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The PMM Photo Archive is loaded with photographs of sardines, sardine fishing and sardine processing, and we are actively mining our collections to illustrate our upcoming Sardineland exhibition. It is remarkable, frankly, that the little fish was such a big subject for so many shutterbugs. One of our collections is all about sardines; the Maine Sardine Council was chartered by the state in 1951 as a control body that had legal authority to impose quality standards for the good of the industry. The Council was active until 1996 and formally disbanded in 2000, its end coinciding with the demise of that fishery. In the spring of 1998, after the closure of its inspection stations, Maine Sardine Council Executive Director Jeff Kaelin donated the collection of photographs and archival materials to PMM.
While the Council did in fact scientifically test Maine’s sardines at their lab in Brewer, their larger purpose was to promote the industry through education and advertising, for which they needed lots of imagery. They created a comic book, hired celebrities, built a giant 40 foot sign in the shape of a sardine fisherman, made a film strip and VHS video for schools and sponsored contests for the fastest packers. They also hired ad agencies and top photographers to document the industry, making this collection especially rich in historical photographs. In fact, it was with this collection that the first batch of Kosti Ruohomaa negatives came to us.
PMM received a grant from the Maine Historical Records and Archives Board early this year to digitize the collection (to modern standards) and make it available online. Visitors to our exhibit will surely be enlightened and entertained by these photographs and graphics. I will be creating a slideshow on sardines that I will give in Searsport, Gouldsboro and Belfast if you want to pack in more sardine photos!
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