AUBURN Androscoggin Historical Society promotes the discovery, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge about the history of Androscoggin County and the State of Maine. County Building, 2 Turner Street, 784-0586.
AUGUSTA Old Fort Western, America’s oldest surviving wooden fort and a National Historic Landmark. Visit 16 Cony Street, 626-2385.
AUGUSTA Maine State Museum at the State Capitol Complex, 287-2301. Open year round.
BETHEL Bethel Historical Society operates from the 1821 O’Neil Robinson House and the 1813 Dr. Moses Mason House. Collections include materials documenting the history of northern New England, with major concentration on western Maine and the White Mountains. The Center offers more than a dozen period rooms and exhibition galleries and areas for craft demonstrations, research library operations, and Museum Shop sales. Also lectures, conferences, special events, educational activities and publications. Open year round. 10-14 Broad Street. 824-2908.
BOOTHBAY HARBOR Boothbay Railway Village Train rides daily, special events include auctions, antique autos and engines displays, firefighters’ day, children’s day, foliage festival, and ghost train rides in a turn of the century village consisting of more than 24 buildings. Also, historical exhibits of the Thorndike and Freeport railroad stations, Boothbay Town Hall, general store, blacksmith shop, schoolhouse, toy shop, fire house, barber shop, post office, barrel shop, filling station. Ride on a coal-fired, narrow gauge steam train to an exceptional antique vehicle display housing more than 50 vehicles from 1907-1949. 633-4727.
BRIDGTON Bridgton Historical Society is developing Narramissic as an historic house museum, operating farm with functional blacksmith shop. Museum and archives for research, collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of Bridgton and surrounding areas. The Museum is open all year. Ingalls Rd. off Rt 107, 647-3699.
BRUNSWICK Joshua Chamberlain Museum historical society for Brunswick, Topsham, Harpswell. Our three museums cover local history, seafaring/medical history, and the story of Maine’s Civil War hero, Joshua Chamberlain. Open seasonally June-October. 729-6606.
BRUNSWICK Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum Exhibits of artifacts and equipment from the polar explorations of Robert E. Peary and Donald B. Macmillan. Displays of arctic animals, Inuit art and artifacts. Open all year. Hubbard Hall, Bowdoin College. 725-3289.
CANTON Canton Historical Society is a local historical society. 409 Canton Point Road. 597-2005.
CARRABASSETT VALLEY Western Maine Children’s Museum provides hands-on exhibits and activities for child/adult interaction. Learning and fun go hand-in-hand for preschoolers and school age children. Infant/toddler playspace provides developmentally appropriate activities and climbing area. Workshops and programs offered. Open all year 1-5 p.m. 235-2211.
DIXFIELD Dixfield Historical Society with an 1899 Victorian Home, John L. Towle Antique Tool Museum. Hours by appointment, 63 Main Street, 562-7595.
DIXFIELD Mainely Critters Museum is a wildlife museum. Open all year daily. 562-8231.
FARMINGTON Farmington Historical Society’s Titcomb House houses memorabilia, doll collection, and genealogy library. Hours vary. Academy St., 778-0296.
FREEPORT Harrington House, 45 Main Street, 865-3170.
HARRISON Harrison Historical Society Public welcome. Museum has artifacts, cemetery records, town histories and newsclipping scrapbooks. Open seasonally. 121 Haskell Hill Road, 583-6225.
KINGFIELD The Stanley Museum, 40 School Street, houses steam cars, violins, paintings, family archives. 265-2729.
LEWISTON Bates College Museum of Art specializes in 19th and 20th century prints and drawings, and exhibitions which rotate 4-5 times per year. 75 Russell Ave, 786-6158.
LEWISTON Bates College Special Collections of rare books and manuscripts with strengths in religion and natural history. Freewill Baptist Collection includes The Morning Star. Other materials include Freewill Baptist manuscripts, archival materials relating to Bates College such as personal papers, oral histories, and photographs. Ladd Library, 48 Campus Avenue, 786-6272.
LEWISTON Edmund S Muskie Archives holds the personal papers and office files of Edmund S. Muskie and related collections of papers of former Maine Gov. James B. Longley. 70 Campus Avenue, 786-6354.
LIVERMORE Norlands Living History Center offers hands-on living history experiences in 19th century rural life for all ages. Open all year. 290 Norlands Rd., 897-4366.
NEW GLOUCESTER United Society Of Shakers The Shaker Museum offers tours, exhibits, craft programs and demonstrations about the Shaker way of life from the 1700’s to present day community ways. Archives and library. See story on Shakers.
NORWAY Western Maine Art Group provides the community an opportunity to view fine art and for its members a space to exhibit their works. An 1850’s schoolhouse has been transformed to an art gallery. 480 Main Street, 773-5411.
PORTLAND Maine Historical Society, Library contains the largest collection of historical maps, books, and manuscripts concerning Maine’s past, even to prehistoric time, Center for Maine History is a gallery of artifacts from Maine’s past, including some of Americas greatest treasures, Museum shop on the Congress street level. The Historic Wadsworth-Longfellow House, the birthplace of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the center of Portland’s social, intellectual, and political life of the Nineteenth Century. 489 Congress St., Portland. 774-1822.
PORTLAND Portland Museum of Art is Maine’s oldest arts institution and contains extensive art works by major American artists of the 18th-20th Centuries, 7 Congress Square, 775-6148.
PORTLAND Victoria Mansion is a fine example of Italian villa style architecture. Educational programming, special events and annual holiday celebrations. Guided Tours. 109 Danforth Street, 772-4841.
RANGELEY Wilhelm Reich Museum is a historical site and nature preserve in the Rangeley region. 175 acres of fields and woodland with a system of trails and two major buildings, the science museum represents and interprets the life and work of physician scientist Wilhelm and the environment in which he investigated the energy function that governs all living things. Dodge Pond Road, 864-3443.
RUMFORD Acadian Heritage Society focuses on the Acadian population origins of the Rumford-Mexico area. One or two organizational meetings a year to discuss genealogy, food culture and things of historical importance to the Acadians. 159 E Andover Rd.
SOUTH HARPSWELL Eagle Island State Historic Site was the summer home of North Pole explorer Admiral Robert E. Peary and is equipped with a pier. The Peary family home is open for touring. 624-6080.
STRATTON Dead River Area Historical Society is located at the junction of Route 16 and 27. It exhibits collections from 1850 up, including a collection of old carpentry and logging tools, china, glass, a church organ, furniture from native families, a complete schoolroom, a memorial room to the lost towns of Flagstaff and Dead River, the lineage of several native families, and a host of memorabilia from native homesteads. Main Street, 246-2271.
WATERVILLE Colby College Museum Of Art has outstanding 18th, 19th and 20th century works and an active temporary exhibition program, gallery talks, lectures, and receptions open to the public, free of charge. Mayflower Hill Drive, 872-3228.
WEST PARIS Finnish-American Heritage Society of Maine Maple St., 674-3094.