Special Events at PMM

A moving glimpse of the people and families who carved out a life a hundred years ago in isolated northern Maine. This multi-media presentation combining film, photography, oral history, and live music is based on a recently discovered collection of rare early photographs taken in northern Maine by Isaac Simpson. Made possible by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Arts Commission.

Filmmaker Sumner McKane is also a composer, musician, historian, and photographer.

“The Port Clyde harbor shelters the last small-boat groundfishing fleet between Port Clyde and the Canadian border. In 2009, a group of area fishermen developed the Port Clyde Fresh CatchTM brand to preserve their heritage, their community and the resources they depend on. Using environmentally conscious methods to harvest fish, lobster shrimp and crab, they pioneered the country's first Community Supported Fishery program in 2007.”

Many legends surround the Finnish-American photographer Kosti Ruohomaa, the award-winning photo journalist who shot iconic portraits of working Americans which appeared in LIFE, National Geographic, and other publications from 1940 to 1960.

Lecturer: Deanna S. Bonner-Ganter, Curator of Photography, Art, and Archives, Maine State Museum, her biography of Ruohomaa will soon be published by Down East Books.

The men of Deer Isle have been famous for their maritime skills for well over a hundred years.  In 1895 and 1899 the America’s Cup was won by all-Deer Isle crews, the first and last time in history a single town supplied an entire crew for the race.  At Penobscot Marine Museum onThursday, October 8 at 7:00 pm, anthropologist William Haviland will discuss why the men of Deer Isle developed such an excellent reputation and were sought after as crewmen especially for the big steam yachts of the early 20^th century.  Haviland’s book on the subject,Floating Palaces: America’s Queens of the Sea which he wrote with Deer Isle native Barbara (Greenlaw) Britton, was published this year.  Admission is free.

William Haviland is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Vermont. Growing up he spent summers on Deer Isle and is now a full-time resident.  He is on the boards of the Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society and the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor.

Floating Palaces: America’s Queens of the Sea is part of Penobscot Marine Museum’s Boat Talk Series.  The talk will take place on Thursday, October 8, 7:00 pm, at Douglas and Margaret Carver Memorial Art Gallery, 11 Church Street, Searsport, Maine.  Admission is free.