The South Portland Historical Society will offer two different walking history tours in late October. Both of these outdoor tours will require preregistration, will be limited to 10 participants, and participants will be required to wear masks. If you have any questions and to preregister for either tour, please call the society at 767-7299 or email the society at sphistory04106@gmail.com.

Portrait of Benjamin W. Pickett, from the Etta Gregory Watts Collection at South Portland Historical Society. Participants in the Shipyards and Sea Captains walking tour of Mount Pleasant Cemetery will visit Pickett’s resting place and the graves of many other South Portland people who were in the maritime trades. South Portland Historical Society photo

On Saturday, Oct. 24, at 11 a.m., the historical society’s executive director, Kathy DiPhilippo, will lead a Shipyards and Sea Captains tour of Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

During the one-hour themed tour of Mount Pleasant, you will stop at the graves of several people from South Portland’s past and learn about their involvement in the shipbuilding or maritime trades. The tour will be limited to 10 people, however, if the tour fills and there is sufficient interest, a second tour may be offered at 1 p.m. Tour tickets are $5 for current members of the historical society, $15 for non-members. Additional donations are most welcome.

On Sunday, Oct. 25, at 1 0 a.m., historical society board member Seth Goldstein will lead a two-hour tour, A People’s Walking Tour of the South Portland Waterfront.

On the tour, Professor Goldstein will discuss the Wabanaki, virgin soil epidemics, the French and Indian Wars, enslaved Africans in South Portland and the Greater Portland area, the West Indies trade, and the shipyards of South Portland with particular emphasis on the women who worked in the Liberty Ship shipyards.

Tour tickets are $20 each for current members of the South Portland Historical Society, $25 each for non-members.

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All tour proceeds go directly to support the South Portland Historical Society.

Seth Goldstein is currently an instructor of world history at Maine College of Art. He has previously taught at the University of New England and Southern Maine Community College.

Goldstein holds a master’s degree in World History from Northeastern University. His research interests include the historic North Atlantic fishery, global piracy, New England shipwrecks and lighthouses, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Vietnam War era counter culture. He is the educational coordinator for the Atlantic Black Project, a nonprofit that examines Maine and New England’s role in the Atlantic Slave economy. He also sits on the board of the South Portland Historical Society.

Kathryn Onos DiPhilippo is executive director of the South Portland Historical Society.

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