BRUNSWICK

Located in Hubbard Hall at Bowdoin College, The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum is home to more than 41,000 artifacts, including ethnographic photographs, films, items from Labrador and Greenland and contemporary Canadian Inuit art.

The museum is named after Bowdoin alumni Robert E. Peary and Donald B. MacMillan, two prominent arctic explorers who are said to be some of the first to reach the North Pole. The two made several expeditions to the Arctic in their time, both together and separately and sometimes with students of the college.

Peary and MacMillan began to amass a collection of 745 artifacts from their voyages, which eventually became the basis of the museum’s collection. The museum first opened its doors in 1967 with funding from friends of the MacMillan and Peary, the Class of 1925 donations, Class of 1929 alumnus George B. Know and other alumni of the college.

At that point, the Arctic Museum operated under the umbrella of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. It wasn’t until 1986 that the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum was recognized as its own independent institution.

As much as the museum commemorates the occasion by looking to the past — at its origins, the expeditions of explorers Peary and MacMillan and the early history of Arctic exploration — it simultaneously looks forward to its future, one that includes the dynamic face of the Inuit communities that the museum strives to represent.

Director of the Peary- MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center Susan Kaplan said that the Museum’s foray into contemporary art — aided by ongoing donations of Inuit artwork from a couple from California, Robert and Judith Toll — has enabled its exploration of modern-day Inuit issues, such as climate change, food insecurity and hunting regulations, among others.

“Indigenous peoples have been adapting to an Arctic that has changed environmentally and socially in such profound ways,” Kaplan said. “They provide incredible lessons for the rest of us about how to live sustainably and responsibly, but also how to adapt. There’s a resilience there that’s incredible.”

Most recently, the museum has debuted three art exhibits that are currently on display: “Hunters and Herders of Northern Siberia: Photography by Bryan Alexander,” “Threads of Change: Arctic Clothing and Identity in the North” and “Power of Flight: Visions of Birds in Inuit Art.” The museum often brings Inuit artists, such as clothing designer Becky Qilavvaq, to speak on their exhibits and the changing nature of Inuit life.

Looking forward, the museum hopes to broaden its programming to include fellowships and residencies for Inuit artists as well as to continue discussions about expanded facilities to exhibit its ever-growing collection.

According to Kaplan, the museum’s role as an arctic studies center also allows for the continuation of faculty and student involvement. A gift from the Kane Lodge Foundation funded a Bowdoin College archaeological expedition to Labrador in 1987, marking the renewal of the college’s tradition of interdisciplinary work.

Students have since worked with faculty and staff on NSF-funded projects in Labrador, Baffin Island and Greenland.

Maine Sen. Angus King, a longstanding proponent of the United State’s leadership role in the Arctic and a founding co-chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Arctic Caucus, voiced in a statement to The Times Record his appreciation of the museum’s legacy in Maine and beyond: “As the Peary- MacMillan Arctic Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary, it is important to recognize the institution’s many contributions — not only to Bowdoin College, but also to the Midcoast community and the entire state of Maine.”

“For five decades, this museum has educated countless students and community members and reconnected us with our storied past,” King continued. “There is much the Peary- MacMillan Museum can continue to offer us, and it is my hope that it will serve as a hub of knowledge and inspiration for at least another 50 years to come.”

The museum has a strong history of hosting events tailored to making on-ground progress within Inuit communities, and hopes to continue that legacy.

The museum has also hosted a series of workshops to discuss issues of ship traffic, congested waterways and endangered species: Alaska Marine Mammal Commission, Governing Across the Waves (U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Coast Guard, World Wildlife Fund) and Meaningful Engagement of Indigenous People (Arctic Council, U.S. State Department). It has also collaborated with native groups in Labrador, Greenland, Baffin, with universities and museums in the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Iceland and with the Nunatsiavut Government and Parks Canada. It is a member of the Maine North Atlantic and Arctic Education Consortium.

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 2-5 p.m.

surya.milner@gmail.com