Moosehead Marine Museum receives $10,000 grant

GREENVILLE — The Moosehead Marine Museum has received a $10,000 grant from the Piscataquis Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to upgrade its collections database.

The centerpiece of museum collection is the steamboat Katahdin according to Liz Cannell, museum executive director. It draws 7,500 visitors to the region annually to cruise Moosehead Lake and visit the shoreside museum, which houses an estimated 1,700 artifacts, photographs and items of memorabilia from the lake’s steamboating past. 

“We are fortunate that the expertise to advise (the Moosehead Marine Museum) on the project is available locally from the Moosehead Historical Society (MHS), which has catalogued some 40,000 to 50,000 of its own items,” Cannell said.

In a unique collaboration, the Moosehead Marine Museum has hired a staff member from the MHS to direct the project. A second museum staff member will execute the catalog work and data entry. When the project is complete, visitors and researchers will be able to access the combined catalogs from either museum.

The Moosehead Marine Museum’s mission is to preserve and operate the Katahdin as a “living museum” for the benefit of the community, region and future generations. For more information please visit www.katahdincruises.com.