L.C. Bates Museum of Natural History and Culture
Rock and Mineral Gallery. Photo: L.C. Bates Museum
On the campus of Good Will-Hinkley sits the beautiful Quincy Building, a 1903 Romanesque Revival school, filled to the brim with curiosities and wonders. The L.C. Bates Museum is home to galleries of mammals, birds, reptiles, minerals and habitat dioramas – some of the best-preserved museum interiors from the early 20th century. A museum of a museum, but so much more. Here you can see a marlin caught by Ernest Hemmingway, a platypus, and Wabanaki basketry.
The museum was actually founded by George Walter Hinckley, the founder of Good Will-Hinkley residential school for underprivileged children, in 1889. Hinckley’s philosophy of reaching included skilled trades, farm work, and nondenominational religious teaching, all grounded in the “good will” idea that personal interaction with other individuals and objects helps shape healthy young minds.
The museum began as a small collection of stones and has now grown to include more than 10,000 archaeological artifacts and thousands of other objects. The museums namesake, Lewis Carlton Bates, was a local businessman and philanthropist who funded both the expansion of the museum’s collections and its move to its current location in the 1920s.
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the campus also includes an arboretum, nature trails, and self-guided tours. The museum is open seasonally from April to November.
