"Maine Trades"

0800-1700

Today was Nathan Lipfert’s (my immediate supervisor and Senior Curator) weekly volunteer workshop/lecture. This week, the subject was on “Maine Trade.” In reality, there are two types of Maine trade: Ocean going (“blue water”) and coastal commerce (“green water”). The workshop was very informative and covered a large time span from the mid 17^th century to about the present time. The state/region sure has seen a huge change over the period but still sticks strong to its roots. The state was built primarily on the export of lumber (used in various vocations/jobs), lime (used in kilns and cement/plaster), ice (believe it or not!), and granite (used all over the world in construction and as a building material). The ice one certainly surprised me but it makes sense in a world before refrigeration.

This workshop got me thinking about a museum’s role. These sorts of things (the workshop) are not only designed to educate the public, but in a large part, the volunteers here at the museum. To be a good museum docent, you really need to have a diverse background on more than just the regurgitated speech you recite while paid guests follow you around. You will, inevitably, receive questions from people not familiar with the city, state, region, or possibly the country (yes, we do have international visitors). It does appear that these workshops are almost entirely on the shoulders of Nathan. I’m surprised that I don’t see individuals from the Library or Education departments here. I can imagine they are fielded with some pretty off the wall questions on occasion as well.