10/26/2026
Pαnawάhpskewəyak of Mači-pikʷátohsək: Penobscot People of the Bagaduce
While our galleries may be closed for the season, we are excited to announce the opening of a new outdoor exhibit on the Wilson Museum campus at 109 Perkins Street in Castine.
This exhibit shares the stories of five pαnawάhpskewəyak (Penobscot people) with deep ties to what we refer to today as Castine and the Bagaduce River. A collaboration with the Penobscot Nation Museum, Penobscot Nation Cultural & Historic Preservation Department, and Passamaquoddy artist Norma Randi Marshall, portraits and short biographies introduce visitors to Madockawando, Pidianiske, Clair Meunier, White Francis, and Charles Norman Shay.
Spanning more than 400 years, these stories reflect the importance of this place to the Penobscot Nation and their ancestors. The exhibit part of an ongoing process of recentering our understanding of this place as a Penobscot place, reconsidering narratives that focus on the European colonization of the area and putting those narratives in the much larger context of Penobscot place, history, and culture in Mači-pikʷátohsək (at the bad shoal).
To visit the exhibit, come to the Wilson Museum campus and head down the gravel walkway towards the shore of Castine Harbor. You will see the panels along the split-rail fence between the Perkins House and the water. We expect to keep the panels up through the early winter, and put them back up again in the spring.
This exhibit is made possible by support from the Maine Semiquincentennial Commission, the Maine State Archives, and the Maine State Cultural Affairs Council.
