Maine State Museum

Name: Maine State Museum
Address: 230 State St, Augusta, ME, 04330, US
Telephone: +12072872301
Price range: $

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Maine State Museum

The Maine State Museum seeks to share what is meaningful about Maine and its place in the world. **The museum is temporarily closed.

Unfortunately, the major renovation project at the Maine State Museum will likely mean that the museum will not reopen until 2026.**

As the dates for the museum’s reopening become more definite, more information will be available on the museum’s website. The Maine State Museum is the state’s foremost general museum, collecting and exhibiting the finest of Maine’s natural and cultural heritage. Th

e museum’s collection includes almost one million objects and specimens, representing the breadth of Maine’s rich legacy. In representing the state’s best efforts to preserve its dynamic history, the Maine State Museum helps Maine people understand the present and imagine and prepare for the future. Find our Social Media Guidelines at: https://mainestatemuseum.org/about-us/social-media-guidelines/

06/25/2026

⛏️📝 The Maine State Museum was pleased to welcome two talented archaeology interns this spring to assist with crucial research to update the ‘12,000 Years in Maine’ exhibit for the museum's Phase II reopening.

Ella Roerden is an undergraduate at Syracuse University, studying anthropology alongside international relations. Her work at the museum revolved around the protohistoric period (about 1500-1650) in northeastern North America and what is now Maine.

Cam Johnson is an undergraduate at the University of Southern Maine studying anthropology with a focus on biological archaeology and diet studies. At the museum, she conducted a study researching the diet of pre-contact Native peoples of New England to support the redesign of two important cases within the archaeology exhibit.

We are so grateful for your hard work, Cam and Ella! 👏👏

📸 Image ID: Curator of archaeological collections, Dr. Andrew Beaupré (center) visits the Carrie Ricker School in Litchfield with interns Ella Roerden (left) and Cam Johnson (right).

06/23/2026

⚾🐄⛺ Did you know that Augusta’s Capitol Park has served as a baseball field, a Civil War encampment, and even leasable farmland? ⚾🐄⛺

Learn all about the storied history (and many lives!) of Capitol Park this summer:

⏰ Tours run every 30 minutes, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
📅 Every Wednesday in July and August
✔️ No registration necessary! Just show up.
📍 Meet in the park across from 19 Union Street in Augusta

A great way to spend the day–and soak up some sun with your !

06/19/2026

✒️ This week’s ‘Journaling June’ post comes from the journals of William Harris (1856–1934) of Mercer, Maine. ✒️

🎣 In an entry dated June 19, 1890, Harris described a fishing excursion to Great Pond in the Belgrade Lakes region. After stopping for lunch, he visited Adams Hoyt, a farmer who lived on an island in the lake. Harris sketched the scene, capturing Hoyt’s farmstead and even Hoyt himself standing in the doorway of his home—a small but vivid glimpse into life on Great Pond more than 135 years ago.

Of the excursion, Harris wrote, “...22 fine bass and five or six white perch. Found George Dyer and Alice here when we got home. Cleaned my fish and got to bed at twelve o'clock.”

Harris frequently illustrated his journals with sketches that documented daily life in rural Mercer, where he lived with his father, stepmother, and three half-sisters. Harris eventually married and moved to Wilton, Maine, where he worked for the Bass & Co. shoe factory.

🖼️ Image ID: Sketch of Adams Hoyt by William Harris, 1890, MSM2023.30

06/17/2026

🛋️ In early 2025, the Maine State Museum received a donation all the way from Louisville, Kentucky: a remarkable parlor set with an even more remarkable family story. 🛋️

🏠 After a full conservation treatment by Christopher Shelton of C Shelton Conservation in Boston, the set is ready for its debut in the revamped ‘At Home in Maine’ exhibit opening in October. 🏠

➡️ Read more about this storied set and the extraordinary Taylor family that passed it down through the generations here: https://mainestatemuseum.org/news-videos-and-stories/parlor-set-with-deep-maine-connections-returns-home/ ⬅️

Image ID 1: Parlor sofa after conservation
Image ID 2 & 3: Parlor sofa during conservation
Image ID 4: Parlor sofa before conservation
📸 All photos by Christopher Shelton of C Shelton Conservation

06/12/2026

✒️ Today for ‘Journaling June,’ we’re reading excerpts from the scrap and sketch book of Bangor accountant and shopkeeper John Martin (1823–1904). ✒️

🎈 On October 1, 1857, thousands of spectators gathered on the circus grounds on Summer Street in Bangor to witness the ascent of “Young America”, a yellow silk balloon. The event marked Bangor’s first balloon ascension and captivated the crowd with a spectacle unlike anything many had ever seen. 🎈

✍️The occasion was described by John Martin in his scrap and sketch book. Martin chronicled his life, work, and the people and events of the Bangor region through journals and illustrated scrapbooks, leaving behind a remarkable record of everyday life in nineteenth-century Maine. ✍️

⬇️ Below is a short transcription of John’s description of the event. ⬇️

“This was one of the most magnificent sights I ever witnessed in all my day. I had read and heard of men going above the clouds; I now had the reality before me, and I made a vow that from that day out I would never dispute any science projected by man until it was fully demonstrated that it was a failure or an impossibility…”

