Maine State Museum September Roundup

Museum Roundup

News & Updates from the Maine State Museum

September 2022

Spud Season - All About Potatoes

With the approaching fall season, we look north to Aroostook County and the annual potato harvest. According to a recent Bangor Daily News article, this year’s potato crop, ranging over 60,000 acres, is looking good and seems to be unaffected by the drought experienced elsewhere in Maine.

In this issue of Roundup, we highlight some museum collections related to the potato – a modest tuber that has brought a distinct richness to Maine life and culture.

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Thanks for Joining Us This Summer!

Our season of free summer programs is now complete, and we send our thanks to everyone who attended virtual programs and park tours! Here's a review from some happy attendees:

"We all enjoyed the short tour of Capitol Park with David and hope there will be more tours of other Maine sites in the future.

The tour was an engaging way to learn unusual facts about Maine and its history. We hope that Enoch Lincoln's body someday will be found and returned to its rightful grave."

- Judith (Judy) Ann Whiting, Becky Pullen and Beth Basham.

Maine Quilting Event Supports Museum Exhibition

Courtesy of Callie Levoie, Pine Tree Quilters Guild

Pine Tree Quilters Guild presents Maine Quilts annually during the last weekend of July. The event brings together over 500 quilts, workshops, events, and activities for quilters of all levels as well as admirers of the art form.

The Guild generously raffled off quilts in support of the museum's upcoming quilt exhibition, raising a total of $1,408.90.

Mi’kmaq Artisan Recalls Baskets and the Potato Harvest

Richard Silliboy is a Mi’kmaq artisan who specializes in making utility baskets. Basketmaking goes back for generations in Richard’s family. His mother Mary Ann used to make and sell potato baskets to farmers and businesses in Aroostook County.

As a young child, Richard helped his mother make baskets. He stopped at age 13, but started again in his late 30s out of concern that basketmaking was a dying art. In recent decades, tribal efforts and workshops have inspired new interest and increased the number of Wabanaki basketmakers.

One of Richard’s accomplishments is the “World’s Largest Potato Basket,” a towering piece 7 ½ feet in height and on display at the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum in Littleton. He created it in 2017 with help from family members.

The Maine State Museum met Richard Silliboy in one of its recent Listening Tour events. He is also the vice chief of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs. Richard shared some fascinating stories and history that resulted in the museum adding one of his handmade potato baskets to the permanent collection.

Click here for photos and the full story.

Potato basket made by Richard Silliboy. MSM 2022.44.1

Maine's Potato Boy Still Charms

Maine Potato Boy Advertising Display, 1940s (detail below) “Food Fights for Freedom” was a campaign to encourage food production during WWII.

MSM 2005.1.1

In the 1940s, advertising displays like this introduced the Maine Potato Boy and began appearing in grocery stores east of the Mississippi. The Maine Potato Boy’s image marketed Aroostook County’s prized crop into the 1950s. This particular display advanced Maine potatoes as a key part of the home-based war effort during WWII. Other ads in newspapers and magazines marketed Maine potatoes as important for a balanced diet without weight gain.

William Findlen of Fort Fairfield starred as the Maine Potato Boy. He was chosen for this role by a New York advertising firm hired to market, merchandise, and brand Maine potatoes. At the time, pressures from increased competition and changes in dietary habits meant that Maine potato sales were dropping dramatically. The Maine Potato Boy, despite his charm, was not able to completely reverse those trends.

This advertising display survives as a symbol of Maine’s largest agricultural crop, the evolution of marketing and branding designed to sustain it, and the ways that potatoes defined the cultural and physical landscape of Aroostook County.

MAINE STATE MUSEUM www.mainestatemuseum.org

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