Ethel “Billie” Gammon, 1916-2009. (Submitted image)
LIVERMORE — Graduating in June and heading to college? Or, are you currently enrolled in a college or university? Here is your chance to work at the Norlands.
The Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore is seeking its next Ethel “Billie” Gammon History Education Fellow to join its summer staff. College students and graduating high school seniors enrolled in a college starting this fall are welcome to apply.
The selected individual will be a member of Norlands summer staff team and receive a $1,500 stipend that can be used towards education expenses. The Summer Fellow gains valuable experience in living history education, museum operations, historic agriculture, and other topics that may relate to his/her interests.
This professional development opportunity is designed to honor Norlands founder’s endless enthusiasm for sharing American History using living history methods. Applications are due by June 1, 2019.
Candidates must complete an application form and submit an essay of 750 to 1000 words describing what inspires them about Norlands, and their goals for being named a Billie Gammon Fellow. Applicants must describe how their experience at Norlands will help them with their college/career pursuits. Be creative. Applicants do not necessarily have to major in history or teaching. One letter of recommendation is also required. Final candidates will be invited for interviews in early June.
To receive the full award, the Fellow is expected to work for the Norlands for 80 hours (approximately two days/10 hours per week) during late June through August. The fellow’s primary role is to assist with tours of the Washburn family mansion and other historic buildings on site and help in the gift shop during open summer days.
The Fellow also has the opportunity to work on a project of interest such as conducting research, inventorying and cataloging the museum’s archives and collections, creating a social media plan, or planning an event. The fellow will round out her/his experience by completing a capstone project and summarizing their project by writing an article for the newsletter or making a public presentation.
The Billie Gammon Fellowship is an advantageous training opportunity designed to give students the chance to tailor a project to his/her interests and broaden their horizons while learning new skills, all while experiencing the joy and magic of Norlands.
For information and to download an application form, visit www.norlands.org/latest-news.html, email norlands@norlands.org, or call 897-4366.
In 2010, on the first anniversary of Billie Gammon’s passing, the Norlands board of trustees established the Ethel “Billie” Gammon History Education Fund to honor her bottomless enthusiasm for sharing American history by providing support in her name for “learning through fun.”
In 1954, Gammon started her work at the Norlands with the restoration of the library and went on to develop a world-renowned museum education program based on living history methods. She believed that through real-life experiences in the past, children and families would come to appreciate the everyday struggles of the people who lived in the late 1800s in rural Maine.
She took great joy in seeing visitors to the living history museum that she founded “get it” – that history education could be fun and that lessons from rural life in the 19th century are timeless; to feel what it was like to sit on the hard school benches, to know the day started and ended with family chores and responsibilities, and to understand the rural Maine philosophy of everyone pulling together.
Washburn-Norlands Living History Center is a nonprofit museum dedicated to preserving the heritage and traditions of rural life in Maine’s past, celebrating the achievements of Livermore’s Washburn family, and using living history methods to make values, issues and activities of the past relevant to present and future generations.
The 445-acre property is comprised of working land and buildings relating to the site’s role as the 19th-century homestead of the Washburn family. It includes a preserved 1828 Universalist meeting house, the Washburn’s 1867 mansion with attached farmer’s cottage and barn, an 1883 granite library, a sap-house, and a restored 1853 one-room school house. Maine schoolchildren continue to visit Norlands today as part of the Maine history curriculum. For information, visit www.norlands.org.
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