2018 Exhibits Open Through October 21

In the coming year, we will be exploring the ports depicted in the backgrounds of our ship portraits. This month: Leghorn. Leghorn, you say? This is the Anglicized version of Livorno, Italy. Livorno, located on the western coast of Tuscany on the Mediterranean, served as a free port where trade goods were imported and exported until 1868. Its chief exports at the time were oil, wine, straw hats, marble, coral, candied fruit, hides, boracic acid, hemp, mercury, rags, soap, wax and eggs. Its chief imports at the time were iron, coal, coke, cotton, wool, wheat, coffee, hides, jute, mineral oil, sulphates of coppers and iron, tobacco, carbonate of soda, and cured fish. The Penobscot Bay ships pictured below were transshipping these trade goods.

In the paintings below, you will see the following landmarks: 

• The Outer Harbor Curvilinea Mole (breakwater) with a fortification and the yellow octagonal Diga Curvilinea North Head and South Head Lights
• The tall double cylinder Livorno High Light 
• The Outer Harbor Rettilinea Mole lighthouse
• The Livorno Mountains to the south and east
• The cathedral clock tower
• The dome of the Dominican Church
• The tower of Marzocco, an octagonal watchtower with a jutting gallery at the top
• The bustling port city linking Pisa and the rest of Tuscany to the world

Bark AUGUSTINE KOBBE, built in Searsport in 1866. Entering Leghorn, January 22, 1880. Painted by Luigi Renault.  Gift of the Estate of Dr. Georgia Ford.	Bark LUCY A. NICKELS of New York, built in Searsport in 1855, with J.B. Edwards commanding, off Leghorn in 1869. Painted by Luigi Renault.   Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Amos D. Carver.
Bark SUSAN A. BLAISDELL, built in Searsport in 1860, with Tho. Eaton commanding, entering Leghorn in 1862. Painted by Luigi Renault. Gift of the Estate of S. Blaisdell.	Bark ORCHILLA, built in Searsport in 1856, entering Leghorn in 1868. Gift of Frederick D. Foote

Our end of season sale has begun in the Museum Store! Markdowns include PMM apparel, books, map prints & much more! Don't forget Members get a 10% discount on all non-sale items all year round!

It's a pleasure to have this monthly opportunity for a shout-out to our terrific crew of volunteers. Taking a bow this month is Erin Tokarz, who became a powerful addition to our ranks less than a year ago. Her talents are perfectly suited to the wheelhouse of PMM's Photo Archives-she's an artist with technical aptitude.

She's led an unusual life to boot. She's been a photographer since she was old enough to vote, and went to art school to focus on fine art photography for a while as her younger self before meeting her future husband Aaron and beginning a series of geographical adventures. They lived on his boat for eight months, then rambled through Mexico and Guatemala together for a time.

The pair returned to the states only when Erin was ready to give birth to their first child; they made their way to Arkansas, where Aaron's mother lived (she was a midwife). Aaron is a boat builder, and has long preferred to be an itinerant one, so the young, slowly growing family moved around a lot. Erin spent much of this time homeschooling their children, who have all turned out to be pretty successful people. Eventually, they established a fixed point on the map when they built a house on some land gifted to them by friends in Ohio. While they still maintain the Ohio residence as a base of sorts, they have continued to change addresses as Aaron finds interesting projects to align himself with in different places.

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

$5 registration fee

PMM Crescent

The model boats in Penobscot Marine Museum's temporary exhibit, "Sailing Small: Small Boats, Big Ideas" are made of many different materials from paper to plastic. As part of Searsport's Fling into fall, we challenge you to make a model boat out of a Pumpkin! Bring your model pumpkin boat to the Penobscot Marine Museum on Saturday October 6th to compete. PMM staff will judge entries using a point system based on size, composition, creative use of pumpkin, overall look, ability to float, and speed. The winner will receive 50% of the proceeds and the other 50% will go to the Penobscot Marine Museum to help support programming like this!

Rules & Regulations

• A member of the gourd family (pumpkin, squash, cucumber, zucchini, melon, etc.) must be a key component of the model boat
• Must float
• Must be able to move from A to B without human contact (all boats will be timed to travel across our small pool)
• Must be under 12" tall by 12" wide by 12" deep
• Must pre-register by October 3rd
• All boats must arrive before 1pm on Saturday, October 6th. Judging begins at 1pm.

To register, call 207-548-2529 or email [email protected].

Boat Building In Lubec

Blue Hill Bay Lighthouse

Thursday, October 18