Maine State Museum November Roundup

November 2023

Decorative image with the text "Museum Roundup/ News and Updates from the Maine State Museum"

A note on the day that shook our state to its core: We are all just beginning to understand how life in Lewiston will change following October 25, 2023. In the museum’s 187 years, we have never witnessed an event like this - Maine's deadliest mass shooting.

Lewiston is home to our staff and our visitors. It is a beloved city with a rich and ever-changing story of industry and immigration. You can see its history written on Lisbon Street shopfronts, towering brick mills, canals, and the banks of the Androscoggin. This city’s broad, deep roots now support new life.

We share our neighbors' pain as well as their hope. Eighteen lives were taken. We will not forget them.

A paper heart reading "to my city" attached to a tree on Lisbon Street in Lewiston, Maine.

The Latest...

Friends Annual Meeting Features Hairy-It

Gary Hoyle, author and former natural history curator at the Maine State Museum, discussed his new book, Mystery Tusk: Searching for Elephants in the Maine Woods, at the Friends of the Maine State Museum’s annual meeting last month.

His illustrated talk described one of his great achievements for the museum: the 1993 excavation of a mammoth (affectionately known as “Hairy-It”) in Scarborough and the careful and meticulous research that went into discovering her story. The project added greatly to the scholarship on the prehistory of Maine and our knowledge about mammoths.

You may see his talk here on the museum’s YouTube channel.

MSM in Presque Isle

The Maine State Museum's curator Angela Goebel-Bain and educator Kate Webber traveled to Presque Isle in October to present at the Maine Archives & Museums conference.

They shared insight on their work on the museum’s Listening Tour to an in-person and virtual audience of colleagues in museums, archives, and libraries across the state. Thanks to the University of Maine Presque Isle for hosting a wonderful gathering!

Workers Discover a Remnant from the Past

Cultural Building workers heard from the past recently when they discovered a fragment containing a “signature” left by a fellow worker 53 years ago.

That signature, which will be added to the museum’s collection, is the year “1970” scratched into cement high within the building’s exterior overhang (see photo below). Will we ever know who this worker was? (Any idea, Roundup readers?)

Broken piece of concrete with the date "1970" scratched in it.

A worker’s impulse to scratch 1970 into wet cement in an obscure part of the building could well have been a personal expression of pride. That person was one of many who worked on the large project to create the first state-funded structure specifically dedicated to preserving and exhibiting the objects, documents, and books that define Maine.

Workers today, led by Doten’s Construction of Freeport, are making similar contributions with comparable pride. Workers are now rebuilding, upgrading, or repairing much of the structure that opened in 1971 (see photo below for a view of the current museum interior). The work is difficult and demanding, including the removal and replacement of fireproofing, installation of a new heating and cooling system, application of insulation inside and out, installation of new windows, repairs to plumbing, upgrade of electrical and data lines, construction of new accessible bathrooms, and provision of new paint and flooring everywhere.

Large open building space with people wearing hard hats.

Often, those working on the Cultural Building today express enthusiasm about visiting the State Museum, State Archives, and State Library when the structure reopens. It is not hard to imagine that the worker 53 years ago was similarly keen to see and support the completion of this important building, which then as now, preserves and exhibits the best of Maine for thousands to enjoy and value.

Remembering a Colleague

Portrait photograph of a man in a plaid shirt

Orthocyclus worki, one of three ammonoids named for David Work in honor of his scholarship on this extinct marine mollusk.

David M. Work (1954 - 2023)

The Maine State Museum notes with sadness the death on August 4^th, 2023, of David M. Work, who was from 2003-2020 the curator of geology at the museum.

David received his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Iowa and became an internationally-known scholar for his work on fossil ammonoids, the important marine mollusks that flourished from about 450 million years ago until their extinction 66 million years ago.

David brought to the museum an impressive level of professional and scholarly devotion and will also be remembered for his dry humor and entertaining wit.

His survivors include his wife, Paula Work, who continues at the museum as curator of natural science collections, and his daughter, Sarah Work.

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

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