Field Trips

We are pleased to offer virtual field trip options, as well as, in-person learning experiences.  Please visit our Virtual Visit page. We also have resources for teachers and home learners on our Education page.

Field Trip Experiences

Field Trip Experiences are only offered Tuesday to Friday, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, with the latest start time being 2:00 pm.

Field Trip Experiences cost $3 per person with one free chaperon accompanying every 10 students.  Homeschool groups may have one free chaperon for each family/homeschool unit.  Additional chaperons cost $3 per person.

Museum staff select hands-on activities (included in every tour) based on group age/grade and group size.  Minimum group size is 10: Maximum group size is 25 students. For larger groups, we offer assistance booking other field trip destination sites on campus to split/rotate the group with. Larger groups, up to 50 students, can book our Do & Discover program.

Programs last one hour.  We are unable to run concurrent tours due to space limitations and docent availability.  There is a limit to two consecutive tours without a minimum 30-minute reset period.

*Special Note for non-academic year requests:  Museum staff structure dictates that the Museum does not employ large numbers of paid docents beyond the academic year, as the docents come from the UMaine student body.  Outside of the academic year, the Docent Program is made up of volunteers from the community.  The Field Trip Menu outside of the academic year includes the Do & Discover only.

Please book two weeks in advance by calling 581.4100 or by placing an online request:

Click Here to Request a Tour!

Pin Money and Cash Crops

Tour the haying, lumbering, ice harvesting, maple sugaring and Farnsworth’s General Store exhibitions focusing on ways self-sufficient families competed and survived economically in rural Maine during the Industrial Period.

The Folk on the Farm

Tour of the Maine Experiment Station Barn including the Kitchen, Parlor, Bedroom, General Store and Folk Art exhibitions. This program illustrates the roles individual members played within the family and includes examinations of division of labor by gender, family traditions, seasonal practices, cultural values, food and clothing trends; giving children a deeper understanding of the differences in day to day family life between today and the pre-World War II family.

Progressive Maine

Tour the Schoolhouse, Grange Hall, General Store, Parlor, Dairy, Medicinal and Spinning and Weaving exhibitions and discuss community fellowship, the emphasis on the family, women’s roles and rights, the pure food movement, scientific advancement and other social values that dominated Maine society at the turn of the twentieth century.

From Family Farm to Agricultural Empire

Agriculture underwent a major transformation, along with the industrialization of virtually every other industry in the United States. Maine farms that began the antebellum period as small, family-run, and mostly self-sufficient developed into large, family-run, single crop capitalist ventures. Children went off to college or moved to the cities to work in mills. Farms had to adopt new technologies in order to replace lost labor and survive. Those that did not became part of the large, successful farms that did industrialize. Tour the Dairy, Field Crop, Haying, Poultry and Weaving exhibitions to witness evidence of this transformation from family farm to agricultural empire.

Do and Discover

Students embark on a super fun mystery hunt through the Museum! Students draw on clues to locate exhibitions and access information on key concepts involving the artifacts and folkways presented within those exhibits. Students must work together to accomplish this task and communicate their interpretations of the exhibitions before proceeding through the hunt. This program helps you explore a variety of exhibits throughout the museum.  Do & Discover encourages observation, critical thinking, and engagement.  This program is perfect for multi-age learners.  Maximum group size is 50 students. Not offered December 1 – March 31.

Six Simple Machines

Pulley, Wheel, Inclined Plane, Screw, Wedge and Lever. Tour of the simple machines in use in the home and on the farm before the advent of electricity. Students use artifacts to demonstrate how simple machines functioned to make life easier in this time period.

Fiber and Folk Art

Discussions and hands-on demonstrations of spinning wool, weaving, and two Early American Decoration techniques: stenciling and Tole painting. Students participate in a hands-on workshop designed to illustrate the socioeconomic function of these two art forms in agrarian New England pre-industrial society.

School Days, School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days

Seasonally, up to 12 scholars go to school in the former Holden South District Schoolhouse and learn what it was like to attend a one-room schoolhouse in 1867. The day includes morning and afternoon lessons, recess and recitations. Children learn to make ink and write with pen and nib, do “slate work,” and learn about nineteenth century manners and morals. Recess includes playing with a collection of historic toys and playing such games as, “Buzz, Buzz,” or, “Four Corners.” Not offered December 1 – March 31.

