Down (East) on Their Luck

As my faithful readers know, I do try to highlight archival content in my posts. I was reading Down East magazine recently (I love the state of Maine, having summered there every year growing up) and I came across the following article about the Maine State Museum.

The article starts off rather ominously, "The Maine State Museum has problems. A lot of problems." The problems are those that affect a great number of archives around the country, "it lacks attendance, money, staff, storage, and parking." Maine will celebrate its bicentennial in 2020. They need some help. Now, you may say that 13 years is a long way off, but those of us who work in government know that the wheels move slowly. The building that currently houses the Museum (and the state archives) is in need of renovation. The possibility of a relocation is also being debated in Maine.

The current director of the Maine State Museum arrived in 1992, just in time for Maine to be struck with a financial crisis. Layoffs ensued and the museum was forced to charge admission. Attendance dropped and continued to decline until the admission fee was revoked in 1996. Admission fees ($2/adults, $1/children) came back in 2003 and are still charged today. In 2006, attendance at the museum hovered at about 58,000 people. The museum's largest visitor bloc is (as might be expected) elementary school children. About half of the attendance figure are school groups.

The museum has a budget of about $1.7 million, which Director Phillips reports, "keeps the doors open" and supports its staff of about 20. Phillips has been successful at fund raising, bringing in about $3.5 million from private donors. State money is not available for exhibits, so the exhibits are installed and stay for many years.

The chair of the Maine State Museum Commission sums up the sorry state when she says, "Isn't it too bad that cultural areas seem to be the most superfluous government agencies."

When the current building opened in 1971, it allowed the memorabilia of Maine to come together under one roof. The building housed the museum, the library, and the archives. Prior to this, artifacts were scattered about the state. The ORIGINAL Maine State Constitution was stored in an abandoned elevator shaft. The handwritten reports by Joshua Chamberlain from the Civil War were in cardboard boxes in a DAMP POWDER MAGAZINE!

So, new building, everything better, right? Wrong. The new building was immediately obsolete. With the energy crisis of the 1970s, the concrete building had little insulation, nor was their adequate barriers to protect the state's treasures. The discussion of a new building (rather than renovating the existing one) carries a price tag of nearly $200 million. Maine recently built a new bridge over the Penobscot River for $85 million. The renovation plans would run about $58 million. While a new building would be nice, it's probably not going to happen, a fact that Phillips and his staff are fine with. They don't want to move.

So, my friends, go visit your local archives, libraries, and museums. Give 'til it hurts. We have the history and you'll be sorry when it's gone.