History and Notable Achievements

• Founded in 1975 as a private nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of 57 humanities councils in the United States and its territories.


• Governed by statewide volunteer board, including 5 members appointed by the governor.


• Supported by federal funds and donations from over 1,000 individuals, corporations, and foundations.


• Created the Maine Collaborative in 1987 to design and implement content-rich humanities enrichment programs for teachers. After a decade of success on its own, the Collaborative rejoined the Humanities Council in 1997 as its teacher education division.


• Restructured in 1997 to incorporate the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book.


• Established the Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 1998 to recognize exemplary contributions to the public humanities in Maine.


• To learn more about the Council's first 30 years, see the 30th anniversary issue of our newsletter.

Notable Achievements

• Since 1976, the Council has distributed over $4 million in grants to Maine libraries, museums, historical societies, colleges, schools, literacy groups, adult education programs, towns, and other organizations.


• The Council's national awards include a 1998 Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History for the Century Project and the 1998 Helen & Martin Schwartz Prize for Excellence in Public Programming from the Federation of State Humanities Councils for the Odyssey Project. In 2007, the Council received a total of three national awards for its Taxing Maine project: the Award of Merit and the WOW award from the American Association for State and Local History and the 2007 Schwartz Prize from the Federation of State Humanities Councils.


• The Born to Read program was honored by the United Way's Success by 6 program of Midcoast Maine in 2000.


• In 2002, the Literature & Medicine program was named as a Patient Quality Initiative by the Maine Hospital Association. The program then received the 2003 Helen & Martin Schwartz Prize for Excellence in Public Programming from the Federation of State Humanities Councils.


• Former Executive Director Dorothy Schwartz received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Bowdoin College on May 29, 2004 and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Maine at Farmington on May 15, 2004. These honors, offered by a public university and a private college, represent an appreciation of the widespread work being done by the Maine Humanities Council.