Humpback whale becomes first new exhibit at Maine State Museum

It is a big whale,” said Bernard Fishman, director of the Maine State Museum.

That it is—a 45-foot, full skeleton of a female humpback whale, now mounted in what will be a featured space of the Augusta museum.

Beside the adult whale skeleton is a far smaller skeleton of a humpback whale calf.

Together, they will form what project leader Dan DenDanto says will be the world’s first exhibit of its kind.

The whale skeletons will also form a centerpiece exhibit for the rebuilt and reimagined Maine State Museum.

“It is a huge honor,” said DenDanto, on being the first major new exhibit in the reopened museum..

That popular museum was forced to close in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. State building managers used the shutdown time to replace the worn-out HVAC system. That work led to the discovery of large amounts of asbestos inside the walls of the 50-year-old structure. The need to remove that material, as well as the HVAC removal and construction, took months, and then years.

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