Current Exhibits
Adults: $8.00; Students with ID, Seniors & AAA members: $7.00; Children 5–17: $2.00
Free for MHS members.
Wired: How Electricity Came to Maine
Exhibit Dates: June 22, 2012 – May 26, 2013
Carbon filament bulb with evacuation tip, ca. 1900, photo by Peter Macomber
Wired! explores the electrification of Maine during the 20th century, and how a rural state became modern. Told primarily through material from the Central Maine Power collection, it explores the landscape, mechanics, economics, politics, and culture of electricity.
The story begins with efforts to harness the energy of Maine's rivers to power small mills. It spreads as entrepreneurs, tinkerers, and investors sought to transmit that energy further and further, and to sell it to businesses and homeowners. Finally, the story is about the grid, and what it took to get it built.
The exhibit explores how Mainers were shaped by power: engineers and linemen who figured out how to deliver electricity to the masses, and people everywhere who overcame initial fears to embrace and rely on it for almost every aspect of their daily lives. As we continue to look for affordable, clean energy, this is a story that joins Maine's past, present, and future.
With gratitude to our corporate sponsor:
Iberdrola USA Foundation, Inc. on behalf of Central Maine Power
Additional exhibit support provided by:
Davis Family Foundation
Elsie A. Brown Fund
Elsie P. Viles
Knickerbocker Group
Howell Laboratories, Inc., in honor of Paul Wescott
In-kind support provided by:
Casco Bay Engineering
Peter Macomber Photography
Earle W. Noyes & Sons
Bailey Sign
Central Maine Power
Maine Paint
Enel Green Power North America
Maine Things: Recent Museum Acquisitions
Exhibit Dates: March 1 - April 30, 2013
What do these things have in common? A Mt. Katahdin watercolor. A crayon-enhanced photograph of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A needlework sampler by a 14-year-old. A Maine restaurant sign. They are just some of the fascinating items newly acquired by MHS, and featured in this lecture hall gallery exhibit. Each of the items provides a fresh perspective about Maine history by adding depth to an existing group of materials in our collections, or by introducing an entirely new subject.
Maine Things: Recent Museum Acquisitions is on view in the Shettleworth Lecture Hall.