Maine State Museum-Retired 2023

Education:

M.A., Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, University of Delaware
B.A., Anthropology, University of Vermont

Research Interests:

American decorative arts, including furniture, metals, textiles and ceramics
Civil War flags
Indian trade silver
Prehistoric textile and ceramic technology

Recent Professional Activities:

Collections management consultant to museums and cultural agencies
Member, Maine Association of Museums, Costume Society of America

Exhibits:

Uncommon Threads: Wabanaki Textiles, Clothing and Costume, MSM (co-curator; 2009–present)
At Home in Maine, MSM (2008–present)
The Maine Tourmaline Necklace, MSM (co-curator; 2007)
Dairy to Doorstep, MSM (venue curator; 2006)
Call Your Mother: Communication and Community in Bryant Pond, MSM (2006)
Soaring Imagination: Harold Cooper’s Glider and Early Flight in Maine, MSM (2003–present)
A Place of Honor: Maine’s Hall of Flags, Maine State House (2003–present)
To the Highest Standard: Maine’s Civil War Flags, MSM (2003–present)
Renovations, Innovations: Maine’s Flags and the State House Collection, Maine State House (2000–2003)
Comforts, Privileges and Pleasures: A Century of American Hospitality, 1760–1840, Winterthur Museum’s Historic Houses of Odessa (2000–2004)
Project Wolaku, Passamaquoddy Indian Township School (1998–present)

Publications and Presentations:

Bourque, B. J., and L. A. LaBar. 2009. Uncommon Threads: Wabanaki Textiles Clothing and Costume, University of Washington Press, Seattle.

LaBar, L. A., and B. J. Bourque. 2007. Uncommon Threads: Wabanaki Textiles Clothing and Costume. Presented at the Costume Society of America Annual Meeting, San Diego.

LaBar, L. A. 2003. Saving Maine’s Colors: Collaborative Strategies in Flag Conservation and Exhibition at the Maine State Museum. NEMA News 27(1):4, 8.

Spicer, G., L. A. LaBar, S. Adler, M. Scharoun, and D. Smith. 2003. Saving Maine’s Colours: Strategies in Flag Conservation and Exhibition at the Maine State Museum. In Tales in the Textile: The Conservation of Flags and Other Symbolic Textiles, North American Textile Conservation Conference Preprints.

LaBar, L. A. 2003. Beyond Ornament: An Introduction to Indian Trade Silver. The Magazine Antiques163(4):104-111.

LaBar, L. A. 2000. Presents Most Acceptable: Native American Influence on Trade Silver in the Northeast. Presented at the Canadian Archaeological Society Annual Meeting, Ottawa.

LaBar, L. A. 2000. Indian Trade Silver as Inter-Cultural Document in the Northeast. Masters thesis, University of Delaware.

Maine State Museum staff including L. A. LaBar. 1995. Inventory of Native American Human Remains and Associated Funerary Objects in the Possession or Control of the Maine State Museum and Culturally Affiliated with Maine Tribes, and Inventory of Native American Human Remains and Associated Funerary Objects in the Possession or Control of the Maine State Museum that are Considered to be Culturally Unidentifiable: Final Report. Submitted to the National Park Service Departmental Consulting Archaeologist.

Petersen, J. B., J. A. Wolford, N. D. Hamilton, L. A. LaBar, and M. J. Heckenberger. 1985. Archaeological Investigations in the Shelburne Pond Locality, Chittenden County, Vermont. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 54(3):23-76.