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.
November 19, 2018
Doors open at 6:30; program begins at 7:00
$12 in advance or $15 at the door
At the Colonial Theatre, 163 High Street, Belfast
Join Penobscot Marine Museum for an evening of sea shanties and a screening of the film Around Cape Horn.
For more information or to purchase tickets by phone, please call 207-548-2529.
Friday, December 7 and Saturday, December 8
4pm-7pm
Free admission
Celebrate the season with Searsport and the Penobscot Marine Museum! Experience the 19th-century Sea Captain’s house decorated for Christmas by local businesses. Shop for holiday gifts in the mobile museum store at the Fowler House entrance. Make your own Christmas ornament in Old Vestry.
Friday, December 7 and Saturday, December 8
4pm-7pm
Free admission
Celebrate the season with Searsport and the Penobscot Marine Museum! Experience the 19th-century Sea Captain’s house decorated for Christmas by local businesses. Shop for holiday gifts in the mobile museum store at the Fowler House entrance. Make your own Christmas ornament in Old Vestry.
Cipperly Good, Curator and Collections Manager of the Penobscot Marine Museum, presents “Maine in the China Trade.” This event is free and open to all. This presentation is hosted by the Belfast Free Library and offered as a free community event in in anticipation of the 32nd Annual Camden Conference –Is This China’s Century?, February 22-24, 2019. For more information, please visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.
January 21, 9am-4pm
Ages 5-10, $40/$30 for PMM members
What was life like for the children living in maritime communities in the late 1800s? During this camp, children will discover daily life long ago along Penobscot Bay and on board ships at sea through games, crafts, songs, and (fun) chores.
Registration deadline is January 11th.
Saturday, February 9th, 10am - 12pm
Children, under age 7 with adult helper, $8
Adults, $20
Sailor's Valentines are a form of sea shell art, popular in the 1800s, when sailors brought them home to their wives, girlfriends, mothers, or sisters. Most Sailor's Valentines were made in the West Indies, on the island of Barbados, between 1830 and 1880, but production continued into the early 20th century. In this workshop, you can make your own Sailors’ Valentine to take home. Children will build the Sailors’ Valentine with a plastic base while the adult workshop will have smaller shells, a wooden base, and tweezers to easily set small shells. All materials and tools provided.
Sat., March 16, 2019 at 1:00pm
Asa Gile Hall, 8 Old Kents Hill Rd., Readfield
Johnson’s program will include the story of “Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.” and a slideshow of historical views of Readfield and its neighboring towns of Winthrop, Wayne, Fayette, Mt. Vernon, Vienna, Belgrade and Manchester.
For more information Contact (207)377-2299 or readfieldhistorical@gmail.com.
Thursday, May 23, 6pm-8pm
$5 for members, $8 for non-members, free for teachers
What can you learn from a ship’s painting, a 19th-century logbook, or a souvenir from China? How can these objects be used to teach? In this interactive presentation, PMM staff will discuss the benefits of object-based learning. Guidelines will be provided for using Museum artifacts as primary sources in the classroom and as starting points for storytelling.
Friday, May 24, 5pm-7pm
FREE
Thursday, May 30, 6pm
$5 for members, $8 for non-members
Drugs, armed conflict, and free trade. Sound familiar? The First Opium War of the early 1840s, with British and Chinese fighting over the opium trade and Chinese sovereignty, opened up Chinese ports to the world. Maine's merchant mariners aboard Maine-built ships soon thereafter entered the Chinese import and export trade. The trade aboard Maine-built ships lasted into the turn of the 20th Century. In the meantime, Maine sea captains and their families brought back souvenirs, stories, and an economic understanding of China.
