A Guide to Maine Museums

Davistown Museum

The Davistown Museum is a regional history, tool, and art museum located about 17 miles west of Belfast, in Liberty, Maine. Founder H.G. “Skip” Brack opened the Museum in 1999 in a historic building across the street from Liberty Tool Company and named it after the Davistown Plantation (now the towns of Montville and Liberty).

The Museum’s goals are: to recover, display, and explain hand tools of New England’s maritime culture; to increase awareness about Native American and environmental history; and to provide an arena for Maine artists to exhibit their work. The result is an intriguing juxtaposition of tools, art and history.

The Davistown Museum showcases tools with a special emphasis on the shipsmiths and edge toolmakers who crafted the hand tools that helped fuel Maine’s industrial economy from 1607 to 1930. Featured trades include: the iron forgemaster, blacksmith, shipwright, cooper, sail maker, wheelwright, pattern maker, tool maker, machinist, and mechanic. The Museum is also popular for its displays of Native American tools and artifacts.

Davistown Museum

The Museum offers an Annual Art Exhibition that displays the work of Maine’s contemporary artists, including painters, photographers, sculptors, printmakers and artisans who utilize glass, fabric and ceramics. The Museum includes the Maine Artists Guild Gallery, which showcases works by contemporary Maine artists which are for sale. Artists include: John Whalley, Alan Jagee, Abby Shahn, and Melita Westerlund. A virtual version of this gallery can be accessed via the museum’s website.

The Museum publishes a series: Hand Tools in History, which discusses the Museum’s multi-faceted missions. Another publication, Norumbega Reconsidered narrates the ethno-history of the Gulf of Maine.

The Museum strives to be of educational value to scholars and students of all ages, and offers public presentations on a variety of subjects. The Museum is currently working on a program which will allow them to loan out some of their tools to public schools. Visitors are welcome to utilize the Museum’s Center for the Study of Early Tools, a library that allows researching and studying onsite. The Museum also offers a Children’s Corner, which features age-appropriate, educational activities for both individual visitors and organized groups.

The Davistown Museum Café offers snacks, beverages and wireless Internet service, and a selection of new and used books for reading and/or purchasing.

In the summer months, the Museum is open Wednesdays through Fridays and on Sundays from 11 to 5. On summer Saturdays, the Museum is open from 10 to 5. During the offseason months, the Museum is open on weekends and by appointment. Call (207) 589-4900 for more information.