Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce

Penobscot Marine Museum has the feel of a 19^th Maine village. One of our 19^th century sea captain’s houses is beautifully furnished with Victorian antiques and fascinating porcelain and paintings from Japan and China. Another ship captain’s house displays our extensive collection of 19th century marine paintings, scrimshaw, ship models, and China Trade objects.

We have three 19^th century barns displaying over fifty classic small water craft including lobster boats, peapods, dories, cedar and canvas, and birch bark canoes, and racing sloops. Another historic building is devoted to Maine’s fisheries and lobstering.

Two centers are filled with hands-on activities for kids: our Old Vestry is a marine science lab with fish to “catch” and measure, and recreated inside the Peapod is a 19^th century store with clothes to try on and produce to “buy”.

The Stephen Phillips Memorial Library is a research center. With tens of thousands of original documents including ship’s logs, it provides public access to books, manuscripts, photographs, nautical charts, maps, and boat plans. In addition to our strong collections in maritime history, with an emphasis on mid-coast Maine, we also have important collections in Maine history and genealogy.

We have one of the largest archives of historic photographs in Maine, with more than 100,000 negatives, prints, slides, postcards and daguerreotypes revealing many fascinating aspects of life from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century.

Penobscot Marine Museum is by the ocean in beautiful 19^th century village of Searsport, Maine. Searsport had over five hundred ship captains and built hundreds of sailing ships. The Museum was founded in 1936 to preserve this maritime heritage. Penobscot Marine Museum puts education and commu