A List of Those Who Shaped the Museum’s History and Contributed to Form its Collections
George Walter Hinckley
George Walter Hinckley, the founder of the Museum and the Good Will School, (1858–1950) grew up in Guilford, Connecticut, and developed a fascination with nature and collecting from an early age. Hinckley liked to recount that three rocks he was received as a young boy from a local geologist formed the nucleus of the Museum. During his schooling, Hinckley noticed the impact of poverty on his classmates, and even took in an orphan, Ben Mason, into his family’s home. Hinckley was a spiritual man who wanted to become a minister and was brought to Maine during a Sunday school, which inspired him to build a home for needy boys. In 1889, Hinckley founded the Good Will-Hinckley School in Fairfield, ME. Hinckley valued the educational merit of a museum was equal to that of a library, thus creating the Good Will Museum as a key feature of the school. Later, due to Lewis C. Bate’s funding, Hickey then transformed the Good Will Museum into the L.C. Bates Musuem.
Charles Daniel Hubbard
Charles D. Hubbard (1876–1951) grew up in Guilford, Connecticut, and was a vital contributor to the L.C. Bates Museum. Hubbard was an artist, illustrator, painter, and teacher. He worked with taxidermists and with Geoge Walter Hinckley to create many of the Museum’s diorama exhibits. He painted his diorama landscapes in the Impressionist style. The L.C. Bates Museum is the only museum to hold am an extensive collection of dioramas in the Impressionist style. Hubbard also contributed to the museum’s and the Stone House’s architecture.
William R. Miller
William R. Miller, born in Durham, Maine in 1866, was the lead architect for the L.C. Bates Museum. Miller, a Maine native, studied at Bates College and architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Miller designed many educational institutions, libraries, churches, and residential areas throughout Maine. Many of his architectural works reflect his fascination with the Romanesque style.
John Wiley
John Wiley is an alum of the Good Will school, started by Hinckley. Currently, Wiley is President of the Board of Director of The Friends of L.C.Bates Museum and on the L.C.Bates Museum Committee.
Lewis C. Bates
Lewis C. Bates (1843–1929), after whom the Museum is named, was the president of the Paris Manufacturing Co. in Paris, Maine, and a prominent benefactor for Good Will. George Hinckley met Bates at a father-son banquet in South Paris, Maine, where they bonded over their mutual love of nature. This initial meeting formed a lasting friendship, which in addition to Bates’s support of the Good Will School’s mission, led him to make many monetary contributions over the years. His most significant contributions include converting the Quincy Building into the museum and bequeathing to it in his will $20,000. Hinckley admired Bates for “his steadfast look towards the future” and the modesty with which he lived his life, recalling that his legacy provided for a museum that preserved the past.
Ron Harvey
Ron Harvey is the current taxidermy restorer for the L.C. Bates Museum.
Nina Roth-Wells
Nina Roth-Wells frequently works as art conservator at the L.C. Bates Museum, helping restore many of the exhibits and paintings in the Museum’s collections.
Deborah Staber
Deborah Staber has been director of the L.C. Bates Museum since 1992. For nearly thirty years, she has single-handedly cared for the museum, which operates on a shoe-string budget and with help consisting mostly of a handful of volunteers. As director, she is responsible for all the aspects in the life of this museum, including management, publicity, exhibitions, programming, volunteer coordination, museum grant management, educational programs, and overseeing ongoing museum and archives operations. Staber has been successful at obtaining many grants, most notably, receiving support from the National Endowment from the Humanities and the Maine Humanities.
Ray W. Tobey
Ray W. Tobey is another previous Good Will alum, who worked as Museum curator of the L.C. Bates Museum starting in 1919.