FARMINGTON — Among the many activities planned for the University of Maine at Farmington’s 150th anniversary celebration is a monthly display featuring local people connected to the school.

This first display featuring Freelan Stanley, who graduated from the Western Maine Normal School in 1871, is showcased in Mantor Library for the month of September.

Stanley and his twin brother, Francis, of Kingfield went on to create the Stanley Steamer cars.

“They were very successful,” Luann Yetter, assistant professor of English, said Thursday. “They both became multimillionaires.”

Francis Stanley also attended the Normal School but didn’t graduate. A sister, Chansonetta, attended but within her first semester, a professor told her she had so much talent she should go to art school and she did, Yetter said. She became a successful photographer.

Over the past year, a committee at UMF has been planning events and taking a closer look at the school’s history.

Yetter, a longtime writer of local history in books and Sun Journal columns, was asked to organize the monthly displays from September through May.

The displays will feature people who have either made a mark on the world or the school or people remembered in materials in the school’s archives. “We want to show people what we have,” she said.

She pointed out that Mantor Library was named after a longtime librarian and that Stone Hall was named after Carolyn Stone, a graduate and then instructor at the Normal School in the early 1900s.

Presenting a story visually in a display case caused Yetter to think differently than she would when writing the story, she said. 

Research provided photos for the display and a small yearbook from 1867 that lists Stanley as a student.

The Stanley Museum loaned some items, including the dictionary Stanley used while attending the Normal School. It also includes a drawing set from his business.

Stanley studied education at the Normal School, then a two-year school. Most students boarded with local families while attending, she said.

Events planned for the yearlong celebration at UMF include Charter Day on Oct. 9, when many people connected to the school and the governor are expected to attend, she said.

The public is welcome to view the display in Mantor Library and anyone with information about the Normal School may contact Yetter by email at [email protected].

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