Image ID: Scrap and Sketch Book, John Martin (1823–1904), Bangor, Maine, MSM97.16

06/10/2026

🐋 Beyond being the only display in the world that features two humpbacks of this size and age range, 'Vector: A Whale’s Life in the Gulf of Maine,' includes another unique element - BALEEN! 🐳

Back in February, Dan DenDanto and the team at Whales and Nails attached preserved baleen plates to Vector’s upper jawbone. Due to its fragility, baleen is rarely included in skeletal exhibitions of this scale. Baleen is composed of keratin, the same protein as human fingernails. With its addition to Vector’s skeleton, visitors will be able to gain a more accurate understanding of whale biology and ecology.

➡️ Learn more about the exhibit coming in October, sure to make a big splash here: https://mainestatemuseum.org/explore/exhibits-and-events/vector-a-whales-life-in-the-gulf-of-maine/ ⬅️

06/05/2026

🏫🎒During four special behind-the-scenes school visits to wrap up the My Maine Museum program last month, students were given a peek at the museum as it prepares to reopen on October 24, 2026.

Students from Lewiston Middle School, Hale Dale High School, Solon Elementary School, and Stearns Jr/Sr High School participated in the My Maine Museum project, and each of the 202 participating students created a final presentation that celebrates their life in Maine through a person, place, or object. 🏫🎒

➡️ Their images and words can be viewed as a digital exhibit on the museum’s website here: https://mainestatemuseum.org/learn/my-maine-museum/ ⬅️

06/02/2026

📖✒️ Welcome to Journalling June! We’re cracking open the diaries, personal letters, and other texts of the famous, the infamous, and the forgotten to find out how different (or surprisingly similar) daily life really was–in their own words. 📖✒️

This letter, from Samuel Sewall of York to his brother Dummer Sewall in Bath, dated June 1783, describes the town’s celebrations that followed news of the end of the American Revolutionary War. The day began with an American Salute and some celebration at the local Brick Tavern and ended with the roar of celebratory gunfire. The war was formally concluded later that year with the September 1783 Treaty of Paris, which officially recognized the Thirteen Colonies as free, sovereign, and independent states.

Image ID: Letter from Samuel Sewall to Dummer Sewall, York, Maine, June 1783, MS2022.55

Transcription below:

'As this was the place of your nativity, perhaps it may not be disagreeable to be informed of the conduct of the Inhabitants on the Day of their rejoicing in consequence of Peace, give me leave to congratulate you on the occasion and give you a Sketch. The bright morn was begun with an American Salute. A respectable number of Gentlemen Dined at the Brick-Tavern where good humor & decorum were conspicuous.

At the opening of so bright a June as Peace what could be considered more Suitable for the occasion than a general discharge of the destructive instruments of War (how happy for the human race if they were converted to the Utensils of husbandry) but as Powder in sufficient quantity for the grand design could not be collected from private property, an expedient was hit on to make up the deficiency from the Public-Stock. It is true I was unwilling at first to part with one half ton that fell to my lot to secure, for I did not then consider that it was impossible to apply that Villanous Composition to a better purpose than a Sacrifice to Peace-the indulged Multitude would hear with admiration that dangerous, black Villainous, loud, expiring Roar.'

05/29/2026

Last year, the museum acquired a rare powder horn that was used and inscribed by Thomas Simons, a soldier who served at Fort Pownall in Stockton Springs, Maine. Private Simons was assigned to the garrison periodically from 1765 to 1770.

A powder horn is fabricated from the hollowed-out horn of a bull. In the days prior to self-contained paper or brass cartridges, these horns were used by each shooter to transport their personal ration of gunpowder. Soldiers often etched their names, designs, and images into the cortex of powder horns in a way similar to that of sailors creating scrimshaw on whale bones and teeth.

This powder horn was brought to the attention of the Maine State Museum archaeology department by a local colleague who had used the detailed map found in the intricate carvings to locate archaeological features such as the redoubt (or outpost) that protected the southwestern flank of Fort Pownall.

The Simons family powder horn has truly been a clue to the past that will find a safe home in the collections of the Maine State Museum so that it may be studied by researchers for generations to come.

📷 Image ID: Carved powder horn, ca. 1780s, MSM collections, 2025.37

05/27/2026

🌊🦦 In April 2025, a groundbreaking study led by current and former Maine State Museum staff was published in the 'Journal of Quaternary Research', illuminating some mysteries of the now-extinct sea mink.

➡️ Read about the elusive sea mink here: https://mainestatemuseum.org/news-videos-and-stories/gone-but-not-forgotten/

🖼️ Image ID: Plate XVII from Charles T. Jackson’s 1837 ‘Atlas of Plates Illustrating the Geology of the State of Maine,’ shows a sea mink (bottom left) on the rocky coast. MSM 2017.8.1

Address

230 State St
Augusta, ME
04330

Telephone

+12072872301

Website

http://www.mainestatemuseum.org/, https://mainestatemuseum.org/support/2025-maine-state-museum-statewide-preview-events/

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