BELFAST — Penobscot Marine Museum’s historic photography exhibits “Hancock County Through Eastern's Eye” and “The Atlantic Fisherman” will be at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center Fernald Gallery, Aug. 24 through Oct. 2. The exhibit is open to the public and is free of charge. The H. Alan and Sally Fernald Art Gallery is open Monday to Friday, 8 a.m.to 7 p.m.

Photographs in “Hancock County Through Eastern's Eye” feature places Maine people have loved. A century ago, the founder of Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company sent his crews with their box cameras into tiny towns, telling them to ask local citizens what they should photograph, including what was important to them about their town. This makes the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company photos aesthetically beautiful and historically important. 

The Eastern collection is the largest single photographic collection in Maine, consisting of nearly 50,000 images of Maine, the rest of New England and upstate New York. Most of the photos are on glass-plate negatives. The exhibit was partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and is part of four county exhibits the Penobscot Marine Museum will produce.

The second exhibit is from “The Atlantic Fisherman” collection. “The Atlantic Fisherman” was founded as a monthly in Boston in 1919 as “a paper for fishermen, producers and the men who actually fish for a living.” It was supported by advertising promoting everything that a fisherman needed from hip boots to the larger engines to power the new draggers that were starting to take over from sailing schooners in the Banks fisheries. Its masthead read “A farm journal for the Harvesters of the Sea.” It informed fishermen about new designs, gear and catches, and provided historical articles and profiles of prominent fishing captains.

For more information or to request a disability accommodation, contact Nancy Bergerson, 207-338-8049. Additional information about the Hutchinson Center is online hutchinsoncenter.umaine.edu.

 About the University of Maine: The University of Maine, founded in Orono in 1865, is the state’s premier public university. It is among the most comprehensive higher education institutions in the Northeast and attracts students from across the U.S. and more than 67 countries. It currently enrolls 10,900 total undergraduate and graduate students who can directly participate in groundbreaking research working with world-class scholars. The University of Maine offers doctoral degrees in 35 fields, representing the humanities, sciences, engineering, and education; master’s degrees in roughly 70 disciplines; 90 undergraduate majors and academic programs; and one of the oldest and most prestigious honors programs in the U.S. The university promotes environmental stewardship on its campus, with substantial efforts aimed at conserving energy, recycling and adhering to green building standards in new construction. For more information about UMaine, visit umaine.edu.