Help Us Grow the Photography Collection

There are more than 100,000 photographs in our archives, but only a fraction of them have been scanned and fully catalogued. Even fewer are available online.

These pictures are your history. We want to share them with you—and with the world. Please help us with a gift to Penobscot Marine Museum's Photography Department. Your donation will enable us to acquire new photo collections and pay for scanning, cataloguing, and hosting services.

Adopt a town or a collection. Pay for one photo or many. Give a dollar or a thousand. With your help, we will make this entire body of images available to all.

Help Us Complete the Eastern Illustrating Collection

With 43,000 images, the Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Collection at Penobscot Marine Museum is the largest single collection of historic photographs in Maine, and one of the largest anywhere of photos of the New England states and New York from the first half of the 20th century.

We have a opportunity to purchase 7,500 additional Eastern Illustrating negatives for $46,000 (a good price relative to what they would fetch on the open market). We have already raised $37,000 and have a limited amount of time to raise the balance. You can help us now by making a donation to the campaign.

You can "adopt" a town in the collection for just $10 per negative, as many individuals, historical societies and educational institutions have already done. People and groups adopting towns are publicly acknowledged, and these towns go to the head of the line to be scanned and entered into our online database. We also welcome donations toward the campaign as a whole in any amount.

Towns Available for Adoption

• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• Maine
• New Hampshire
• New York
• Vermont

Urgent Preservation News

We hope to acquire two more available lots of Eastern Illustrating negatives before they are sold into private collections, where they may be lost to the public forever. One, consisting of 800 negatives, primarily of western Maine, is available to us for $4,000. The other, consisting of 1,200 negatives of Massachussets and New Hampshire, will cost us $12,500. Please contact us if you can help.