PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Historical Society has a new exhibit highlighting musicians who left their mark on the music and performance map. It's called "Music in Maine."
Tilly Laskey is the exhibit curator. She and her team want visitors to get a sense of how music in our state has been created, preserved and shared with others.
"I am really excited for people to be able to come in and see how diverse music in Maine is," Laskey said. "I think that they'll be really surprised [by] what they find here."
Maine’s unique landscape provides a plethora of melodies from country music to indigenous sounds, to sea shanties. The collection showcases vintage instruments, including Civil War-era drums that were carried into battle. It also takes a look at the Wabanaki Nation's place in Maine's music history and how those traditional sounds and songs have been brought into the present day.
"History is today, right? Anything that happened a minute ago is history and so it's important to us to show that there are deep traditions here in Maine that inform what is happening today," Lasky said. "It's also important to recognize that we don't have all of the stories, but by collaborating with people in the community, there's a platform for them to tell their own stories in their own words."
The Music in Maine exhibit is open to the public, in person and virtually through the end of the year.