BETHEL — Bethel Historical Society Executive Director Randall H. Bennett has announced that the society received a $500 grant from the Maine Humanities Council to help support its 2012 lecture series titled “War, Wilderness and Wonder.”

The next lecture in the series will take place at 1:30 p.m. July 7 with James Witherell, author of “L. L. Bean — The Man and His Company: The Complete Story,” who will speak on the life and times of the world-famous retailer.

Because his feet got wet and sore on a hunting trip, L.L. Bean developed his famous boot and started the mail-order company that would change the sleepy town of Freeport into a huge outdoor mall. The story begins with the Bean family (who lived for a time in Bethel), young Leon Leonwood Bean’s love of the outdoors, his first forays into sales (butter, men’s clothing) and then his development of “the boot” and the beginnings of an outdoors outfitting company that ran on a card file system and resisted change. The program celebrates the 100th anniversary of the L.L. Bean company and the author will be available to sign copies of his book.

The next presentation will be the second annual “Stanley Russell Howe Lecture” at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 2. The program, “The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies,” will be given by Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor, professor of history at the University of California. Taylor is well known for his contributions to microhistory, best exemplified in his Pulitzer-Prize-winning history of William Cooper and the settlement of Cooperstown, N.Y.

On Sept. 15, Roxanne Gupta, Ph.D., will speak on the fascinating character and career of her great-uncle, Charles A. Kellogg (1868-1949), an American vaudeville performer who developed the remarkable ability to perfectly reproduce bird song, and who, at one time, operated a “Nature Camp” at North Newry.

A campaigner for the protection of the redwood forests of California, Kellogg was born on a ranch in Susanville in that state and grew up in the 1870s observing the animals and birds of the forests. He constructed a mobile home, called the “Travel Log,” out of a redwood tree and drove it around the country to raise awareness of the plight of the California forests.

The final event in the series will be the “Hall Memorial Lecture” at 2 p.m. on Oct. 13 and will feature William B. Krohn, Ph.D., retired wildlife research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey stationed at the University of Maine and the author of “Joshua Gross Rich (1820-1897): The Life and Works of a Western Maine Pioneer and Wildlife Writer.” Krohn will speak on “Captain Charles A. J. Farrar (1842-1893): Wilderness Entrepreneur.” Farrar was one of the most prolific promoters of the Rangeley Lakes in the 19th century through his guidebooks, pocket maps and novels interwoven with history.

All lectures in the series are free and open to all.

For more information call 824-2908 or 800-824-2910 or email [email protected].