Abbe Museum

Excellent history on Wabanaki peoples and how they lived and are living and are valued important people of Maine. Just fantastic you learn a lot and it’s so educational wow!

really small, but a fun thing to do on a rainy day!

The town counterpart to the smaller one up the hill at Sieur de Monts Spring, and if you’ve been to that one you get a discount on the entrance to this one (and vice versa).
This is a nice large and airy building and they have a lot of displays, but oddly I found the smaller one at Sieur de Monts more interesting. This one has gone the way of many newer museums and overloaded the exhibits with interpretative display boards, which seems to be an attempt to mask the comparatively small number of exhibits they actually have. Everything was pretty much contained in one gallery, and although it was certainly interesting, the rest of the building seems to struggle to fill the space. There was the inevitable children’s art gallery, an educational room, more of that in the basement, and so on. There’s certainly room for exhibit expansion here.
The large circular ‘room of the quarters’ at the back is a nice piece of architecture and a contemplative space to sit in for a while, but it won’t take you all day to ‘do’ this museum.

A nice native american culture and historical museum near the village green in Bar Harbor. This is the same museum that was at the Sieur de Mont spring area in Acadia but more expansive.

It was a neat museum (beautiful building), but the layout of the actual historical findings and such was chaotic.
It would have been a much more pleasant experience if the rooms followed some sort of timeline and the audio speakers on the walls actually worked.

An interesting collection of artifacts with some diagrams and posters. Downtown by Harbor had some interesting work from children. It might have been nice to hear Native American stories told by the staff…

The Abbé Museum is a good way to spend the day once you’ve had your fill of Acadia National Park or other outdoor pursuits. I didn’t find it to be the most fascinating museum I’ve ever visited, but I certainly learned a good deal about Native American culture in Maine and the surrounding islands. I was not a fan of the one hall that features a display of excerpts from Native newspapers, etc because it was difficult to understand the point of the exhibit. It was utterly too much reading to keep me interested and everything seemed out of context. I really enjoyed the examples of tribal basketry and other handicrafts. The time line also is very informative in helping one visualize Maine as it evolved as a landscape and state. I wonder if I might have enjoyed the original Abbé Museum in Acadia more. It would have been nice to have more artifacts on display or an exhibit that focused more on cultural heritage in the past and the present. I would avoid the gift shop as it didn’t seem to have any fascinating offerings. They do sell handmade baskets from local artisans, but I don’t know many people interested in forking over $ 200 for something the size of a baseball even if it is handmade. They do have a treasure hunt with reward to keep children occupied which I am sure pleases many a weary parent.

The Abbé Museum is worth a stop on your trip to MDI and Acadia National Park — it is located right across the street from the village green in Bar Harbor. It’s pretty cheap to get in, and a good way to spend a couple of hours, especially on a rainy afternoon.
The Abbé offers and introduction to Native American culture in Maine past and present. There is a gallery that usually has some kind of local art exhibit that rotates regularly.
Some of the basketwork is really astounding, and I enjoy the language exhibits, which include both transcription and listening stations.
AND.. .what is really great? On the lower level — clean nice restrooms, and a learning center for the kids, which consists of native american-​originated puzzles and hand games around the perimeter of the round, fully windowed room, bean bags to sit in, a huge drawing pad with lots of crayons, and some really excellent picture books telling various native american tales. There is very soothing drum and chant music piped in, which seems to calm the savage beasties.(I’m always much calmer after an hour there).
Last time I was there, as my daughter designed a beautiful rug at one of the art stations, I learned about a tribe that gave a large amount of their meager funds for relief of people affected by the Irish potato famine — because after the Trail of Tears, they felt they had to help others who dealt with starvation and unjust loss. WOW.
So, hey, it’s educational! Stop by.