Collections Forward: Telling Stories in 3D

The Museum tells stories in three dimensions through artifacts relating to the local community. Sometimes, in order to properly tell these stories, we ask for support to improve the collections for the public to enjoy and access.

We need your help to accomplish three major goals for the Museum's collection this year:

1) Custom, Transforming Exhibition Case

Sometimes, artifacts are simply too delicate, too large, or too difficult to put on display, and that means the public rarely has the opportunity to view them. We are building a custom, transforming case that can move from laying flat to 30 degrees; from 4-feet to 8-feet in a matter of moments. This special case can hold delicate costumes, special artwork, and giant maps that ordinarily cannot be displayed. It's a "Museum Transformer"!

A wonderful Museum Volunteer and Trustee, Bruce Jackson, is volunteering his fine carpentry skills to create this staff-created design. The first use of this case will be to exhibit a giant navigational chart for our summer exhibition, which measures 8-feet by 4-feet! You'll soon be able to see the Transforming Case in action!

Total cost for transforming case (wood, paint, hardware, custom plexiglass - all locally sourced): $1,500

2) Preservation & Framing

A second navigation chart used by a Kennebunk ship captain in the mid 19th-century is in danger of deteriorating because of the amount of use it received in its time as a nautical map (people continuously rolled and unrolled these massive maps). In order to stabilize its condition and preserve the information found on this map (which includes old place names, water marks, shipping routes, etc.) while also remaining accessible to visitors and researchers, we have the help of Lower Village's Morph Gallery to properly mat the map on acid-free backing and frame the map so it can be viewed and preserved for future generations.

Total cost for preservation and framing: $500

3) A Rare Edith Barry Painting Purchase

Edith Barry, founder of the Museum, was a well-known painter in New York City in the mid-20th century. After her death, the paintings in her possession came to the Museum's collections; the Museum now owns the largest collection of Edith Barry artwork in the world. However, since her death in 1969, there have been no new acquisitions of Barry artwork. We know of many pieces she painted that were sold or given to private owners (thanks to a list written by Barry herself), but none have ever resurfaced at auctions or via donation. Until now!

"The String Quartet," painted in the 1930s by Edith Barry in New York City, has come up for sale from a private owner in Denver, Colorado. This is the only opportunity the Museum has ever had to purchase back one of Edith's pieces and hold it for the public to enjoy. This piece is particularly rare, too, since it is one of the only examples of Edith's work in the mid-30s, during a time in which she focused on a more modern style versus her prior and later work in Impressionism and Realism.

Help us return her artwork to Edith's own collection here at the Museum!

Total cost to purchase the Edith Barry work: $2,000