) 824-2910 or e-mailing: [email protected].