Mount Desert Island Historical Society

10/09/2026

Oct 9: Curious Events Day

Today is all about celebrating the strange, surprising, and unexplained moments in history, and our collections have a couple of good ones to share.

From Jennifer Heindel, Collections Department:

For the past year, I've been working with the personal collection and archive of Moorhead “Mike” Kennedy, one of the 52 Americans taken hostage in Iran in 1979. Mr. Kennedy and his family gave the collection to the Society in 2022, and it's an incredibly diverse, personal, and moving gift of letters, awards, reflections, and government documents. Among them are the journals of his wife, Louisa, who kept detailed records while he was held captive.
As I work my way through Louisa's journals, a couple of entries have stood out as truly curious.

In one journal, Louisa writes that the State Department was in regular contact with Bruce Laingen at Iran's Foreign Ministry. Laingen was the top American official at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and he happened to be at a meeting at the Foreign Ministry with two colleagues when the embassy was seized. So how could he possibly be in regular contact with Washington?

In journal #4, Louisa notes that Laingen gave an interview to a Seattle radio station on November 11, 1980. How did a radio station in Seattle land the only interview with a hostage in Tehran?
I couldn't resist digging for answers.

The Hidden Telephone:
I found the first answer in a Minnesota Public Radio interview with Laingen's son, Chip. When the crisis began, a quick-thinking security officer stashed a telephone under a couch at the Foreign Ministry. For the next six months, the three Americans waited until 3 a.m. to quietly call the State Department and their loved ones back home. Chip believes the calls stopped when a sharp-eyed Iranian noticed a suspicious number of calls to the United States on the phone bill!

The Wrong Number that Made History:
Shawn Inmon, a young producer for Laura Hall's radio show in Seattle, spent his evenings calling numbers in Tehran, hoping to reach someone who could help. One night he dialed the wrong number and reached a bar. When the bartender heard English, he handed the phone to a British journalist who was drinking there. The journalist gave Shawn a number he thought might help, and it turned out to ring at the Foreign Ministry.

Night after night, Shawn called, and night after night, the person who answered hung up as soon as they heard English. Then Shawn tried something new: he posed as a telephone operator placing a person-to-person call (a very expensive call at the time) for Bruce Laingen. To his amazement, the person on the other end went and got Laingen and handed him the phone.

Laingen was hesitant at first. Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran were at a delicate point, and he didn't want to risk setting them back. In the end, he spoke for just two and a half minutes, reassuring an anxious nation that the hostages were grateful for the public's support and urging calm, patience, and hope that the crisis would soon be over. With that brief call, Shawn secured the only interview with a hostage during the entire 444-day ordeal.

Read the transcript of the interview (New York Times archive):
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1980/11/13/111308297.html?pageNumber=13

Read Shawn Inmon's own account of how he got the interview:
https://www.facebook.com/ShawnInmonWriter/posts/i-love-to-tell-this-story-every-november-and-here-we-areforty-five-years-ago-i-w/1208669561075691/

Listen to Chip Laingen's interview with Minnesota Public Radio:
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/07/17/former-diplomat-iran-hostage-and-minnesota-native-bruce-laingen-dies

Photos:
Photograph of Louisa Kennedy’s meeting with Margaret Thatcher, from April 25, 1980 Daily Express article. https://tinyurl.com/4dxzyru8

Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany, 1981. A group photograph of 52 former hostages in the hospital after their release from Iran prior to their departure for the United States. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/6344640

Ambassador Laingen at the White House following his return from Iran with Vice President George H.W. Bush, First Lady Nancy Reagan and President Ronald Reagan, Jan. 27, 1981. https://afsa.org/perfect-professional-lowell-bruce-laingen-1922-2019

09/18/2026

September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month!

An initiative of the American Library Association, it has been celebrated each September since 1987 to combat illiteracy and encourage communities everywhere to explore all the offerings that a library card unlocks.

In 2026, the Maine State Library and Maine State Parks are celebrating by giving Maine library card holders a day to enjoy the state's great outdoors, free of charge. On Saturday, September 19, simply show your Maine library card at the entrance to any participating Maine State Parks and Historic Site and enjoy a day outdoors at no cost. For a list of over 48 Maine state parks and historic sites, go to https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/index.shtml.

Mount Desert Island has 7 publicly accessible libraries for you to explore. From free classes and job resources to homework help, streaming media, unique materials and collections, and year-round cultural events, our island libraries connect communities to information, inspiration, and each other. Our libraries are not just a great resource, but are also beautiful, unique, historic civic gems!

Visit and join:

Bass Harbor Memorial Library, 89 Bernard Rd, Bernard
Jesup Memorial Library, 34 Mount Desert St, Bar Harbor
Northeast Harbor Library, 1 Joy Rd, Northeast Harbor
Seal Harbor Library, 5 Main St, Seal Harbor
Somesville Library Association, 116 Main St, Somesville
Southwest Harbor Public Library, 338 Main St, Southwest Harbor
Thorndike Library, College of the Atlantic,105 Eden St, Bar Harbor

09/18/2026

Arrr! There be pirate b***y in them caves!

