June 2010 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 7. PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM PRESERVING HISTORIC PHOTOS
A view of the sardine factory at Belfast.
Announces Campaign to Acquire 7,500 Rare Glass-Plate Negatives
If a picture is worth a 1000 words, what is 40,000 pictures worth?!?! That is the cur- rent number of glass plate and film negatives that make up the Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company collection which is owned by the Penobscot Marine Museum. Founded in Belfast, Maine, in 1909, the East- ern Illustrating & Publishing Co. published “real photo postcards” with images taken by its own photographers throughout New En- gland. The negatives, mostly on old-style glass plates, represent a fragile and irreplace- able record of the region’s physical and cul- tural history up to the early 1950s. The images are fascinating on many levels. They take their viewers back in time to when the roads were still dirt, horse drawn carriages outnum- bered cars, coastlines were still undeveloped and elms lined the streets.
Despite this huge number of negatives, the collection is not complete as thousands of the negatives “escaped” in the decades the collection sat in various storage facilities until it arrived at the museum in Searsport in 2007. The museum has been successfully able to acquire more than 5,000 of the missing negatives over the past three years and now is has just announced a campaign to acquire the mother load of 7,500 more that are now owned by a private collector! The acquisition will bring the museum a big step closer to completing its important collection of photo- graphs from the Eastern Illustrating & Pub- lishing Company. The museum is seeking donations from individuals and local busi- nesses to help it acquire the collection. “If we meet our goal, these remaining negatives will make the Eastern collection one of the largest and most significant coher- ent collections of historic photography from
this region and era,” said Kevin Johnson, the museum’s photography archivist. “It will be a valuable resource for educators, historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in New England history.” The museum, with help from several volunteers has been diligently scanning the negatives and entering them into a database and has plans to make the database and images available for viewing on its website later this year. Research cds by town or subject are available and beautiful fine art prints can be purchased which help fund this huge endeavor.
The museum has already received pledges for approximately half the funds needed to acquire the collection, which docu- ments more than 230 cities, towns and vil- lages in Maine, as well as towns in other northeast states. The museum has posted an index of the Maine towns and the number of negatives from each on its website at http://
www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org/pdf/ 2010/ Eastern_Illustrating_2010_Campaign.pdf . Individuals and businesses can “adopt” a town for a donation of $10 per negative. Donations can be made by contacting the museum at (207) 548-2529 or
www.PenobscotMarineMuseum.org Penobscot Marine Museum maintains
A very early view of Stonington.
nationally significant collections of marine art and artifacts, ship models, historic photo- graphs, and the largest display of historic small craft in Maine. Founded in 1936, it is Maine’s oldest maritime museum. Housed in 13 historic buildings including ship captains’
homes, an early town hall, and two boat houses, the campus represents a bustling coastal village during the Age of Sail. Activities and exhibits for children and a busy schedule of year-round programs make it a special place for family visits.
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Check out the boats that are available on our website
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The Ned Kyle
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