Preserving Our Past
(POP) StudiesContinuing Education from PMM
Take part in the Penobscot Marine Museum’s engaging, timely and valuable programs for people interested in learning historical preservation and collections care skills for use in their personal lives and professional pursuits.
Geared to the adult learner, these Continuing Education classes will give you opportunities to:
- Practice hands on care for artifacts and historical documents
- Engage in discussions with fellow professionals and history caretakers
- Build community through shared experiences and educational channels provided by professional PMM staff and museum network connections.
POP Studies Programs for Fall 2025 – Summer 2026
- Organizing Your Photo Collections with Kevin Johnson
- Safely Handling Antique Objects with Cipperly Good
- Intro to Digitizing Photos for Cultural Heritage with Matt Wheeler
- Storage of Items in a Historic House with Cipperly Good
- How to Preserve Family Letters, Antiques & Heirlooms with Cipperly Good
Convenience: Each program is offered several times during the year. Choose to join us on campus, remote via Zoom or at the Belfast Free Library.
Outcome: Participants will become stewards of history for future generations by learning important skills and preserving our past. A Certificate of Completion for the two-hour program will be provided.
Contact: For more information, please contact Shelly Patten, Office Manager at 207-548-2529 or spatten@pmm-maine.org.
Price: $60 with discounts offered to PMM Members, MAM Members and residents of Searsport and Stockton Springs.
Upcoming Classes
Organizing Your Photo Collections (A1)
Managing a mass of images can be a daunting task. This course will offer tips and suggestions on how to organize your archive, find what you are looking for in it, and be prepared to pass it on to the next generation.
Safely Handling Antique Objects (A2)
Whether you’re caring for your family’s heirlooms, managing a museum collection or volunteering at your local historical society, this class will teach you how to handle delicate objects. You will learn tips for packing them up and safely moving them to their new home.
Storage of Items in a Historic House (A3)
This class helps you develop a plan to preserve your antiques, based on object type, by maximizing the environmental conditions of your home or historic building. The Museum’s historic houses are our living laboratory. We will visit one to illustrate these concepts.
How to Preserve Family Letters, Antiques & Heirlooms (A4)
Whether you’re preserving your own family history or that of your community, how do you make sure you save it for the next generation? This class will briefly recap how to handle those heirlooms and where to display them in your house or historic building, as discussed in classes A2 and A3 of this series (not a prerequisite).
Intro to Digitizing Photos for Cultural Heritage (A5)
Digitizing cultural heritage photographs creates exciting opportunities for accessing and sharing collections. It may also be a smart preservation strategy for materials at risk from age and deterioration. However, it entails unique challenges, dovetails with other considerations, costs money, and may seem daunting to the novice.