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Explore the latest happenings at the museum.
Categories: Countdown to Reopening | News | Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens | Staff Happenings | Uncategorized | Videos
Countdown to Reopening, News, Staff Happenings / September 25, 2025
What’s Been Going On at the Museum?
Gearing up for the first phase of our Grand Reopening on October 24, 2026! Are you missing the Maine State Museum? You are not alone. Many have expressed frustration that the museum has been closed for so long. The reasons for this long timeline? The renovation of the Cultural Building, the 55- year-old structure that […]
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Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens
Parlor Set With Deep Maine Connections Returns Home
In early 2025, the Maine State Museum received a donation of a remarkable parlor set with an even more remarkable family story.
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News, Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens, Staff Happenings, Uncategorized
Gone But Not Forgotten
Maine State Museum Leads New Research on the Extinct Sea Mink In April 2025, Maine State Museum curator of natural science Dr. Paula Work and former Maine State Museum staff members Bruce Bourque and Robert Lewis published a groundbreaking study in the Journal of Quaternary Research that illuminates some mysteries of the now-extinct sea mink. […]
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Countdown to Reopening, Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens
Maine’s Iconic “World Traveler” Sign
The “World Traveler Signpost” in the Maine State Museum’s collection celebrates Maine’s unusual assortment of international town names. Though the museum’s signpost dates from the 1990s, it was originally installed in Oxford County in the 1930s. James C. Chute (1884-1942) is believed to be the mastermind behind the “World Traveler Signpost.” James Chute was the […]
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Countdown to Reopening, Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens
Emeline Rose: The Life of a Maine Nurse, in Her Own Words
Celebrating Women’s History Month often means seeking out individuals who were not recognized in their time – the countless women who did great work without great recognition. Emeline Rose’s life will be celebrated in the upcoming exhibit Beyond the Postcard: Stories of the Maine Experience. Visit the museum after it reopens on October 24, 2026 […]
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Countdown to Reopening, News, Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens, Staff Happenings
EgNo 3694 Makes a Dramatic Entrance
The museum’s display of whale skeletal remains took on dramatic new dimensions in November this year with the installation of jawbones and a flipper from a North Atlantic right whale. The selective representation of EgNo 3694’s bones is meant to add a new dimension to the whale gallery. EgNo 3694’s jawbones create a dramatic passthrough […]
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Countdown to Reopening, Staff Happenings
Fall Event Photos
See photos from the Maine State Museum’s fall 2025 events.
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News, Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens
This Month We Remember
This October marks two years since the Lewiston mass shooting, which claimed 18 lives. In response to the tragedy, one artist and teacher from Lewiston, Ellen Hodgkin, chose to use her art to aid in her healing process and raise awareness about gun violence.
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Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens
Recently Discovered Charts Link Maine to Slave Economy
Sixteen nautical charts, discovered walled up in a downtown Brunswick business’s upstairs room, were recently donated to the Maine State Museum. The charts, used by Brunswick sea captain and shipping agent Robert T. Giveen (1808-1862), were published between 1831 and 1858, and detail shipping between European and American Atlantic and Gulf ports. The donor purchased […]
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Objects, Artifacts, & Specimens
New Signs Serve Up a “Happy Hit of Flavoring”
The Maine State Museum recently acquired two rare Moxie advertising signs. Designated as Maine’s official state soft drink in 2005, this infamous drink has acquired a cult following over the last 139 years. Originally called Moxie Nerve Food, the inventor, Dr. Augustin Thompson was born and raised in Union, Maine. After serving in the Maine […]
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