Collection + Exhibits
Current Exhibits
Tying our rich history to our present and future.
Visit and explore our current and permanent exhibits on display that share the stories of innovation, learning, and labor that fuel the dreams of tomorrow. Get to know the people, inventions, and events that shaped our past and how they connect to your worldview and everyday experience.
From celebrating cultural and traditional skills of Maine artisans, to an in-depth look at the influence and power of music, a constant display of ingenuity and design, to accounts of life as a millworker, there’s a treasure trove to discover here.
Rotating Exhibit Gallery
A Common Bond: The Brick Journal
June 27 – October 25, 2026
The inaugural exhibition for the museum’s new rotating gallery, the show is title A Common Bond: The Brick Journal. Guest curated by Alexis Iammarino, the exhibit showcases the collaborative publication which gives its attention to brick. The exhibit reflects the museum’s broader mission to connect art, history, industry, and community through exhibitions rooted in the stories and materials of Maine.
Drawing on Lewiston and Auburn’s legacy as centers of brick production, A Common Bond explores the intersections of craft, labor, industry, and community through the work of contemporary artists. The exhibition combines visual art, archival material and production artifacts to examine how place, historical memory, material culture and the built environment shape collective identity.
Visitors are invited to experience The Brick Journal as both a text and image-based art object and an ode to printed matter with the technical story of its material production as an offset newspaper, printed in Newcastle and Lewiston, Maine. The 148 page, eight-section publication (printed in 2023) is displayed in the gallery alongside artworks, production samples, and historical documents featured within its pages.
Photos courtesy of Little Legs Projects and the artists.
October 25, 2023 Memorial Room
As our local history and culture museum, we believe it is important to preserve the community’s response to the tragic mass shooting that occurred in Lewiston on October 25, 2023. We are leading the cultural response to help memorialize the victims and honor the community. The museum created a memorial room within the existing galleries and is committed to having rotating objects on display within that room.
The current installation is created by artist Ian Trask timed for the 2-year commemoration using bowling balls and pool balls that were left at the sites. These objects bore witness to the tragedy, and by way of their abandonment in the panic of the moment now carry the dark shadows of that trauma.
Photo by Bret Woodard.
Permanent Exhibit
Take a trip through time by visiting our permanent collection. Here you’ll find artifacts and examples of ingenuity alongside slices of life related to the textile, shoe, and brickmaking industries in the Lewiston and Auburn area.
These historical objects and stories have been carefully curated and remain on display for all to experience, a testament to the museum’s larger permanent collection.
Visit this ongoing exhibit and you’ll be invited to:
- Learn about the many ways the mighty Androscoggin River played an important role in industrial expansion. Witness how the river was harnessed for power and the intricate design of iron gears and leather belts that eventually converted the flowing water into electrical power, the creation of the canals, and “the company town” that grew up around the textile mills created by Benjamin Bates.
- Follow our “Immigration Timeline” to learn more about how immigrants helped to build our community, influenced the culture, and continue to shape the future of this ever-changing cityscape.
- Trace the journey of textile creation from concept to completion. Explore drawings and paintings in the design room with displays of our collection of original designs and follow the assembly line of steps in the fabric-making process with our industrial machinery collection.
- Discover the challenging conditions workers often faced in the textile mills and how the mill was a “complete” city by viewing our collection of firefighting, medical, and laboratory equipment.
- View our portrait wall of millworkers who have given oral histories and listen to a select number of first-hand accounts.
- Find out how Bates Manufacturing supported the World War II war effort with our collection of backpacks, parachutes, and naval linens.
- Understand the evolution of shoemaking from hand-craft to industrial production and see the innovative tools and machinery that made this transition possible.
- Trail the steps in the brickmaking process from lump of clay to spectacular architectural creations in our collection of archival photographs documenting the creation of water-struck bricks.
