The Frances Perkins Center, Located on the River Road, in Newcastle. Secretary Perkin was the First Woman to Serve in the Cabinet of a President of the US; President Franklin Roosevelt.
“The Woman Behind the New Deal,” by Kirstin Downey, is Must Read for All Interested in the Life and Legacy of Secretary Frances Perkins.
Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor During the FDR ?Administration, Who is Responsible for Many of the Social Safety Programs we Enjoy Today, Like Social Security, a Shorter Work Week, Etc. She Served as FDR’s Sec. of Labor From 1933 – 1945.
The Frances Perkins Center, (FPC), Newcastle, recently announced that it is the receipient of a grant from the Mellon Foundation, the natilon’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. in the amount of $750,000.
FPC is the first organization in Maine to receive funds from this prestigious grant program that “supports a fuller more complex telling of American histories and lived experiences by deepening the range of how and where our stories are told and by bringing a wider variety of voices into the public dialogue,” according to the Foundation’s webpage: How and where we tell our stories matters.
Distributed over three years, the Mellon Foundation gramt will support two important historic studies and the hiring of five new staff enabling the Center to advance FPC’s mission through historic intrepretation, enhanced educational programing and the creation of a robust framework for a strengthened financial foundation.
“We are pleased to provide this grant to the Frances Perkins Center to ensure Perkins’ story continues to be shared widely today and to aid in sparking productive conversations about social justice and economic security that encourages a wider variety of voices,” said Justin Garrett Moore, program director for the Humanities in Place program at the Mellon Foundation.
The FPC Homestead National Historic Landmark on the River Road, in Newcastle, owned and managed by FPC since 2020, serves as the centerpiece of FPC’s mission. FPC is dedicated to preserving and promoting the story of Frances Perkins, ensuring her contributions to American history remain a vital part of the national narrative. This summer, a free,, self-guided exhibit on the life of Frances Perkins will be available at the 1837 barn at the Homestead from June 15 – August 30, Wednesday – Saturday from 10:00 am – to 2:00 pm.
For more background informtion on Frances Perkins and the Center, pleasr read the following posts herein dated: October 8, 2023, October 30, 2018, July 14, 2021, September 9, 2020, August 13, 2017, and March 25, 27, and 28, 2011. For information on the Maine Labor Department mural scandal during the former Governor Paul LePage’s administration in which Frances Perkins, the first woman to be part of a president’s cabinet was depicted, please see the three March posts referred to above.