College of the Atlantic George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History Director Carrie Graham poses with the giant ham Italian she helped to construct.College of the Atlantic George B. Dorr Museum of Natural History Director Carrie Graham poses with the giant ham Italian she helped to construct.

If you love a good Maine Italian sandwich, here’s your chance to really get into it. Literally. “Be” the sandwich. Cover yourself in condiments. Take a #sandwichselfie.

The Maine Historical Society on Friday launches a major new exhibit on Maine food called “Maine Eats: The Food Revolution Starts Here,” and one of the displays is a life-size soft sculpture of a ham Italian sandwich that visitors can lie down in. The sandwich, made at College of the Atlantic just for this exhibit, is one of several interactive displays designed to tell the state’s food story in more creative ways.

The silly foam Italian, in addition to perhaps making you hungry, is intended as a hook to grab your more serious interest in the history of the sandwich, which was invented at Amato’s on India Street in 1902.

“Maine Eats,” which encourages people to look at local food differently and more deeply, is the most comprehensive – and longest-running – food-related exhibition the historical society has ever cooked up. It won’t close until Feb. 9, 2019, and between now and then visitors can feast on programs featuring local chefs, well-known food writers, and thought leaders who are helping to shape Maine’s food economy.

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