AUGUSTA — Six years after shutting its doors for renovations, the Maine State Museum is ready to welcome the public back to its upgraded facility and showcase the state’s history through brand-new exhibits.
The museum closed in 2020, along with the State Archives and Library, as the Cultural Building was set to undergo significant building renovations. Now, after spending the closure planning and designing new exhibits, the museum is set for a grand reopening starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The museum will reopen in phases, with the main floor and second floor exhibits opening first. Museum staff hope to reopen exhibits on the lower two levels, including the Made in Maine and 12,000 Years in Maine exhibits, in the next two years after they finish planning and raising money.
In its first major redesign of the main floor exhibits since its opening in 1971, museum staff focused on telling Maine’s stories in new and interactive ways. From whale skeletons to quilts to snowmobiles and everything in between, here’s a guide to what’s new at the Maine State Museum.
VECTOR THE WHALE
As visitors move through the updated museum, they’ll be greeted by a new face: Vector the whale.
Suspended from the ceiling, the 45-foot-long whale skeleton belongs to a female humpback whale who lived in the Gulf of Maine. Up until the whale died at age 35, scientists tracked and studied her movements, naming her Vector because of patterns on her tail.
Next to Vector is the skeleton of a 5- to 6-month-old humpback whale calf, both positioned like a mother whale would protect her calf.
It is the only museum exhibit in the world to showcase two humpback whale skeletons displaying the species’ range and size.
“We really want our visitors to understand that the whales relate to them, that they have some responsibility,” Museum Director Bernard Fishman said. “We really do have a responsibility to try to make sure that creatures like this can survive and flourish, if possible, and that the ecology of the Gulf of Maine can remain healthy and something we’re proud of.”
The two skeletons are surrounded by interactive and educational displays that provide information about the lives of humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine. The exhibit also features the jaw and flipper bones of a right whale, an endangered species, that died from entanglement.
Visitors can walk under and around the skeletons, which were installed by Dan DenDanto, the owner of Maine-based whale skeleton restoration company Whale and Nails.
“These are important ecological stories,” Fishman said. “That’s why they’re here.”
BEYOND THE POSTCARD
While planning new exhibits, museum staff wanted to focus on telling Maine’s history through the stories of Maine’s people.
They developed the “Beyond the Postcard: Stories of the Maine Experience” exhibit centered around lesser-known stories of historical and contemporary Maine people around the themes of work, recreation, community, service and innovation.
Visitors can learn about Cornelia Thurza “Fly Rod” Crosby, the first registered Maine Guide, and William Wilberforce Ruby, a Black U.S. Army private from Maine who served in the Spanish-American War.
The exhibit features objects that tell stories from Maine’s history, like the first registered snowmobile in the state and a Lombard Log Hauler, a vehicle invented and manufactured in Maine for hauling logs.
Visitors can see a 40-foot partial reconstruction of the St. Mary, one of the last full-rigged wooden ships built in Phippsburg in 1890, which crashed off the Falkland Islands. In the first six months after reopening, Teresa Murphy, the museum’s objects conservator, will be completing a conservation treatment on the ship in a gallery where visitors can watch and ask questions.
The highlighted stories in the exhibit will change over time, according to Angela Goebel-Bain, chief curator for the exhibit.
“We’re gonna take a story out and put a new person in, and so we can keep telling these stories and keep broadening the stories we tell,” Goebel-Bain said. “It also gives us an opportunity to engage with the audience, so that we can kind of hear what kind of stories they want to hear, and maybe we can develop stories with them, and maybe develop our collections at the same time.”
LUNDER EDUCATION CENTER
Fishman said he was particularly excited about the new Lunder Education Center, as the museum finally has a space dedicated to education to support the thousands of students that visit the museum each year.
The new space, funded by the Lunder Foundation, features a presentation area, rotating exhibits, interactive displays and spaces for educational demonstrations.
Throughout the renovation, Fishman said museum staff focused heavily on incorporating interactive elements. Many of the prior exhibits were several decades old and didn’t incorporate technology in any way, he said.
“It expands educational horizons,” Fishman said. “And it makes the exhibits more accessible.”
One of the new interactive displays is a table that allows visitors to experience what an archaeological dig might have been like by finding and learning about objects on The Defence, a privateer rig from the 1770s that was scuttled by American forces during the Penobscot Expedition in June 1779, a failed American project to expel British troops from Fort George in upper Penobscot Bay.
Visitors will be able to explore the ship through the interactive table and find and repair objects that were actually found on the original ship.
MAINE QUILTS
On the upper floor of the museum is the new “Maine Quilts: 250 Years of Comfort and Community” exhibit curated by Laurie LaBar.
The exhibit showcases quilts from the early 1800s to today, highlighting the work of the women and communities who quilted throughout Maine’s history.
Many of the quilts are brightly colored, despite being hundreds of years old. Different styles and trends of quilting throughout the decades are on display and the intricate craftsmanship is highlighted.
LaBar wrote a companion book for the exhibit, also titled “Maine Quilts: 250 Years of Comfort and Community,” which explores the history of quilting in Maine and Americar.
The exhibit also highlights textile objects from Wabanaki and Passamaquoddy people throughout Maine’s history.
WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE VISITING
Admission to the museum will be free from the grand reopening through the remainder of the year.
The grand reopening celebration is set to take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, with a ribbon-cutting to start. The event will also feature live music, refreshments and educational demonstrations.
The museum’s regular weekly hours will be Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.