Penobscot Marine Museum
National Fisherman Project
Final Rollout

Searsport, Maine — After three years of processing the impressive photo archives of National Fisherman magazine, Penobscot Marine Museum has reached their goal: a comprehensive collection of high quality digital photos, along with the carefully preserved originals. This collection presents a visual timeline of American fisheries, whose many contributors managed to capture the drama, grit, expertise, and resourcefulness which characterize the industry. The scope of this resource has few rivals, as there were nearly 25,000 photographs to be digitized and cataloged. To view these images, visit https://penobscotmarinemuseum.org/national-fisherman/.

This final rollout consists largely of 35mm negatives. Some of these images have been published previously on the Museum’s collections website from silver gelatin prints. The difference here is that seeing the entire roll of film gives a more comprehensive picture of a given series. One theme that stands out most are the shots of people at work: hauling traps and nets, repairing trawlers, building aluminum hulls, setting Coast Guard buoys.

Maine’s own National Fisherman magazine has always been a trade publication, with a readership that falls inside a particular sphere of interest and activity. At the same time, the publication’s cultural importance shouldn’t be underestimated. The National Fisherman photographic archive, entrusted to the Museum in 2012 for long-term preservation, tells a critical story, the rise of industrial fishing and its consequences for fish and fishermen. This was never the intent of the publishers; after all, National Fisherman is a periodical, always intended to keep fish harvesters and the interested public up to date about emerging practices and technologies, changes in regulation, and to relate the experiences of men and women who make their living at sea and in the fisheries. That being the case, the magazine was on the ground, more accurately, at sea, during these crucial decades when technology changed the fishing industry.

This project was funded in part by the National Maritime Heritage program, administered by the National Park Service, and by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

For more information call 207-548-2529 or visit www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org.