Outreach Kits

Outreach kits are available to teachers for classroom use for up to two weeks. The $50 Rental fee includes one-way shipping via UPS. Schools are responsible for return shipping costs or delivery.

Fiber Maine-ia

This kit offers lessons and materials to support investigation of fiber farming and textile traditions in Maine. Through a series of standards-aligned activities, k-8 students will learn about Maine’s fiber animals and fiber farms. Learners will experience a variety of processes for transforming raw fiber into finished products, as they explore the cultural influences that shaped tools and techniques for braiding, hand-spinning, weaving, felting, and other arts applications essential to Maine’s vibrant fiber history and current economy.

School Days, School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days

Early Common Schools classroom exhibit including an exhibit plan and installation materials. Included with the exhibit are reference materials and evaluation tools, daily lesson plans with hand-on activities, early textbooks, slates and other material.

Early American Decoration

This outreach kit includes an introduction of this most popular art decoration in the early nineteenth century, and a study of the some of the original collections of Ellen Jacobson Loring and Emilie Underhill.  Schools will need to have access to items such as acrylic paint, paint brushes, paint palettes, rulers, pens, pencils and masking tape. The rest of the items required for executing this lesson will be provided inside the trunk, including artifacts for a mini exhibition, a presentation, blank tin items for students to paint, and lesson plans.

Joan Loring Alfond Field Trip Grant:

Thanks to a generous donation from Joan L. Alfond to support field trips to visit and engage with the Ellen J. Loring Collection of Early American Decoration,  the Museum is  able to offer grant funding to support field trip experiences for elementary and secondary public school groups in Southern Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, and Waldo, Washington and Hancock Counties at the Page Farm and Home Museum.

Schools are eligible to receive funding on a 1:1 match basis to finance field trips costs including, but no limited to, transportation; additional staff support; and Museum program fees. Grant awards are for up to $250 and are for the current academic year.  Applications must be accompanied by a FTE booking form.  To be eligible for this grant, Field Trip Experiences must include the Folk Art program; an exploration of fiber arts and two Early American Decoration techniques, stenciling and country paint.

Applications must be received two weeks prior to your visit.  Grants will be reviewed as received and you will be notified within two weeks if your grant request will be awarded. Grant funds will be disbursed within 30 days after the FTE takes place.

The Joan Loring Alfond Field Trip Grant Program honors the work of Ellen Jacobson Loring, whose lifelong support of art education is embodied in The Early American Decoration Exhibit and the Ellen J. Loring Et. Al. Collection of Early American Decoration, Studio and Gallery.

The Ploch Family Field Trip Fund:

The Ploch Family, in memory of early Museum volunteer Lou Ploch, is providing grant funding to support field trip experiences for elementary and secondary public school groups in Southern Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, and Waldo, Washington and Hancock Counties at the Page Farm and Home Museum.

Schools are eligible to receive funding to offset field trips costs, including bus transportation and Museum program fees. Grant awards are for up to $100 and are for the current academic year.  Applications must be received two weeks prior to your visit.

The Page Farm and Home Museum at the University of Maine is the steward of one of our State’s most important collections representing nineteenth and twentieth century rural life. From farming equipment and implements illustrating agricultural methods and technologies, to a stunning collection of decorative objects, art and furniture adorning Maine homesteads, to a fully-equipped farmhouse kitchen replete with all the “modern” conveniences, the Page Museum offers a complete and authentic window into life in Maine in the 1800s and early 1900s.

The Museum campus includes an 1833 post and beam barn, an 1855 one-room schoolhouse, a carriage house, a blacksmith shop and a one-quarter acre heirloom garden. These physical structures and the major collections contained within vividly illustrate Maine’s agrarian roots and family life. In addition to its collections, the Museum’s comprehensive and engaging educational and experiential learning programs offer scholars an accurate view of our state’s industry, agriculture, economy, decorative arts and home-life from the period.

Learning Results Museum Program Compliance: All Museum programs have been developed to satisfy standards set by Maine Learning Results. All program participants are provided with lesson plans for the activities that state the objectives, goals and procedures of each activity with the connections to Maine’s Learning Results.  Field Trip Experiences include a hands-on component.