The story
The Marine Research Society of Bath was founded in 1962 by seven residents from Bath, Maine. The early years saw the founders renting a storefront in 1964 to exhibit the collection. In 1964 one of Bath's wealthy shipbuilding families, the Sewalls, gave the museum their mansion to exhibit the museum's collection.
It was called Bath Marine Museum until 1972 when the name was officially changed to Maine Maritime Museum.
In the 1980s the museum resided in two sites, and a 20-minute ferry transported visitors between the two locations. By 1983, the museum exhibited their collection at three separate sites: Sewall House, the Winter Street Center and the Apprenticeshop.
In 1989, the museum moved permanently to a single campus with the new, three-story, climate-controlled Maritime History Building. Encompassing the historic Percy & Small Shipyard, the new location allowed all museum functions to be in one place for the first time in the organization's history.
In June 2010, due to the Great Recession, the Portland Harbor Museum and Maine Maritime Museum merged. The collection from the Portland Harbor Museum was moved to Maine Maritime Museum on the basis that the Bath museum is a climate-controlled facility and the "premier facility for visitors to experience the history of Maine shipbuilding and seafaring" and the Portland Harbor Museum "received few visitors."
In 2012, the Gazela Primeiro visited the Maine Maritime Museum to commemorate the museum's half-century anniversary.
From Wikipedia’s article on Maine Maritime Museum, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3