May 1, 2003

Maine Humanities Council's Center for the Book is Named for Harriet P. Henry, Maine's First Woman Judge

Governor Baldacci joined a crowd of well-wishers in Portland on the evening of April 28 to honor Harriet P. Henry as the Maine Humanities Council named its Center for the Book for her. He proclaimed the 28th the "Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book Day". Dorothy Schwartz, executive director of the Council thanked the many donors who made possible the home for the Center for the Book. "The Council has grown tremendously in the last five years and it is because of Harriet's influence that our programs have expanded to new audiences. The Center for the Book programs use literature and discussion to bring us to a better understanding of ourselves and others. We reach thousands of Mainers--pre-school children and their parents and care providers, men and women who are just learning to read, prisoners and probationers, youth at risk, and general readers."

The Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book
In 1997, the Library of Congress chose the Maine Humanities Council to host the Maine Center for the Book. The home of the Council's reading and early literacy programs, the Center is now named for Harriet P. Henry, a long-time supporter of the Council, former board chair, and Maine's first woman judge. A challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) made possible a campaign to raise funds to buy and renovate the Center for the Book offices (674 Brighton Avenue in Portland) and to create the nucleus of a program endowment. The Council has now raised more than the first million of the $1.15 million campaign, completing the NEH challenge.

Bruce Cole, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, sent congratulations to both the Council and its donors, saying, "We thank them all on behalf of the humanities in America. We are confident that the new home for the Council and the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book will servethe citizens of Maine well as they continue to seek deeper understanding of the humanities, of our nation, and of the world."

Harriet Putnam Henry
Nationally recognized as an expert in marine law and coastal management, Harriet P. Henry became Maine's first woman judge in 1973. She soon became known as an advocate for women judges, and for her work in the areas of child abuse and child welfare. Harriet Henry is a graduate of Smith College and received her law degree from George Washington University and moved to Maine in 1958 with her husband Merton G. Henry where they raised three children.

Harriet's extensive civic service includes membership on the board of the original Maine Commission on the Status of Women and the Cumberland County Child Abuse and Neglect Council. She chaired the Portland Housing Authority, the Maine Commission on the Future of the Courts, the Professional Ethics and Judicial Responsibility Committee of the National Conference of Special Court Judges, and the Child Abuse Committee of the Women Judges Foundation for Justice.

Among Harriet's many honors are an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Bowdoin College and from the University of Maine, and the Maine Commission on Women¹s Woman of the Year Award. Her board service includes, in addition to the Maine Humanities Council, the Maine Historical Society, Westbrook College, Sweetser Children's Services, the National Center for State Courts and, as a charter member, the National Association of Women Judges.