Penobscot Marine museum is excited to announce the unveiling of another wave of 5,000 photographs from the noteworthy National Fisherman Collection. This collection was prepared a cadre of professionals and dogged volunteers. With minor exceptions, the group is complete.
This collection represents several decades of reporting by National Fisherman magazine, a subsidiary of Diversified Communications in Portland, ME. This is a journal with salt on the pages, its stories focused on the sea, the fish, and the characters who make commerce out of the two. It’s been a place for fishermen to learn about new gear and read about other boats and their captains; it has showcased small sailboats and other recreational watercraft; it has described emerging fisheries legislation borne of the best intentions and responses to it by the hardworking constituencies impacted by those policies.
In telling these stories—in pictures and in words—National Fisherman has collaterally mapped a rearward path of technological renaissance, boom economy, the inevitable decline which followed (devastating livelihoods and communities), and the long, varied, creative effort to solve an extremely complex problem.
The Penobscot Marine Museum web portal for the National Fisherman photographs makes it easy to peruse the collection. Sample images are grouped into major categories and numerous subcategories. To these latter, Menhaden, Weirs, and Boat Plans have been added. Many of these saved searches bring up dozens of digitized photos, some more engaging than others. Stay tuned for refinements—there’s a plan to sift through the images so that casual viewing will be more easily rewarded with the best content.
Take note of the Featured Image post; its updated weekly, and wherever possible tells the story behind the picture.
To jump straight to Penobscot Marine Museum’s online database and search the new group of National Fisherman photographs and their descriptions in their entirety, view here.