BETHEL — Bethel Historical Society will hold the annual “Hall Memorial Lecture” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2. This free program will take place at the Dr. Moses Mason House, 14 Broad St.

Dr. William B. Krohn, Emeritus Professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Maine, will be the featured speaker. The title of his talk will be “Daniel E. Heywood: His Place in the Tapestry of Wildlife Conservation.”

During his presentation, Krohn will introduce attendees to the adventures and accomplishments of Daniel E. Heywood (1869-1911), who was born and raised on a farm on the southwest shore of Umbagog Lake near the Maine/New Hampshire border.

While a young boy, Heywood developed a deep appreciation of wildlife; at the same time, he quickly became an accomplished hunter, providing the Harvard ornithologist William Brewster with many rare specimens. As a woodsman who needed to make a living in the wilds, Heywood also was a professional guide, hunter and trapper. And, as a conservationist who understood the need to preserve nature, he was a naturalist, writer and wildlife photographer.

Exhibit open for extended hours

During Gould Academy’s Alumni Weekend, Sept. 26-28, the Bethel Historical Society’s Robinson House will be open for extended hours to enable former students to view the newest exhibit, “ Gould Through the Years: Selections from the Academy Archives.”

On Friday and Saturday, the museum building (located next door to the Bethel Library) will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon.

The Gould exhibit has been made possible through an important collaboration between the historical society and Gould Academy that will result in the long-term preservation of the “Gould Archives” — a wide-ranging collection of documents, photographs, books and objects significant to the history of the school, founded in 1836 as “Bethel Academy.”

The archives have been placed on long-term loan to the society, which will monitor and maintain the archives while also making it available for display and study purposes. Currently being inventoried and catalogued, items in the Gould Archives parallel the society’s own rich holdings relating to the school’s past.

Maine Memory Network

As part of its current partnership with the Bethel Library Association and Gould Academy in the “Local & Legendary: Maine and the Civil War” project, the Bethel Historical Society is preparing to work with academy students to scan and share items in its museum and archival holdings that relate to the school during the Civil War era.

On Sept. 17, BHS, Bethel Library and academy staff met with Candace Kanes, curator of the Maine Memory Network at Maine Historical Society, to review procedures for creating digital copies of collection materials that eventually will be presented as part of an online exhibit about the effects of the Civil War on Gould Academy.

Led by Brad Clarke, head of Gould’s History Department, the Local & Legendary team has been meeting regularly with staff from the Maine Humanities Council and Maine Historical Society on this important grant-funded project.

Although the Bethel Historical Society already offers several online exhibits at bethelhistorical.org, this will be the first time it has participated in the statewide Maine Memory Network, which provides online access to thousands of historical items owned by more than 260 organizations.