Penobscot Marine Museum’s campus is currently closed for the winter. We’ll re-open in May 2026.
40 E Main Street | P.O. Box 498
Searsport, ME 04974
Phone: 207-548-2529
Lectures, Workshops, Events
You’re invited to join us at Penobscot Marine Museum for our ongoing series of special events! For more information, contact Jeana Ganskop, Education Director, at 207-548-2529 or jganskop@pmm-maine.org.
Join us behind the scenes at PMM!
Volunteer Day and Yale Day of Service
This Saturday, May 6, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Come volunteer at the Museum and help us get ready for opening day. Great food, great people. See history up close. We provide the brooms and mops, you provide the elbow grease.
For more information call us at 207-548-2529. We thank you and we look forward to seeing you here!
Opening Reception
Gone Fishing! and The Net Result: Our Evolving Fisheries
Thursday, May 25, 5 pm to 7 pm
Main Street Gallery, 40 E. Main St.
Free admission
Celebrating Ralph Stanley
Saturday, May 27, 1 pm to 5 pm
$1 museum admission all day
Join us for an afternoon of boat talk and music as we celebrate the career and talents of MDI
boatbuilder and National Heritage Fellow Ralph Stanley.
Catherine Schmitt, “Penobscot River Dams”
Thursday, June 1, 7 pm
Visitors Center, 2 Church St.
Cost: $8, $5 Members
Join Catherine for a discussion of how dams and other environmental changes have affected salmon in the past, and how current efforts are working to restore salmon to their traditional spawning grounds.
Thursday, June 15
6pm to 7pm
Penobscot Marine Museum, Merithew House
Join 7th graders from Searsport District Middle School for an exploration of the role Penobscot Bay plays in the lives of individuals and communities in the region.
Glen Libby and Antonia Small, Caught
Thursday, June 29, 7 pm
Caught is an account of the beauty, fragility and profound change that characterizes fishing, fishing families, and the communities who depend on them in the twenty-first century. Based in the tiny village of Port Clyde, Maine, but reaching globally, Caught chronicles the struggle to transform a way of life for all who depend on our planet’s bounty.
July-August: Waldo County Reads: Fisheries Non-Fiction
At Waldo County libraries. Aimed at the armchair fisheries scientist, policy analyst and general consumer, join book discussions at participating libraries around Waldo County as we read about our nation’s fishing industry. Visit our website for the complete list of books, participating libraries, dates and times.
Netmaking with Jacqueline Davidson
Saturday, July 1, 1 pm to 4 pm
Free with admission
Jacqueline Davidson is author of the book Nets Through Time: The Technique and Art of Knotted Netting. She learned her craft at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, and teaches the technique to others. She will discuss the knot used to make diamond mesh (used in basketball nets) and square mesh (used in tennis nets).
Bill Leavenworth, “Maine Coastal Fisheries”
Thursday, July 6, 7 pm
Visitors Center, 2 Church St.
Cost: $8, $5 Members
Bill Leavenworth pours through old fishing logs and data housed at Penobscot Marine Museum and other fisheries research archives to shed light on the health of the fishing stocks over time. Come hear his latest research on the Maine coastal fisheries, which through 1924 caught more seafood product each year by weight and variety than Maine’s distant water fisheries (Grand Banks).
Net Making with Stephanie Crossman
Thursday, July 20, 11 am to 2 pm
Free for admission
Stephanie Crossman learned the craft of fishnetting on the island of Vinalhaven from her husband’s great-grandmother, who had made her living in the net factory on the island. Today, Stephanie using this traditional technique to create works of art and functional everyday bags. Join Stephanie to watch her at work, share the history of fishnetting and perhaps go home with a treasure from her pop-up store.
