Welcome to the Abbe Museum's Collections Database

The Abbe's collections focus on contemporary and historic Wabanaki art, archaeological artifacts, and objects from Maine and the Northeast, totaling over 70,000 items. Ash splint and sweetgrass baskets, birchbark containers and canoes, other varied traditional and contemporary art forms, and archaeological artifacts that span more than 12,000 years of Wabanaki material culture.

Featured Objects

Tips for Searching

Keyword Search

The Keyword Search button allows you to perform a general search across multiple fields for any catalog records online. Keyword searches use OR as the default connector between words (e.g. a search for Sweetgrass Basket will return records associated with Sweetgrass OR Basket). If you want to find records where both keywords are found, type in AND between the two words. To search for a specific phrase, be sure to put the phrase within quotes (e.g. "Birchbark Canoe"). You can also use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard (e.g. a search for histor* would come up with records containing history, histories, historical, etc.). Searches are not case sensitive.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search button can help you be more specific with your search. You can search for a word or phrase within a particular search category or use multiple categories to further narrow down your search results. For example, searching White in the Artist field will bring up any records associated with a member of the White family, without having to sift through black & white photographs. Phrase searching with quotes and use of wildcards (*) are available in Advanced Search.

Browse the Collection

The Browse the Collections button is a great way to get an introduction the collection. Each page displays a random assortment of images from the records online. If something piques your interest, click the thumbnail to view a larger version of the image.

Learn More

To learn more about our collections, make a research appointment, or request an image, please contact Curator of Exhibits & Collections, Aaron Miller at aaron@abbemuseum.org.