PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — On Saturday, Sept. 1, Presque Isle Historical Society’s Maysville Museum, located at 165 Caribou Road and now open for its second summer, will debut a new exhibit sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council and the Presque Isle Rotary Club titled “Talking Wires: The Social Impact of the telephone switchboard on rural northern Maine.”
The exhibit features a restored (and working) antique telephone switchboard from the Presque Isle telephone office, and will also include a three-ring binder containing oral history interviews done with retired switchboard operators, along with photographs from the local office.
The historical society will celebrate the opening with a short talk about the exhibit at 10:15 a.m. on Sept. 1. Several antique cars will be on display that day, and guests can enjoy a hot dog cookout for donations.
The museum received an Honor Award for the society’s restoration efforts by Maine Preservation in November. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday, through October. There is no admission fee.
In addition to the new switchboard exhibit, there are four cornerstone exhibits within the museum: Presque Isle’s One-Room Schoolhouses, Presque Isle & the Civil War, The Aroostook War, and Agri-CULTURE. Several smaller exhibits include Bisque Dolls, the Souvenir Picture Plates of Presque Isle, What Is It, quilts and vintage bridal gowns.
This fall the society will add a newly donated Civil War soldier diary to the exhibits, which will be celebrated with a Presque Isle Civil War Trails tour aboard Molly the Trolley.
The museum needs volunteers for the summer. Anyone interested should contact Kim Smith by phone at 762-1151 or email at pihistoricalsociety@hotmail.com.
For more information on the Presque Isle Historical Society,visit www.pihistory.org.
