Welcome to the H. Allen and Sally Fernald Art Gallery at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center. The exhibit, on display from January 10, 2023, through May 31, 2023, is free and open to the public from 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Monday–Friday.
Up River: The Captain Bill Abbott Collection
Captain Abbott was an avid collector of photographs; Penobscot Marine Museum’s new exhibit, Up River: Selections from the Captain Bill Abbott Collection picks out some highlights from this archive. When Captain Abbott passed away in 2014, he left Penobscot Marine Museum his treasured collection, where it is being digitized and preserved.
This exhibit was generously funded by lead donor Wayne Hamilton, as well as Mr. and Mrs. E. Vance Bunker, Captain Almer and Linda Dinsmore, Captain David Gelinas, Penobscot Bay & River Pilots Association, Penobscot Bay Tractor Tug Company, Captain Prentice Strong, and Captain Duke Tomlin.
Learn more at penobscotmarinemuseum.org/upriver2022.
20 Best
What distinguishes an image? Is it the drama of the moment, the artistic qualities of its composition, the expression on a face, the time in history it represents, or the way light played with the subject? Knowing the story behind an image can deepen one’s appreciation of it; even without the story, however, knowing how to look at a photograph can do the same. What relationship did a photographer create among shapes, textures, shadows, and light? What is the emotional impact of these relationships? Does the photographer’s choice of subjects suggest something more than their face value? A strong image is always marked by a combination of the photographer’s technical mastery and creative vision.
The Penobscot Marine Museum chose the “20 Best” photographs from their archive of more than 140,000 photographic images.
Learn more at penobscotmarinemuseum.org/magic-of-photography/twenty-best.
About the Penobscot Marine Museum
The Penobscot Marine Museum has one of the largest archives of historical photographs in Maine, with more than 140,000 negatives, prints, slides, postcards, and daguerreotypes available for research, reproduction, and licensing. Revealing many aspects of life from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the collections range from the vast archives of the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company and the works of individual professional photographers to intimate family albums. Each collection has a connection with the Penobscot Bay region, either through the photographer, the publisher, or the subject matter. Along with images of Searsport and elsewhere in Maine and New England are photographs of distant lands; boats, ships, and waterfronts; cities, towns, and countryside; fashion, furnishings, industry, architecture, and people.