BATH — To commemorate the bicentennial of the start of the United States’ second war with Britain, commonly known as the War of 1812, the Maine Maritime Museum announces its latest exhibit, “Subdue, Seize and Take: Maritime Maine in the Unwelcome Interruption of the War of 1812.”
The exhibit will open to the public on May 26 and will be on view until Oct. 28 at the museum on Washington Street.
“Contrary to the name given to the war, the conflict lasted from 1812 to 1814,” a museum release states. “It was a prolonged period during which a fractious atmosphere of double-dealing, defiance, subterfuge, vitriolic satire, confusion and propaganda flourished along the coast of the then-District of Maine. Statehood would not be achieved until 1820.”
The exhibit chronicles the “nation-building hubbub — from the Eastport “Flour War” and the sacking of Hampden to the alarming frolics of the Royal Navy threatening the partially built USS Washington at Kittery,” the release states.
Artifacts and original archival documents from four Maine museums and numerous private collections are included in the exhibit. Among these are a rarely seen model of the privateer Dash, a cannon from HMS Boxer that was captured by the American brig Enterprise in a dramatic battle off the coast of Monhegan Island and two gowns worn at the 1815 Saco Peace Ball.
“Above all, this war in Maine was waged passionately, and is due all the appreciation that its bicentennial demands,” the release states.
For more information, call 443- 1316 or visit www.mainemaritimemuseum.org.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
