Wilson Museum
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The Wilson Museum is a museum in Castine, Maine, USA. It was founded using the collection of Dr John Howard Wilson, a geologist.
Wilson lived in Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Nantucket during his youth. He arrived at Castine in 1891 with his mother, Cassine Cartwright Wilson. He received a PhD in geology from Columbia University.
In 1921, Mrs Wilson gave the western part of the land she owned to build a museum for John Wilson's collections. Three other buildings were added in the late 1960s, the Blacksmith Shop, Hearse House, and the John Perkins House.
The exhibits include:
- Rocks, minerals, shells.
- Pre-historic artifacts from North and South America.
- Exhibits from Europe and Africa illustrating the development of tools during the early Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages.
- Six dioramas constructed by Ned Burns of the American Museum of Natural History in 1926.
- Cultures of Africa, Oceania, North and South America.
- Early weapons and firearms.
- Local history.
- Ship models.
- 19th century carpenter's tools, farm and household equipment.
- Reconstructed kitchen of 1805 and a Victorian parlor.
- Special exhibits every summer using the museum's collections.
- Archival material on the history of Castine.