By Cipperly Good, The Richard Saltonstall Jr. Curator of Maritime History

Robert “Bobby” Warren started fishing and lobstering with his uncles on Vinalhaven during his summer school breaks as an eleven-year-old. As soon as he graduated from high school in Bucksport, Maine, he moved to Vinalhaven full-time. He has fished for herring in almost all the possible ways: weirs, stop seines, and purse seining. When not fishing for herring during their seasonal migrations to Maine from late spring to late fall, he was following them south to Gloucester, Massachusetts.

We were able to visit Bobby at his home on Vinalhaven and hear the stories of herring fishing in Penobscot Bay and beyond. A successful fisherman, he was willing to tell us some of the mishaps he encountered, as the best fish story is about the one that got away. Here are a few of those tales.

By Kevin Johnson, Photo Archivist

As another season turns the corner, the ongoing work of digitizing and cataloging continues with new collections being added to our online database and existing records getting updated and corrected. Our volunteers have been busy! Two notable collections that we acquired last year have recently been added and are ready to be explored. The Amasa Heal Collection was donated to PMM by Norman Hills. Amasa Heal ran a granite and marble works business in Belfast on Bridge St. The collection consists of 20 glass plate negatives taken between 1895-1915 and includes several stunning photos of ships in Belfast and Camden. We also just added the J.A. Labbie Collection of 26 large format glass plate negatives. Labbie ran a postcard and photographic business in Boothbay and Wiscasset. These negatives became available through an antique dealer, and George McEvoy of Boothbay Harbor donated the money that allowed us to purchase them. While this group of negatives represents a mere fraction of Labbie's work they are significant nevertheless and deprict many iconic scenes and buildings on the Maine Coast.

Sasha Ray from the Bangor Daily News wrote an in depth article on PMM's newest exhibit Sardineland. You can read that article here.

The Working Waterfront published an article written by PMM Photo Archivist Kevin Johnson on photographers going the distance for their art. You can read that article here.

Thank you to Hamilton Marine and Allen Insurance and Financial for continuing their partnership with PMM by renewing their business membership!

Learn more here about how your business can partner with PMM to show your commitment to the stories we tell and to help preserve our maritime traditions.