This concludes the tour of the interior of the State House. You may want to take a short detour down the lobby stairs to see wildlife dioramas depicting the four seasons. Beyond the dioramas is the connector to the State Office Building. The connector features a public art installation of granite that lines either side of the passageway.
Joe Phelan photo
The dioramas were created in the 1950s by Klir Beck, a Maine State Museum artist and curator.
The wildlife dioramas depict Maine’s four seasons. These displays were on view in the south wing of the State House when that space housed the Maine State Museum. To make room for other uses of the south wing space in 1999, the dioramas were meticulously disassembled, moved, and reconstructed.
Maine State Museum Collection, William Thuss photo
The carved granite artwork in the connector is titled Communique and was created by Maine artist Evan W. Haynes. Sandblasted into the granite are words and phrases from French-Wabanaki dictionaries compiled by French Jesuit missionaries in the 1600s. The texts are in the English, French, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abenaki languages and address the essential role of communication in government.
Joe Phelan photo