Maine State Museum June Roundup

June 2025

The Latest...

Tour Augusta's Capitol Park This Summer

Image of Dave Hunt leading a Capitol Park tour group.

Museum educator Dave Hunt (center) with a tour group at Capitol Park.

Museum educator Dave Hunt will be back this summer with his popular tours of Capitol Park. From fun facts about past uses of the park to tidbits about state and local history, Dave's colorful and informative tours should not be missed!

Tours are free of charge with no registration required and meet in Capitol Park across from 19 Union Street. Tours run every half hour from 10 am to 1 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays from July 16 to September 4.

Learn More

Members Get a Glimpse of What's to Come

A group of people standing in the museum's whale gallery.

Dr. Paula Work (third from right) leads a tour group inside the museum's new whale gallery.

Between May 27 and June 2, more than 70 museum members enjoyed an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour that offered a rare glimpse into the exciting work underway for the museum's highly anticipated first phase of reopening in 2026.

On the tours, members explored highlights of future exhibits, including the 16-foot white pine tree installation in the Lunder Education Center and the (almost!) completed new 4,130-square-foot whale gallery that houses two humpback whale skeletons.

Additional tour opportunities will be offered as work progresses. In the meantime, read more about the new exhibits here.

Maine Artist Brings Forest Ecosystem to Museum

Forest animals, trees, and insects will take on special artistic lives in the reopened museum’s Lunder Education Center, once Maine artist Rebekah Raye finishes months of research and creation.

Rebekah Raye in her studio as she works on the mural for the Lunder Education Center's white pine tree installation. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The focus of Rebekah’s work is a mural planned especially for the museum’s youngest visitors, specifically children from pre-K through 3rd grade. The 250-square-foot mural sets the pine forest scene and is designed to foster an imaginative exploration of the natural world. It will feature doors that children can open to see the secret world of plants, fungi, and animals that inhabit the pine forest.

Rebekah will also add several high-relief carvings of various animals and birds. The forest mural, carvings, and doors will be a backdrop to a larger-than-life white pine tree that kids can explore inside and out.

Detail of Rebekah Raye's 250-square-foot mural. The mural will be blown up and adhered to the wall like wallpaper behind the tree. Photo courtesy of the artist.

When complete, the entire display will provide a first-ever, child-friendly Maine State Museum space where families can play together and explore a forest ecosystem filled with ecologically accurate plants, animals, and insects.

Want to see what it takes to make a larger-than-lifesize white pine tree come to life? Check out this behind-the-scenes video to see the inspiration and the people behind the pine.

GO BEHIND THE PINE

Bird ID: Designing a Digital Label

Image of Bird ID digital label on a tablet screen.

The Bird ID label will allow visitors of all ages to learn more and digitally interact with the museum's specimens on exhibit.

The Lunder Education Center will feature a special digital interactive to accompany a display of 35 bird specimens from the Maine State Museum’s natural science collection.

The digital label addresses a common museum challenge: traditional lengthy labels in display cases take up too much space and often fail to engage all audiences—particularly kids!

Working with contractors, Digital Gizmo, museum educators developed an interactive label, Bird ID, to address this problem. It incorporates gorgeous photographs lent from the Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The digital label will concisely provide basic facts about habitat, food, and nesting. It will also include short sound recordings of bird calls and songs for visitors to explore.

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

Visit our Website

Become a Member

NOTE: To ensure this newsletter stays out of your spam box, add info@mainestatemuseum.ccsend.com to your contacts or add this email to your “Priority” inbox.

View this email as a webpage

Maine State Museum | 230 State Street | Augusta, ME 04330 US