Maine State Museum celebrates bicentennial with free day

AUGUSTA, Maine – The Maine State Museum celebrated the state’s bicentennial this weekend with a new exhibition and a day of free admission.

The museum, in Augusta, opened a bicentennial exhibit called “Regional Struggle – National Story: Maine’s Path to Statehood” on Saturday. The museum was scheduled to be open free of charge from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Representatives for the museum said it had been scheduled to be open for free during those same hours on Sunday as a commemoration of Maine Statehood Day. However, concerns about the spread of coronavirus prompted the free weekend to be scaled back to one day.

Museum director Bernard Fishman said the new exhibit uses artifacts and documents to tell the story of Maine since before Europeans arrived in the state. The exhibit will also detail the political and economic disagreements with Massachusetts that led to Maine’s separation from that state.