Jan 13, 2010 -- Four new collections of historic photographs were recently acquired by the museum and we are excited to share them with you.

At Popham Beach, 1904, from the Jane Stevens Collection

The crown jewel is the photo collection from the Jane Stevens' estate. This collections consists of more than 700 glass plate negatives made by Jane Stevens' uncle Captain James Perkins. Capt. Perkins was a steamboat pilot on the Kennebec River in the late 1800's through the early 1900's. Many of the photos are of the steamboat industry and the Popham Beach region. Its truly a priceless treasure of Maine's maritime history. Perkins' niece Jane Stevens' who inherited the collection from her aunt spent nearly 3 decades working with the negatives and researching the images which resulted in her book One Man's World: Popham Beach, Maine which was published in 1974. Stevens' heirs wanted this collection to go to a place that shared Jane Stevens' enthusiasm for historic photography. They also wanted to make sure the collection would be made available to the public and given the exposure that it deserves. They chose Penobscot Marine Museum as the home for the collection after following our activities in the news and attending one of our presentations.

The other new collections include 41 Eastern Illustrating negatives of Belfast which were donated local historian Isabel Maresh that she acquired some years ago. These images, primarily of Belfast, help us in our quest to put the Eastern collection back together again. In late August, museum supporter and board member, John Roulstone, attended an estate auction of former Waldo County Sheriff Jake Lawless and won a collection of 110 glass and film negatives primarily of Belfast that date between 1900 and the early 1930s.

Last but not least is a collection of Bangor negatives and prints which was purchased with the help of a couple of Penobscot Marine Museum's board members. This collection of more than 200 images is believed to have been taken by Preston M. Williams and contains many views of the Bangor waterfront as well as photos made during and after the great fire in 1911.

The scanning and cataloging of these new additions has begun in earnest and soon these collections will be featured on our photo collections page. For questions about our collections, ordering research cds and prints, or donating historic photographs or negatives to the museum, please contact photo archivist Kevin Johnson Kjohnson@pmm-maine.org or call (207) 548-2529 ext. 210.