Maine State Museum February Roundup

Museum Roundup

News & Updates from the Maine State Museum

February 2023

The Latest...

Samantha Smith Takes the National Stage (Again)

On January 29, 2023, CBS Sunday Morning featured a story, reported by Mo Rocca, about Maine schoolgirl Samantha Smith. Samantha gained international fame in 1982 when she wrote to General Secretary of the U.S.S.R.’s Communist Party Yuri Andropov and later visited the Soviet Union at Andropov’s invitation.

The Maine State Museum’s collection includes many objects and images that Samantha received during her visit. This fascinating collection brought Mo Rocca and producer Mary Lou Teel to the museum offices last December to see the collection and interview curator Laurie LaBar. Click here to watch the news feature on Samantha Smith.

Click here to listen to the Mobituaries podcast episode "Samantha Smith: Death of a Peacemaker."

A Mammoth Mystery

A new book by artist, author, and former Maine State Museum curator Gary Hoyle has recently been released by North Country Press.

Mystery Tusk: Searching for Elephants in the Maine Woods tells the dramatic story of the first excavation of a mammoth in Maine, a Maine State Museum project that Gary successfully directed and coordinated in 1992-93.

In his detailed and beautifully illustrated account of the search for an ancient mammoth, Gary meticulously reveals his related search for the truth about Bet, a legendary elephant whose story in Maine was separated from the mammoth’s saga by 13,600 years. You can find the book here.

You've Got Mail

It's always a treat to get notes from students! This card came from Augusta's Hussey Elementary School in thanks for a virtual education program.

Maine's Official Tourmaline Necklace Takes Two Tacks

One necklace in Maine shows great vision for the future as well as some degree of short-sightedness.

The necklace, officially titled the Maine Tourmaline Necklace, was beautifully crafted by Maine artisan Addison Saunders using local gold and tourmaline. In 1977, the necklace was donated to the State of Maine and presented to the Maine State Museum “for the First Lady’s use at official functions.” For decades after, governors’ wives wore the necklace during inaugural celebrations.

Governor Janet Mills at the Inaugural Ball,

January 4, 2023.

Forty-six years after its creation, the necklace recalls a moment in the state’s history when people could not imagine a female governor. Now, with the election of Maine’s first female chief executive, all that has changed. In 2019, Janet Mills became Maine’s first governor to wear the famed necklace to her inauguration. Again last month, she donned the necklace for her inaugural celebration at the start of her second term.

Conservator Teresa Myers cleaning the necklace.

Today, the Maine Tourmaline Necklace is cared for as part of the Maine State Museum’s collection. If you would like to see this exquisite piece in person, the necklace is typically on display at the Blaine House. Free Blaine House tours are available by appointment and can be booked here.

Click here for the full story of the necklace, including photos and original design sketches.

Snow Problem!

Well, of course, Maine was a leader in snowplow production!

The Maine State Museum recently acquired a 1923 wooden snowplow patented by Don A. Sargent, a lumberman and inventor from Bangor, Maine. He designed this innovative plow to attach to a truck’s axle. He then introduced a vertically adjustable plow nose to push through different depths of snow.

Historically, to make wintry Maine roads passible for sleighs, horses pulled snow rollers and packed the snow into smooth trails. Another form of snow management was for teams of horses, and later tractors, to pull plows behind them. These couldn’t efficiently cut through deep drifts.

Once motorized vehicles dominated the roads, snow removal – rather than compression – became critical to keep people moving in northern climates. Sargent’s plows were designed to push snow aside and were attached to the front of tractors and trucks. The Sargent Plow Company moved from Bangor to South Portland in 1928. Soon after, a Portland newspaper reported that Sargent snowplows comprised 85% of all snowplows in America.

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