Looking back into the future Abbe Museum prepares for move after comprehensive new exhibit

In a historic trail-side cottage near Sieur de Monts Spring, the Abbe Museum proudly displays centuries-old American Indian artifacts next to modern talismans such as music CDs and strawberry-shaped baskets dyed a shocking pink to appeal to tourists.

“We intentionally mixed 2,000-year-old stone tools with objects made just a few years ago, to express the continuity,” said curator Rebecca Cole-Will. “Even though people are making these wild and crazy things, the traditional knowledge and the traditional materials really are a connection to that long history,” she said.

An exhibition called “First Land, First People,” which was also on display last summer, was created by Cole-Will and exhibits designer Betts Swanton to show native people’s connection to the landscape over time.

Inspiration for the exhibit struck when Mainers celebrated the new millennium by greeting the dawn atop Cadillac Mountain and in eastern Washington County, Cole-Will said.

For 10,000 years, the Wabanaki people felt that first light dawning, as they visited Maine’s coastal lands each summer for a season of fishing, gathering, basket making and social gatherings.

All of Maine’s Wabinaki tribes – Micmac, Maliseet, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy – are represented in “First Light, First People.”

The tools and crafts that defined their daily lives as they carved out seasonal homes along Maine’s seashore, rivers and mountains, tell the continuing story of Wabinaki communities.

Artifacts in the exhibit range from 9,000-year-old stone tools excavated from nearby sites, to birch containers and beaded purses made for trade with rusticators during the Victorian era, to intricate versions of traditional baskets sold in local art galleries today.

“We get people in here all the time asking, ‘Are there still Indians in Maine?'” Cole-Will said. “With this exhibit, we want to show that Maine’s Indians are not just something from the past – the Native community is alive and well today. They’re basket makers, but they’re also lawyers and politicians and teachers – what makes Native people special is their connection to the land and that heritage.”

And with this exhibit, the Abbe Museum is celebrating a long heritage of its own.

A cozy stone pagoda flanked by evergreens and ferns, the Abbe at Sieur de Monts Spring has been welcoming as many as 20,000 visitors each summer for decades, but “First Light, First People” will likely be the final special exhibit for the 73-year-old museum.

Once the Abbe opens its 17,000-square-foot, year-round downtown facility in September, the Sieur de Monts Spring location will become a “museum of a museum,” as Swanton said.

Its original display cases, dioramas and Renaissance revival architecture will be preserved and used to display many of the stone-age artifacts that were among founder Dr. Robert Abbe’s original collection. More sensitive items, such as baskets and birch bark pieces, will be moved downtown, where they can be stored in a climate-controlled facility.

The original Abbe, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be restored to its 1920s appearance. And Abbe’s original goal, creating a peaceful spot for meditation within Acadia, will be resurrected.

“Could you imagine if we were to bring in computer kiosks?” Cole-Will said. “That just doesn’t fit the intent of this museum – it’s sort of a quiet place for contemplation.”

Museum hours will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through May, June and October. During July and August, the museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children 6-15. Admission is free for children under 6, Abbe Museum members and Native Americans. For more information, contact the Abbe at 288-3519.