About Us

Our mission is to preserve the heritage and traditions of rural life in Maine's past, to celebrate the achievements of Livermore's Washburn family, and to use living history methods to make values, activities, and issues of the past relevant to present and future generations.

To accomplish this, we aspire—

1. to achieve and maintain the fiscal stability needed to assure ongoing care of buildings, grounds and collections at Norlands, (a National Registry historic site)
   
2. to use the resources of Norlands (land, buildings and collections) as a basis of programs for all ages, fulfilling established educational mandates, and utilizing experiential techniques to convey historical understandings and insights
   
3. to foster interest in the Washburn family's roles in major issues and events of its time (including abolition, the Civil War, westward expansion, and industrial/commercial development), relating these to issues, challenges and opportunities of our present day
   
4. to represent the past, present and future of farming as a way of life, as an example of sustainable resource management, and as a source of basic human necessities including food and raw materials for clothing
   
5. to be a site where visitors experience opportunities for hands-on
   involvement in the activities and skills of sustainable and independent
   rural living in both historical and contemporary times
   
6. to foster interest, involvement and pride, on the part of local and
   area residents, organizations, institutions and governmental agencies, in
   the unique community resource and legacies represented by Norlands and the
   Washburn family heritage

Washburn-Norlands Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization operating under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Service.

Incorporation Date: December 1973

The organization is run by a board of trustees and volunteer sub-committees.

Mary Castonguay: vice president and book keeper Jennifer Colby-Morse Jane Frost Craig Hickman Ronald Kley: founding trustee Sheri Leahan: President Phil Poirier: Secretary Walter Sargent: Treasurer Tayloe Washburn

Staff

NanceyDrinkwine- Volunteer Coordinator/Operating Director

Ray Fleury- Historic Farmer

Willi Irish- Director of Interpretation

In Memoriam

Ethel "Billie" Wilson Gammon, founder of the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, died on Sunday morning, January 11, 2009 at her home in North Livermore.   She will be greatly missed by everyone in the "Norlands" community.  Read story in the Sun Journal

In 1954, Billie started her work at the Norlands, with the restoration of the library.  She went on to develop a world-renowned museum education program based on living history methods.  Her dream for Norlands was 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 1800's in rural Maine.  She developed the foundational curricula that is used in Norlands' school programs and "live-ins" today.  Since the mid-1970's the programs she developed have sparked the imaginations of hundreds of thousands children from across New England.   It is because of Billie's vision, hard work, commitment and ability to motivate others that Norlands exists and continues to this day.

"Billie" Gammon, founder of the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center