The sardine carrier LILLIAN in the 1930s
SEARSPORT – One of the biggest marine businesses on the coast of Maine was the sardine industry, which spanned about 135 years. The first plants were located in Washington County in the mid-1870s and spread as far south as South Portland. There were good years, some very good years and some really bad years. Slowly the supply of fish dwindled and the last plant, Stinsons in Prospect Harbor, closed their doors in 2010. The Penobscot Marine Museum (PMM) in Searsport has a huge collection, both written and photographs, covering the sardine history and they have just opened an exhibit titled ‘Sardineland,’ which will run for the next two years.
When asked how the Sardineland exhibit came about, Cipperly Good, PMM’s curator, said, “We did it by committee. We knew that we had this great Maine Sardine Council collection, and we had just gotten the R. J. Peacock collection. This created a critical mass of sardine cannery material. We also knew that the last cannery closed in 2010 and if we wanted to talk to the people who had worked in these canneries, we better do it quick because the people working there were probably in their 50s and 60s when it closed and they were not getting any younger. I don’t know if Kevin [Johnson, head of Photo Archives] had made the connection with Rita Willey quite yet, but she was the five-time sardine packing champion. We just had to hit while the iron was hot, and it was such an important industry. We had not given it its due diligence even though we had done a little mini exhibit in 2010-2011 when the Prospect Harbor cannery had closed. It was time to do something comprehensive.”
How does an exhibit like this get created? “The great thing is that we had such a rich collection,” continued Cipperly. “We had to pare down what we wanted to do. So, it was great just pouring through the archival collections and through our object collections. Once we put the word out that we were looking for things, people showed up. They showed up with more sardine cans. I had this vision of a wall of sardine cans from every cannery from South Portland to Robbinston. That of itself would just be a visual spectacle just to show the importance of the sardine canneries in Maine. We knew we wanted to tell stories and so that brought in the element of interviewing people who had worked in the canneries. We knew there were plenty of oral histories of people who had worked in them, but what has happened in that 15 years since these canneries have closed? It was a lot of fun saying okay this is the story and how can we support that story with objects and photos in archives.”
They put the word out that they were going to have two gatherings, one in Lubec last November and the other in Belfast in January. About 15 to 20 people showed up at each gathering. “We had a series of questions sort of a guiding framework, and the stories just rolled out and it was great. Some great quotes,” added Cipperly.
The interviews were recorded and those have been transcribed. Cipperly then went through them pulling out the more interesting stories. She then said, “In 2010 we had someone who went and filmed the last day at the Prospect Harbor cannery. So, we got that footage and I think the hope was in 2010 that a documentary would be made, but it never happened. We are hoping in a year or two we will get that documentary made. We want to go back to Lubec and Belfast to the people we have identified and get them on film in a more formal setting and add them to the documentary. We also have met people along the way. We went to the Fishermen’s Forum and got some good leads with herring fishermen.”
A few of the more noted interviews was with herring fisherman Bobby Warren of Vinalhaven; Rita Willey, the five-time champion; and Jeanne Peacock. Jeanne is married to Bob Peacock, and she gave the perspective from the owner’s point of view, but she also worked in the canneries on the lines. Ann Shore of Belfast worked summers at the cannery and her perspective of what it is like to show up as a green horn and be put on the line. She said the work was hard, you could not be afraid of getting dirty, and you had to prove your worth.
Come to the Museum and see firsthand some of the highlights of the collection. Cipperly said, “On the object side so you going to get the wall of sardine can tops, which shows the map of Maine from South Portland to Robbinston, and you can see just how dominant Washington County was in the canneries. There is a little mock-up of the conveyor line with the cutting table. There are also a lot of great photographs of the cannery workers through time, and some select quotes that I pulled out. The Maine Sardine Council was a marketing arm of the industry as well as serviced quality control. You will see the great ads and the marketing of sardines, like ‘eat sardines, it will make you strong.’ We have a secondary exhibit which is focused on the herring fisheries. How do you catch a herring? There are different ways, the weirs, stop seines and purse seines. What were some models of the boats that went out as sardine carriers? Then we tie into the lobster fishery because herring is a great bait fish, one of the best they say. You will see a lot of great models and tools used both in the canneries and out fishing. We have built a wheelhouse like the one on JACOB PIKE so you can pretend you are steering the PIKE and using the navigation tools. We have some vacuum hose, which is amazing. When the sardine carriers would pull up to the weir or to the purse seine net, rather than using dip nets you had this huge vacuum hose that would just suck them into the boat. I have gotten some great comment cards from kids, and I think that is their favorite part. We do show scaling. We have got a jar of pearl essence. Fish scales are luminescent or shimmer and so they would take the scales off of the herring and turn them into fake pearls, use it in makeup and buttons.”
This exhibit will be up for two years. It will be hard to follow this one up as it is a really excellent exhibit. Cipperly figured, “We have this fisheries exhibit ‘Gone Fishing,’ which is about Maine’s fisheries. A portion of this exhibit will stay on display and be integrated into that larger story. Hopefully, people will keep giving us their stories and we will keep compiling them into our archives. I think this wouldn’t be hard to turn into a traveling exhibit on a smaller scale. Of course, the communities from Robbinston to South Portland, this was their economic driver so I can totally see a core part of the exhibit traveling and they can add their town’s story to it.”
So, what is next, they are already thinking about that. “The Museum’s been around since 1936,” said Cipperly. “And some of our ‘permanent exhibits’ need a refresh. I’d like to refresh the canoe barn, and we need a refresh on the merchant marine story here in Maine. The merchant marine exhibit is going to need major fundraising because that is a huge story. We have a whole historic house where that exhibit lives now so we can do it well, but it is going to take time, maybe three years. There are amazing stories. We just had an archivist go through our manuscripts, logbooks and diaries and there is a whole story of Maine ships during the Civil War being ordered to stop by the Confederate raiders in the far reaches of the globe. We would be able to pull some of those key stories from the logbooks and then add objects from our collection and really make that story come alive. That would be fun to do.”
Also, you can go on the Museum’s YouTube channel and view some talks given about the sardine industry. There was a talk about some of the sardine carriers, one on the photographs in the Museum’s collection and Cipperly has one on the quotes taken from the gatherings in Lubec and Belfast.
If you have an interest in the sardine industry do not miss this exhibit, it will be well worth your time!
