On Sunday, Feb. 15, Peter Cook, a spinner, weaver and college professor, will examine the cultural significance of handspinning and spinning wheels throughout American history.

His talk, entitled “The Culture of Handspinning: Colonial Hearth to Contemporary Guild,” is a presentation of Lincoln County Historical Association as part of its 2015 Winter Lecture Series held in the Communications Building behind the Court House in Wiscasset. Admission is free, but a $5 donation is suggested.

After an early apprenticeship with a nationally known spinner and weaver in the late 1960s, Peter Cook worked as a handspinner at Fort Mackinac, an 18th century British Fortification in Michigan. Over the next 30 years, he was named director and chief curator of the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont, after which he was appointed administrative director of Historic New England, and subsequently chief curator of Plimoth Plantation.

Widely published on the subject of textiles, handspinning and the decorative arts, Cook has been a frequent consultant on the interpretation of colonial handspinning at museums in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. He now divides his time between teaching in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University and his 18th Century Tare Shirt Farm where he and his wife Nancy, also a spinner and weaver, raise historical breeds of domestic livestock and collect textiles and spinning equipment.

The Lincoln County Historical Association is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that provides stewardship for the 1754 Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta, the 1761 Pownalborough Court House in Dresden, and the 1811 Old Jail and Museum in Wiscasset. For a complete listing of 2015 Winter Lecture Series presentations, please visit www.lincolncountyhistory.org.