Current Exhibits
- Regional Watercraft: Historic Maine Boats
- Gone Fishing: Maine's Sea Fisheries
- Marine Art Gallery
- Fowler-True-Ross House: a Sea Captain's Home
- Souvenirs from the Orient: the China Trade Comes Home
- Rowboats for Rusticators
- Working the Bay: History, Economy, and Recreation of the Penobscot Region
- Hall of Ship Models
- Folk Art of the Penobscot
- Images of Childhood in Maine and at Sea: 19th and early 20th century Photographs
- The Sea Captains of Searsport
- Scrimshaw
- Seabag Visible Storage Center
- Seacoast Village
- First Congregational Church
- Kid Stuff
Regional Watercraft
Maine's Largest Historic Boat Display
One of New England's largest displays of classic small craft, with more than 50 boats on view in several buildings. The collection contains craft of every description, including lobster boats, peapods, dories, cedar/canvas and birchbark canoes, Whitehalls, racing sloops and more, all with a Maine pedigree. There's also a small but choice collection of antique engines on display.
Gone Fishing
From lobsters to sardines, Maine's fisheries define and influence the state's history, economy, and culture. Learn about the early days of hand-lining, how to catch a lobster, how to dress for sea, and different kinds of boats and gear. Watch videos and examine historic photographs from the Atlantic Fisherman. Kids will enjoy going aboard a real dory and replicas of a lobster boat and the sardine carrier Jacob Pike.
This exhibit is funded by:
- The Maine Humanities Council
- The Gardner Charitable Trust
- The Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust
- The Davis Family Foundation
- Linda L. Bean
Marine Art Gallery
Ships at sea and in port; small boats manned by hardworking fishermen; sea battles and yacht races – the Marine Art Gallery displays the emotional, artistic, and stylistic spectra that ships and the sea have exerted for centuries.
On view are a world-class collection of paintings by the famed Buttersworth family; works by Robert Salmon; folk-art shadow boxes; ship carvings and more.
Sea Captain's Home
The home of a prosperous 19th-century sea captain, the Fowler-True-Ross House recreates the ambience of that era with authentic period furniture, furnishings, and art. Begun as a modest farmhouse around 1820, it quickly grew into a grand Federalist-style home featuring:
- formal parlor, with elaborate carved and upholstered furniture
- family room, with a "square" piano and twin-chimneyed coal stove
- child's room, with chamber pot, play stove and skittles set
- sewing room, with delicate fabrics and clothing of a bygone age
Souvenirs from the Orient
The sea captains of 19th century Searsport were like other travelers, in that they collected souvenirs. Come see what local ships' masters brought back from the Orient as gifts to family and friends or as reminders of their voyages. Items you'll see in the Jeremiah Merithew House include:
- a pair of bronze "Fu" dogs that likely guarded the doors of a Chinese temple or palace
- elaborately embroidered Chinese costumes, and painful shoes for women's bound feet
- children's toys and games, including dolls and ivory jackstraws
(think pick-up-sticks) - whimsical wood miniatures of Chinese life
- Japanese and Chinese paintings of people and ships
Rowboats for Rusticators
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, "rusticators" were visitors to Maine who sought to enjoy a rustic vacation as a change from their refined, everyday, often urban lives. Any hunting or fishing trip or family vacation on a lake or river was sure to involve rowing, and possibly hunting or fishing, in small wooden boats like those shown here: an Adirondack Guide Boat, a Whitehall, and a simple skiff. Other boats on display include a recreational peapod and an Old Town sponson canoe set up for rowing, along with a selection of choice historic photos depicting small-craft pleasure boating in Maine.
Working the Bay
History, Economy, and Recreation of the Penobscot Region
The Penobscot watershed did much to define the culture of Maine and beyond. Tall pines from its forests became masts for English warships. Later, its forest resources became everything from clothespins to schooners, while stone from its quarries helped built New York and Washington, DC. Explore the history of the Penobscot Region from several perspectives, including:
- Prehistory: the original Wabanaki residents
- Naval history: the disastrous Penobscot Campaign (America's greatest naval defeat prior to Pearl Harbor)
- Economic history: timber, stone, shipbuilding, ice, and fishing
- Recreation: the region's birth as a vacation destination
Hall of Ship Models
A fine display including builders' half-hull models, fully-rigged models accurate right down to the number of treenails fastening the planks to the frames (14,000 in one case!), and treasures like these:
- a bone "prisoner's model" of a full-rigged warship
- the ship B. Aymer, commanded by Capt. Joshua Slocum
- a set of modern whaling ships: a "killer" and a factory ship
- a tug with a functioning miniature steam engine
- Bounty, the famed mutiny ship
Folk Art of the Penobscot
For most Maine residents of the 19th century, folk art was art. The aesthetic sensibilities and artistic skills of common people showed up in workaday items like signs, boat decorations, furniture, scrimshaw -- even gravestones, all shown in the Admissions area on Main Street.
Images of Childhood In Maine and At Sea
The "Lightning Express" (Eastern Illustrating Postcard Collection)
Today's children live a different lives than those of 100 years ago. One can see it in these authentic historic photos of children at work, at sea, at school and at play. Taken from several of the museum's photo collections, the images -- some stark, some sweet -- are all the more striking because the camera itself was a new and serious encounter for most children. On display in the Fowler-True-Ross House.
Sea Captains of Searsport
In the 19th century, no town in the United States boasted more captains than Searsport, Maine. Many captains brought their wives and children along on voyages, and an interactive video kiosk tells their tales, while photographs show us what these mariners from another age looked like – some grim, some pleasant, and some downright scary. Famous seafaring names abound, including Pendleton, Merithew, Nichols and Colcord.
Scrimshaw
In their free time, many 19th century sailors produced handcrafts such as scrimshaw (scribing pictures on whales' teeth) or carved curious or practical items like yarn winders and snuff boxes from bone or baleen. The results, on dipslay in Merithew House, range from eccentric folk-art pieces to fine art.
Seabag Visible Storage Center
Opened in 2011, the Seabag Visible Storage Center is an innovative new type of artifact display: a cross between a formal exhibit and curatorial storage. While maintaining proper storage conditions, Seabag avoids the static nature and cost constraints of a formal exhibit in order to make more items available to public inspection.
Roughly 100 artifacts are on display at any time, and items are changed on a regular basis. The display typically includes ship paintings, portraits, ship and boat models, and a wide variety of nautical and cultural artifacts. On-site computer access to the museum's object database allows users to look up details on any artifact, whether on display in Seabag or in regular storage.
Until further notice, Seabag's hours are subject to staffing availability. If you wish to visit, please contact the Admission Center to confirm times and dates: 207-548-0334 or email.
Seacoast Village
Eight buildings listed on National Register of Historic Buildings grace the grounds at our Seacoast Village. Complete with a classic New England Town Hall, the First Congregational Church, private residences, and a commercial building, the Village buildings range in date from about 1810–1845.
Come walk the Village grounds and enjoy the feeling of imagining how it must have been during this period of elegance and hard work.
Click Here to view Campus Map
First Congregational Church
Built in 1830, the First Congregational Church of Searsport was the spriritual home of many of Searsport's shipbuilders and sea captains. With its stamped tin interior, glorious stained glass windows, hand-carved pews and remarkable pipe organ, it is unusually ornate.
Home to an active, independent congregation, the church is a highlight of the Penobscot Marine Museum experience. It is open to museum visitors on a limited schedule. Please call or ask at our Visitors Center (207-548-0334).
