PORTLAND, Maine — The mission of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College is, in large part, to engage people with the Arctic and show them what a remarkable place it is. Along the way the museum, the only one in the continental U.S. devoted to this subject, hopes to knock down some persistent stereotypes.
“You say, ‘the Arctic,’ and [people] think cold and dark and dangerous, almost uninhabitable,” curator Genny LeMoine said. “And none of those things are really true.”
Although the museum has been around since 1967, Bowdoin’s relationship with the Arctic goes back much further. Representatives from the college made their first expedition to the region in 1860, and the museum is named after two Bowdoin graduates, Robert Peary and Donald MacMillan, who became famous for their explorations.
Never heard of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum? You’re not alone. It’s an underappreciated gem.
“Hidden away a little bit,” museum outreach coordinator Jamey Tanzer said. “But now is really our time to shine.”
This is indeed a fresh era for the museum, which recently moved into a new building on campus, a sleek, dark, energy-efficient structure that’s already been nicknamed the Black Iceberg.
During the move some of the objects from the museum’s collection required an especially delicate touch. A large, stuffed walrus wouldn’t fit in the elevator. It had to be hoisted aloft by a crane and brought in directly through the second floor.
The collection includes thousands of items — photos, sleds, paintings, stuffed animals, maps, clothing, survival gear, and much more — all of which help to illuminate the Arctic’s past, present and future.
“It’s a more dynamic place than people think,” LeMoine said. “We want to tell people what the past was like, but we also want to educate them about everyday life up there.”