About
The Penobscot Marine Museum, situated in downtown Maine, boasts the largest collection of mariner art and artifacts in the state. Spread over multiple historic buildings, visitors can view dozens of small craft vessels and souvenirs collected by Maine sea captains. The museum features a diverse range of exhibits including folk art, evocative photography collections, nautical paintings and examples of small boats with varied designs and purposes. Additionally, there are fun activities for children to enjoy.
Reviews
The Penobscot Marine Museum offers a diverse and engaging experience for visitors. Guests rave about the knowledgeable and personable guides, particularly highlighting Faith Campbell's exceptional tour. The museum features real historic buildings from Searsport, showcasing old boats, paintings, scrimshaw, models, and even a church with a 1,000+ pipe organ still in use. Visitors appreciate the interactive programs for children, informative staff members across various exhibits, unique collections like nautical paintings and small boats of different designs. Despite some minor issues like separate family tours or occasional building closures due to staffing problems, guests find the museum to be an educational gem worth exploring.
Review score
4.3
out of 5
Review score
4.5
out of 5
Wonderful
75 reviews
From Tripadvisor5 stars
82
4 stars
32
3 stars
11
2 stars
2
1 star
7
Wow! This was an exceptional experience and so much more than we anticipated. Our guide. Faith Campbell, made this a highlight of our trip. Faith listened to our questioned and was able to gain our perspective of interest in the history. She had the ability to focus on our interest within the framework of the museum and keep us engaged the whole time. She was able to also recommend two other museums of interest that were also exceptional. Faith was likely the best museum guide I have ever encountered and the museum is a treasure.
Really enjoyed our visit mostly because the buildings are real & relate to people who lived in Searsport, lots of old smaller boats, paintings, scrimshaw, models. You could spend days reading & enjoying the exhibits & the church building is so beautiful with a 1,000+ pipe organ still used for Sunday services. They could use some hefty donations to spruce things up & finish projects. Very pleased with our visit
A real hidden gem of the Maine coast! In depth marine history of the bay as well as excellent and engaging docents. Various sea Captain's homes, a terrific info talk on rigging and furling of sails - hands on, and a children's exploratory room. No long lines.
Had a wonderful tour with Faith! Giving 3 stars for her wonderful work otherwise it would be just 1. We booked a family tour with our family group of 7 adults, 3 children ages 6, 5, 3 and 2 babies ages 9mo and 10mo. They requested we be split because we were more than 10 people (and being all related doesn't count either). It really made no sense especially since they said this was a tour geared for children and we only had 3 of them so it wasn't like we were loaded with kids or a rowdy group. The interactive program was great yes but to be clear infants count in that family tour number. And splitting the family dynamics was hard especially since there needed to be a kid in each group leaving one kid to be solo and who likes to be left out???We split ourselves up and never was there a space issue or anything so it was beyond puzzling. I was in Faith's group and she did a fabulous job engaging the two kids in our group and was very informative and spent the whole hour talking and doing the scavenger hunt.Then the second group with 3 adults and the 6 year old and one baby had Janet and sat in a room that had mosquitoes in it for a long time (so bring bug spray otherwise you will get bites like my kid) and then she said go explore the buildings on your own.So it was super frustrating that one of our tours was wonderful and one was mediocre. I would of paid for each family dynamic if need be but why did we have to be separate. If looking for a family activity to be together with then pick something else.
Cool collection of historic buildings that you tour on your own. Some have guides that can give you some interesting information. You are mostly outdoors, so don't go on a rainy day. Worth a visit.
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