On July 4th, 1998 during a visit to John Serkin on Long Island we saw a drawing of an elaborate roof mounted camera obscura at the Children's Museum of Maine. We were surprised to see such a full-function camera obscura that we had never learned about, although it has been in operation for several years. In the next year we found a few mentions in publications and began an e-mail correspondence with John McNeil, a volunteer at the museum and camera obscura enthusiast. We made contact with the museum and in September 1999 drove from Baltimore to Portland, Maine.

Lucky us! We picked the week and route that hurricane Floyd also chose. We drove up Highway 95 in a blinding rain storm just hours ahead of the unwelcome visitor. We grumbled all the way, "We should have canceled the trip. We will drive over 500 miles and see nothing."

The first day in Portland was rainy and dark but we visited the museum, met the friendly and helpful staff and looked around the facility. Jack even got to see the lens assembly in the cupola on top of the building. We were impressed with the image. Even on a wet and gloomy day it was very clear and well defined. This is very serious optical equipment!

With more luck than we had any right to hope for Floyd made a right turn before it got to Portland and Saturday was clear and sunny.

We returned to the museum and were able to attend a presentation to a group of children. It was delightful to watch the contemporary children greet the camera images with wonder and enthusiasm. One young person kept shouting "cool!" every time a new view appeared.

We were told that Fred Thompson, a board member, visited the camera obscura in Edinburgh and became enthusiastic about bringing one to the museum. He convinced Eastman Kodak to donate the optical elements. Richard Albretch of Eastman Kodak engineered the optics and mechanism. The camera obscura opened in 1993.