Butler, Joyce (1933 - )

Genre: Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction - Scholarly

Joyce Butler, born on June 27, 1933 in Portland, Maine, is a Kennebunk resident and an historian, archivist/curator, and writer.

She received an associate degree from Westbrook Junior College (now the University of New England) in 1953 and an A.B. from Boston University in 1955.

She was the Kennebunkport Historical Society archivist from 1975-1979. Her next position, 1979-1995, was exhibit and manuscript curator at the Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk. More recently she curated exhibits at the Center for Maine History.

In 1990 Butler was appointed the town historian for Kennebunk. She is also well-known in the historical society/museum world as a lecturer and consultant on manuscript preservation and cataloging.

In addition to the books listed below, Joyce Butler's writing has been published in magazines/newspapers such as Chapters in Local History, Christian Science Monitor, Down East, Maine Life, Landmarks Observer, Log of Mystic Seaport, and Magazine Antiques.

Selected Bibliography

  • Wildfire Loose" The Week Maine Burned, (1978/79) included in the Mirror of Maine list of 100 significant Maine books.
  • The South Congregational Church: An Architectural History (1973)
  • Pages from a Journal (1976)
  • Kennebunkport Scrapbook (1977)
  • Abbott Fuller Graves, 1859-1936 (1979)
  • The Kennebunks: A Watering Place, the First Fifty Years, 1870-1920 (1980)
  • Louis D. Norton, 1868-1940 (1982)
  • The Artist as Historian: Augustus W. Buhler, 1853-1920 (1983)
  • A Kennebunkport Album (1984)
  • The Duchess Who Lived in the Mansion (1986)
  • Spirits in the Wood (1997)

Anthologies

  • Tilt; An Anthology of New England Women's Writing and Art (1978)
  • Tales of Whales (1982)
  • Ladies Choice (1982)
  • Agreeable Situations: Society, Commerce, and Art in Southern Maine, 1780-1830 (1987, edited by Laura Fecych Sprague)
  • Maine in the Early Republic (1988)

Selected Resources