The Maine State Museum

The Maine State Museum

Augusta, Maine

Date of Visit: February 23, 2013

            My favorite visit has been to the Maine State Museum. I remember visiting the museum as a class trip in 6^th grade. I have not been there since. That was more than a few years ago. There are so many things to see and read at the museum that a few hours do not seem like enough time to get through. Many significant things are displayed there from early Native American through the controversial Labor Mural.

The wide array of exhibits can bring back memories of youth and a feeling of wonder at what kind of crazy person would use that. There is also the feeling of pride when looking at the 20^th Maine’s tattered battle flag from Gettysburg and knowing that my Great-Great Grandfather was a part of the 20^th and was wounded along with many others there fighting for the cause of freedom. 

                                          

                                                           20th Maine Regimental Flag

Photo from to the Maine State Museum

 

            A current exhibit deals with the Malaga Island community. It is a rather moving experience to read the history of this community while standing amongst its artifacts. The Museum website, http://mainestatemuseum.org/home/ explains it best;

“By July 1, 1912, the community on Maine's Malaga Island ceased to exist. The State of Maine had evicted the mixed-race community of fisherman and laborers in order to clear the small coastal island of "It's Shiftless Population of Half-Breed Blacks and Whites", as one 1911 newspaper article described it. The mixed-race community was controversial in the state; many people saw the island as an ugly mark on the pristine beauty of Maine's coast. After years of well-publicized legal battles, the state succeeded in removing the community of around forty people, committing eight to the Maine School for the Feeble Minded. By the end of 1912, all visible traces of the community disappeared – houses were moved and the cemetery was exhumed. Today, one hundred years after the eviction, fragments discovered and uncovered from Malaga Island tell stories of a community caught in a complex web of economic change, government actions, prejudice, and social reform.”

            The Maine State Museum is a re-visit for me. I am going to take my dad with me next time as he can give me a prospective much different than a book or a plaque on a display. He remembers many of the things like ice harvesting and hearing stories of the log drives down the rivers. I am looking forward to spending that $2.00 for another visit.