MINOT – The Minot Historical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, at the Minot Town Office. The speaker will be Jim Talbot, auctioneer, who will discuss “What’s It.” Everyone is asked to bring a What’s It’ object to be discussed and/or identified.

The society met Oct. 11 at the Town Office with President Hester Gilpatric in charge. Sixteen members were present. Treasurer Madeline Hicks reported that the balance on hand on Sept. 3 was $1,742.42.

The Historical Research Committee reported Marge Downing has donated her scrapbooks as well as a bookstand. It was noted she started making the scrapbooks in 1954. To make room for them, it was discussed that the large desk in the society room needs to be removed.

The policy for the video tapes was voted and accepted. Don Verrill said he made the policy from answers to the questionnaire he passed out a few months ago. The Planning Committee was to meet to discuss next year’s programs.

The wood cut from the William Ladd place was discussed. Wendall Nason said there is approximately two cords of wood. Dry, cut and split wood is $225 a cord, delivered. It was decided to sell it for $200 where it is.

Frank Berry introduced the speaker, Liz Sheehan, curator from Bates College Art Museum. She showed slides and spoke on the life and works of artist Marsden Hartley. Berry showed a lithograph picture of fruit drawn by Hartley that he had purchased in the early 1960s in New York.

Hartley, a self-taught artist, was born in Lewiston in 1877 as Edmund Hartley. His mother, Martha Marsden Hartley, died when he was 8. His father moved the family to New York, and in his teen years Hartley moved to Cleveland to live with his sister. He studied art in Cleveland for a time. One of his earliest known portraits was the home of Walt Whitman in New Jersey in 1906.

While in New York in 1908, he changed his name to Marsden, which was his mother’s maiden name. Two of his paintings are on display at Bates College.

He always kept a postcard of Lewiston Falls in his files. In 1943, Marsden Hartley died in Ellsworth in 1943. At his request, his ashes were spread over Lewiston Falls.