Penobscot Marine Museum Awarded $56,333 Grant

Penobscot Marine Museum Awarded $56,333 Grant by Institute of Museum and Library Services

Searsport, Maine, November 5, 2014 – Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine has been awarded a $56,333 grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support the preservation and digitization of their National FishermanCollection of 25,000 photographs.  Penobscot Marine Museum is one of three institutions in Maine receiving funds from the IMLS Museums for America program in 2014.  The National Fisherman Collection was donated to Penobscot Marine Museum by Diversified Communications of Portland, Maine in 2012 and provides unequalled documentation of American commercial fishing from the 1920s into the 1990s.   National Fisherman magazine is the U.S. commercial fishing industry’s publication of record, making this the largest collection of twentieth century photographs in the field.  When completed, this National Fisherman preservation project will provide the only publically available online record of the history of modern fisheries.  

“This collection documents the depletion of marine resources and the technological changes our nation’s commercial fishery underwent after World War II,” said Liz Lodge, Executive Director of Penobscot Marine Museum, “and it provides a wealth of information to a large international audience of academic, governmental, and cultural content users.”  Many of the 25,000 images in the collection include captions, annotations, photographers’ credits, and references to magazine articles, making it both a visual and written documentation of the American fishing industry.  The museum will use the grant funds to catalog, archivally house, digitize, and provide public visual access to the collection on their website.   The IMLS grant provides partial funding for this National Fisherman project. 

“Our grants are highly competitive.  The Institute of Museum and Library Services enlists hundreds of library and museum professionals throughout the United States to review grant applications and make recommendations on projects most worthy of funding,” said IMLS Director Susan H. Hildreth. “Receiving a grant from IMLS is significant achievement, and we congratulate Penobscot Marine Museum for being among the 2014 IMLS museum grantees.”  IMLS museum grants support a wide variety of projects that create learning experiences, strengthen communities, care for collections and provide broad public access.  A complete list of museum recipients is available on the IMLS website at www.imls.gov/2014MuseumList. For information about IMLS museum grant programs, see: www.imls.gov/applicants/available_grants.aspx.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and35,000 museums. Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Our grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About Penobscot Marine Museum

Penobscot Marine Museum preserves the maritime culture of Penobscot Bay and beyond.  The museum recreates an historic seacoast village in Searsport, Maine, and includes changing exhibits, a ship captain's house, marine paintings, traditional small water craft, a fisheries exhibit, an heirloom vegetable garden, one of the largest collections of historic photography in New England, and a maritime history research library.  Eight of its twelve exhibit buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.  The museum is open seven days a week, Memorial Day weekend through the third weekend in October.  For more information go to www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org or call 207-548-2529.

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