40 E Main Street | P.O. Box 498
Searsport, ME 04974
Phone: 207-548-2529
Lectures, Workshops, Events
For more information, contact Jeana Ganskop, Education Director, at 207-548-2529 or [email protected].
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.
Book Talk and Signing
Thursday, July 27
7pm
Visitors Center, 2 Church St.
Free
PMM Director Emeritus Renny Stackpole returns to Penobscot Marine Museum to share his latest research, which he has just published in the book "The Gillchrest Papers". Tucked away in his attic was the source of his research, the family letters and business papers of the Gillchrests, a Thomaston, Maine seafaring family who built, managed, and sailed ships to distant ports around the world from 1830-1870. Renny will be signing books after his talk.
Cipperly Good, “Maine in the Coolie Trade”
Thursday, August 3, 7 pm
Visitors Center, 2 Church St.
Cost: $8, $5 Members
Maine merchant mariners in the 1850s and 1860s began carrying a new cargo on their China Trade Route: Chinese indentured servants bound for the sugar plantations of Cuba. Come see logbooks and shipping papers that shed light on the voyage to a new plantation economy.
Netmaking with Mike Dassatt
Saturday, August 5, 1 pm to 4 pm
Free with admission
Belfast lobsterman Mike Dassatt still makes his own net heads for his lobster traps. Join him to learn about net head making and the net head’s function in a lobster trap.
Jeff Dworsky, “A Way of Life: Fishing Families of Stonington”
Thursday, August 10, 7 pm
PMM's Merithew House, 6 Church Street
Cost: $8, $5 Members
Join us for a conversation with photographer Jeff Dworsky as he talks about the changing way of life in Stonington Maine and what inspired him to document it.
CANCELLED
Thursday, August 24, 7 pm
PMM’s Visitors Center, 2 Church St.
Cost: $8, $5 Members
The culminating event of the Waldo County Reads program, join a panel of fisheries scientists, journalists and policymakers to discuss the slate of fisheries non-fiction books. Bring questions and observations about how the books address today’s current issues in the fishing industry. For a complete list of books, please visit our website.
Visitors Center, 2 Church St.
Cost: $8, $5 Members
Ralph Stanley, historian and boatbuilder, will present a talk on the mackerel schooner AUGUSTA E. HERRICK. The Swans Island schooner "had the distinction of being the only centerboard schooner ever to be employed in the North American fisheries" according to historian Howard Chappelle. The Swans Island fishermen, like owner William P. Herrick, led the Atlantic coast mackerel fisheries in catch rates. Come learn more about the vigorous and hardy men and schooners of Swan's Island.
