BETHEL – Bethel Historical Society Executive Director Stanley R. Howe announces that Professor Allan R. Whitmore, University of Southern Maine History Department chairman, will be the featured speaker at the 12th annual Hall Memorial Lecture, the first event of the 23rd annual Sudbury Canada Days, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 8, at the Dr. Moses Mason House.

His topic will be “Ellsworth’s George Washington Madox (1821-1882) and This Down-East Democrat’s Surprising Linkage of Know-Nothing Nativism to Radical Feminism and Marxism.”

A one-time member of the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing party, G.W. Madox was apparently one of the assailants who, in 1854, was involved in the tarring and feathering of Father John Bapst in Ellsworth.

After moving to New York City, he later became a supporter of the radical feminist Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States and joined Karl Marx’s First International.

The lecture will explore some of the factors in Madox’s journey from nativism to radicalism. The lecture is free and open to everyone interested.

Born in Old Town, Whitmore is a graduate of the University of Maine. He received his MA and PhD from Northwestern University. A professor at Ohio State prior to coming the University of Southern Maine in 1969, he has written and lectured widely on 19th century intellectual history of the United States.

The Bethel Historical Society’s Hall Memorial Fund sponsors an annual lecture by a leading scholar in New England history. The fund was established in 1991 by a bequest from the estate of Marion Hall and honors the memory of Ralph and Marion Hall, who were active in the early days of the society.

Sudbury Canada Days, the summer heritage festival of the Bethel Historical Society, will offer a wide range of family historical activities from Aug. 8 to 10. For more information, call the society office at 824-2908 or (800) 824-2910.