In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, celebrated on September 19th, we thought we'd share some of the many claims of pirate treasure hidden in secret caves in and around Mount Desert Island.

In 1882, an article appeared in the Mount Desert Herald revealing the presence of pirate treasure hidden in a cave in Somes Sound. The tale was first revealed during a séance, when a medium relayed to Capt. Henry that treasure lay hidden in the area of Flying Mountain, near Man-of-War Brook. Years later, Mr. Tobias Fernald saw in a dream the very field where the treasure was said to be buried. Yet no pirate b***y was ever recovered.

There are also stories of a smuggler named Captain Lebion, who stashed smuggled goods, like tea, in a cave on Somes Sound.

In 1964, an article by LaRue Spiker revived the story of a ship that, fleeing the law from Boston, sailed into Somes Sound to escape capture. The ship was scuttled, and the crew took shelter in a cave whose opening sits five feet below the low tide mark. There's no mention of what the crew did once the heat was off. In fact, no one living in 1964 had ever heard of this cave in Somes Sound.

Have you uncovered any other pirate lore or treasure? Let us know in the comments!

Photographs: "Pirate Story Time Program August 2008, Seal Harbor Beach, Lynn King Librarian; Photograph excerpt from LaRue Spiker Article, Bar Harbor Times, April 1964; Full LaRue Spiker Bar Harbor Times Article. All images courtesy Mount Desert Island Historical Society

08/29/2026

It was so much fun sharing MDI food history at the first Chopped Outlandish Dinner in Southwest Harbor. Our history inspired some of the dishes and I was able to talk about the cannery in town from the 1850s through the 1980s. Looking forward to more food history partnerships with Good Egg Kitchen.

08/21/2026

Due to a burst pipe over the front office, the Sound Schoolhouse will be closed until further notice. The archive and school room are totally safe, but the main office and bathrooms are badly damaged and our phone system no longer works. Our staff will be working off site for the time being. If you need anything, please reach out over email and please be patient, it may take us a little time to get back to you. Thank you.

08/18/2026

From Victorian Excess to Edwardian Ease: How the Gored Skirt Set Women Free

As fashion historian Janyce Hill notes, a well-dressed Victorian or Edwardian woman's clothing wasn't built for activity, it was a signal that she didn't need to rush, labor, or navigate the world outside polite society. Nothing could be a more fitting description of Victorian and Edwardian women's clothing. These fashions depended on heavily structured elements like corsets and bustles to create the slim and unnaturally tiny silhouettes. Multiple layers of petticoats, lots of boning, and beaded decoration could cause a complete outfit to weigh close to 25 pounds!

Around the late 1800s, the gored skirt started to become more popular. These skirts were created from trapezoid-shaped panels, narrow at the waist and hips and flaring out towards the skirt's hem. This allowed designers to create a sleek look without the bulky gathers created by the traditional gathered rectangle.

The benefits to the wearer were immense: much greater freedom of movement, while the outfit remained structured without feeling overly stiff. Gored skirts contained a varying number of panels, with five considered suitable for daywear and nine gores considered high fashion, creating the smoothest, most sophisticated shaping. The number of gores was dictated in part by the affluence of the wearer, since more gores meant more fabric needed. One pattern contained 20 gores!

This skirt style, paired with a shirtwaist top designed to mimic a man's button-down shirt, let her move so effortlessly she could scramble up any mountainside.

Images:
"Climbing Newport (Champlain) Mountain, 1886" This illustration is part of an article about the various things to do on Mount Desert Island in the late 19th century. Climbing the mountains in what is now Acadia National Park was a favorite activity for rusticators. Their choice of clothing for this activity, at least for the women, is quite different from what hikers wear today.

The original drawing was by Charles S. Reinhart and the Engraving was made for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 73, No. 435, August 1886, pg. 419. Maine Memory Network, Contributed by Abbe Museum: https://www.mainememory.net/record/80719/image/80719

"Peerless Pattern" for 11 a gored skirt; waist measure 32; price, 15 cents; no date. Part of donation from Whitmore Store, Seal Harbor. From the MDI Historical Society Collection

To Learn More:
Learn more about the gored skirt: https://tinyurl.com/bdmkezyz

Learn more about how to dress like an "Edwardian Out Of Door Girl": https://www.sewhistorically.com/the-edwardian-summer-girl/

Check out the digital exhibit Reforming Fashion, 1850-1914: Politics, Health, and Art by Ohio State University: https://costume.osu.edu/2000/04/14/reforming-fashion-1850-1914-politics-health-and-art/

08/18/2026

The MDI Historical Society's FY2026 Annual Report is now available.

Take a look back at another landmark year for the Mount Desert Island Historical Society. Our FY2026 Annual Report highlights how we connected island communities with local history, from Wabanaki food traditions to conversations on civic engagement and democracy, the theme of 2026's Chebacco journ