Painting with Light
Antonia Small, Skipper in Port Clyde, Maine, 2013, film negative, 21?4” x 21?4”
Elmer Montgomery, Dragger MARY ANNE Being Built at Wilbur Morse’s Boat Yard, Thomaston, Maine, 1938, film negative, 41?4” x 23?4”
Photographer unknown, Horse in Winter, c. 1885, film negative, 21?2” x 21?2”
Photographer unknown, Robert C. Putnam at Train Crossing, c. 1914, silver gelatin print, 23?4” x 33?4”
Photographer unknown, Chinese Steward of Captain C. F. Carver, c. 1860, ambrotype, 6” x 43?4”
Ruth Montgomery, Ralph Starrett on Yard of His Boat, c. 1900, glass plate negative, 4” x 5”
Everett “Red” Boutilier, Boat Builder Paul E. Luke in His Dining Room, 1983, film negative, 4” x 5”
Kosti Ruohomaa, Men Hauling Sardine Nets, Dix Island, Maine, 1951, film negative, 21?4” x 21?4”
Photographer unknown, Tramp Chair in Belfast, Maine, c.1920, glass plate negative, 7”x 5”
Everett “Red” Boutilier, LISA A. at the Carter Boat Yard, Waldoboro, Maine, 1975, film negative, 4” x 5”
F. W.Nichols, Joanna Colcord Cabinet Card, c. 1895, albumen print, 61?2” x 4”
Photographer unknown, Dog on Church Steps, c. 1885, film negative, 21?2” x 21?2”
Joanna Colcord, Fishing Fleet, Green Island, Hong Kong, c. 1895, glass plate negative, 4” x 5”
Showcase – July 2015
by Rebecca Falzano
An exhibition at the Penobscot Marine Museum showcases it’s extensive collection of historic photography, one of the largest in New England.
In February 2007 Maine Photographic Workshops photo archivist Kevin Johnson got a call that the Rockport building housing the Eastern Illustrating collection—approximately 35,000 plates—had suffered a pipe break. “I was told the collection was soaked and would probably be thrown out,” he says. Johnson had been working on the collection for nearly two years at that point and knew its historic value. Unable to bear the thought of it being tossed, Johnson recruited some friends that night to transfer the collection from Union Hall to the dining hall, the only heated building on campus. “Each time we picked up a box of the glass negatives, we had to wait for the water to drain out. It looked pretty grim,” he recalls. After making some calls to photo conservation experts at the Eastman House and Rochester Institute of Technology, Johnson learned that the negatives could get wet and not be ruined, as long as two conditions were met: the negatives couldn’t dry in the paper envelopes he had been putting them in, and they couldn’t touch each other while they dried or the emulsion from one would stick to the other. Johnson wrapped everything in plastic to keep it all wet and then came up with a method using wire bathroom racks to dry all 35,000 plates—a process that took weeks. During this time, the Workshops were sold and the collection was donated to the Penobscot Marine Museum, with the clause that Johnson be given a full-time position as photo archivist.
Since then, tens of thousands of negatives, prints, slides, postcards, and daguerreotypes of images taken around the world have poured in, making Penobscot Marine Museum’s historical photography collection one of the largest and most comprehensive in New England. The PMM has made it a priority to not only protect and store these artifacts but make them available to the public through exhibits, publications, prints, and, most important, providing access through an online database that currently features more than 60,000 photos, with more added each week.
Running through October, Exploring the Magic of Photography: Painting with Light is the PMM’s first major exhibition of this extensive photography collection. “We are taking a multifaceted approach in our campus-wide installation by exploring the origin and history of the medium, sharing our most iconic photos in one exhibit, and digging deeper into specific collections to discover what inspired the men and women behind the cameras,” says Johnson.
The exhibition includes a campus-wide installation of multiple interactive exhibits: a “selfie” wall on which visitors can post their “selfie” taken in the museum; a room-sized walk-in camera obscura in which visitors can experience firsthand how light traveling through a lens creates an image; a replica of an early twentieth-century darkroom complete with a glass-plate-negative enlarger; Through Her Lens: Women Photographers of Mid-Coast Maine, 1890–1920, an exhibit exploring the work of five women photographers; Twenty Best, the twenty most fascinating photographs in the collection, with an audio tour; Evolution of the Photographic Snapshot: 1888–2015, curated by retired photography professor Michael Simon; and The Carters and the Lukes—Selections from the “Red” Boutilier Collection, celebrating the uniquely Maine way of life and work of two of Maine’s boatbuilding families.
“If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, Penobscot Marine Museum is wealthy indeed, with approximately 140,000 historic images in our archive,” says Johnson. “But in the spirit of another well-known saying about trees in uninhabited forests, we believe our collection must become public for its real worth to be realized. We have a treasure to share. Our archive is a significant resource to scholars, students, authors, historians, scientists, filmmakers, and anyone interested in the history of our state.” Above MH+D presents a look at Exploring the Magic of Photography: Painting with Light.