The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum

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The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum

Located at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, we are the only museum in the United States devoted completely to Arctic Studies!

The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum was founded in 1967 at Bowdoin College, and the Arctic Studies Center was created in 1985. Artifacts in the Museum's collection include Peary and MacMillan's expedition equipment, Inuit art, films, archival papers, natural history specimens, and much more. The Museum's exhibitions now change approximately every two years to show as much of the collection as possib

le. The museum is located at the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies at 10 Polar Loop. Admission to the Museum is always free! Find us on Twitter and Instagram at .

09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day! We hope you get to enjoy some time outdoors today as you take in the end of summer!

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🫐Bryan Alexander, Picking blueberries by a lake at the roadside on the Denali Highway, 1996, Museum Purchase, 2025.

09/05/2026

Today is National College Colors Day! The Bowdoin colors are white and black. Although they may seem dull, these colors are a nod to the snowy Arctic landscape that Bowdoin’s mascot, the polar bear, calls home. Here is a photo of MacMillan (center) sporting his Bowdoin attire all the way back in 1897!.🤍🖤

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🐻‍❄️Reed, Unknown man, Donald MacMillan, and unknown man, wearing Bowdoin sweaters: portrait, ca. 1897, Gift of Miriam Look MacMillan 1988.

09/03/2026

Last week, we were lucky enough to host over 40 stuffies for a night at the museum! The stuffies had a ton of fun, receiving a tour of the galleries, feeling real arctic animal furs, and playing fun games! We had a lot of fun and think your stuffies did too!😉🧸

08/28/2026

Do you know how fish is dried in the Arctic?

Many Arctic communities dry fish such as Arctic char to preserve it so it lasts over the winter. After catching the fish in the spring or summer, the people preparing the fish will clean, debone, and score the meat. Typically, they cut the fish down the middle, leaving the tail intact. This makes it easier to hang the fish to dry. They then leave the fish out in the cold and sun for several days to dry out and cure. Finally, the fish is preserved, meaning they can eat it months later!

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🐟Bryan Alexander, “Niaqutsiak, an Inuk hunter, hangs up fillets of Arctic Char to dry at his summer Camp. Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada,” 1992, Museum purchase, 2025.

08/26/2026

Happy International Dog Day! Sled dogs are essential in the Arctic to help transport people and belongings and to hunt. While today most people in the Arctic more regularly use snowmobiles instead of dog teams, using dogs still has many benefits, like being able to spread their weight and navigate over thin or uneven ice.

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🐾Bryan Alexander, “A Husky from an Inuit dog team in Savissivik. These dogs provide a vital form of winter transport for the Inuit hunters of Avanersuaq. Northwest Greenland,” 1991, Museum purchase, 2025.
🐾Bryan Alexander, “A team of huskies, in fan formation, pulling a dog sled over frozen sea ice. Northwest Greenland,” 1980, Museum purchase, 2025.
🐾Bryan Alexander, “Inuit hunters watch as huskies pick their way to shore across new tidal ice. Savissivik, NW Greenland,” 1991, Museum purchase, 2025.

08/24/2026

Just like here in Maine, during summers in the Arctic, all the bugs come out! In this stonecut and stencil print by Kinngait artist Kananginak Pootoogook two snow buntings are helping themselves to some flies overhead!

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🪰 Kananginak Pootoogook, “Feeding on Flies,” 1981, Gift of Peter Witt and Joyce Nies, 2019.

08/21/2026

Have you ever played cribbage?

Cribbage is played with a deck of cards and a pegged cribbage board, typically between two players. To win, players try to be the first to score 121 points by creating card combinations that add up to 15. In the Arctic, cribbage has been played since the nineteenth century as a way to pass time, meaning we have quite a few boards in our collection! Right now on our 3rd floor you can see a selection of these cribbage boards in the exhibit “Tip of the Iceberg: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions.”

08/19/2026

The photographer, the camera, the shot

Happy ! While in the Arctic, Donald MacMillan used his Graflex camera to take hundreds of photos, documenting his expeditions during his nearly 40 years of Arctic travel. The photographs MacMillan took not only capture the beauty of the region but also document the people MacMillan interacted with and change over time. While we don’t know exactly what photograph MacMillan was taking in the first image, it was probably an Arctic landscape like the one above.

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📷Donald Baxter MacMillan, “Iceberg at Rink Glacier,” 1939, Gift of Miriam Look MacMillan, 1988.
📷Eastman Kodak, Graflex R.B. Auto Graphlex curtain aperture, #12780, 1923-1940, Gift of Donald and Miriam MacMillan, 1966.
📷Unknown Artist, “Donald MacMillan with camera, on the BOWDOIN,” Unknown Date, Gift of Miriam Look MacMillan, 1988

08/14/2026

Have you ever heard the phrase “Down Maine”?

This postcard featuring a picture of Portland Head Light, one of Maine’s most iconic light houses, explains where the phrase comes from - relating to Maine’s deep maritime history and the direction of the winds while sailing!⛵️

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💡Don Sieburg, “Down Maine,” Unknown Date, Gift of Miriam Look MacMillan.

08/11/2026

This month’s free button features a blossom of Boreal Jacob’s Ladder from a photograph taken by Cherry Alexander in Svalbard, Norway. This variery of Jacob’s Ladder grows in the high altitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia, blooming in the early summer. It is a great pollinator plant, and its roots have been historically used to make tea!💜

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🌸Cherry Alexander, “The beautiful flowers of the Boreal Jacob's Ladder. Polemonium boreale. Svalbard,” 2006, Museum Purchase 2025.

Address

10 Polar Loop
Brunswick, ME
04011

Telephone

(207) 725-3416

Website

http://www.bowdoin.edu/arctic-museum/

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