Maine State Museum December Roundup

December 2023

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The Latest...

Holiday Season at the Blaine House

This year's decorative theme at Augusta's Blaine House is "Maine Authors."

Free tours must be scheduled in advance and are offered at limited times. Decorations will be up through the month of December.

MSM Staff Visit Portland's Working Waterfront

Museum staff attending the New England Museum Association conference in Portland last month appreciated a chilly, but instructive three-mile walking tour of Portland’s working waterfront. The tour was led by Jonathan Labaree of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).

During the tour, Jonathan shared stories of Portland’s marine geography and economy. He also pointed out contemporary and historical details of the waterfront’s wharves, vessels, and fishing activities. With the tour’s broader message of the Gulf of Maine’s economic and cultural importance to the state, Jonathan highlighted concepts that Maine State Museum staff are researching for new exhibits and educational programs.

The working waterfront tour continued GMRI’s valuable role as a resource for the Maine State Museum. Last year, GMRI provided key information to enhance the museum’s popular virtual program Landing the Lobster: Sustainable Lobstering in Maine... Thank you, GMRI!

Samantha Smith Featured in International Exhibition

The Maine State Museum has recently joined with museums from around the world to bring a new exhibition - The Berlin Wall: A World Divided - to international audiences.

The exhibition was organized by a Spanish company, Musealia, in partnership with the Berlin Wall Foundation. The Maine State Museum is lending several items from its Samantha Smith collection to be displayed in a 26,000 square foot space in the exhibition’s first venue in Madrid, Spain. The Samantha Smith pieces will join 300 artifacts, including a 65-foot section of the Berlin Wall, that examine the Cold War before and after the wall’s falling in 1989.

Samantha Smith at the Artek Soviet Youth Camp, 1983.

The exhibition’s organizers contacted the Maine State Museum in order to include Maine’s celebrated child peace activist, Samantha Smith. Samantha was the girl from Manchester, Maine who, as a ten-year old, wrote to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, questioning his commitment to world peace. Shortly after receiving the letter, Andropov invited Samantha and her parents to visit the Soviet Union, which they did in a highly publicized two-week tour. The Maine State Museum’s collection includes objects and photographs from that visit.

Samantha Smith's uniform on display in Madrid.

The Berlin Wall: A World Divided opened in Spain on November 9, 2023, 34 years to the day after the Berlin Wall came down. From Madrid, it will travel to fourteen cities in Europe, North American, Asia, South Africa, and Australia.

Click here for photos and video!

A New Friend

The Friends of the Maine State Museum welcomes Heather Bartlett as its new Development Coordinator. Heather has extensive experience leading fundraisers, helping grow online presence, and working with the community, most recently at the Hubbard Free Library. Heather lives in Farmingdale with her husband and three children.

Heather is an avid reader, writer, and history lover, raising her family to know and appreciate Maine’s deep historical roots. She is excited to be a part of the important work of the Maine State Museum.

Did you miss last month's Roundup? You can always read back issues here.

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