Museum collections and archives can be a wealth of information and the collections here at Maine Maritime Museum are no exception. For Pride Month, our curatorial team dug into the extensive collections of Sturgis Haskins, choosing a small portion of his photography to highlight. Born in 1940 in a small village in Downeast Maine, Haskins was a man of many talents and a champion for gay rights, historic preservation, and environmentalism. He was also a photographer, sailor, writer, outdoorsman, and even ran for state senate in 1972. Although his bid for office was unsuccessful, he still continued to aid in the fight for equal rights and ending discrimination in Maine.

Before his death in 2012, he chose to donate his personal papers to several different institutions, including Maine Maritime Museum. The portion of his collection that we are stewarding includes “correspondence, photographs, and research notebooks, primarily on one-design sailboat racing classes” and many of those photographs are of the people and vessels of his hometown of Sorrento, Maine.

Haskins was a skilled sailor and avid sailboat racer. Bangor Daily News articles from Wednesday, December 14 1960 & Friday, July 28, 1961, pictured below, are just a small number of the many races reported on by the local papers and a small number of the races Haskins won in his sailboats.

*Ellsworth American,* Thursday, Jul 10, 1975

This trophy, in the collections of the Penobscot Marine Museum, was won by Haskins in 1975. He was an active member of the Sorrento Yacht Club and taught sailing as well, as seen in this Bangor Daily News advertisement from Saturday, July 2, 1960:

The early part of the 1970s were a busy time for Haskins, who was not only running for a seat in the state senate, but was founding both the Sullivan-Sorrento Historical Society and the Wilde-Stein Club at University of Maine Orono. Both these organizations are still active today.

The Wilde-Stein Club (named after gay writers Oscar Wilde and Gertrude Stein) supported LGBT students via the Maine Gay Symposium and activities such as dances, during a time when many felt lonely and isolated, as Haskins himself reported feeling growing up in a small town. Today known as the Wilde Stein Queer Straight Alliance, the club still helps students find community and support in many different ways.

Haskins, left, at a planning meeting for the Maine Gay Symposium, 1974. University of Maine Digital Commons.

By the 1980s, Haskins returned to his hometown of Sorrento, serving on the harbor committee. Many of his photos from this time are preserved in our collection documenting the early mussel fishing operations and the people and vessels of the Sorrento waterfront.