Flooding can be catastrophic. Your safety is paramount, but damage to mementos and can feel like a huge loss, too.
Did you know that printed photographs may be salvageable, even after being submerged in water?
The Whatcom Museum is home to a PNW photo archive collection, so we’re sharing some tips from @archival_methods that we follow, too:
1. Don’t panic and always carry a towel. (Good advice.)
2. Mold begins growing in 24-48 hours, and paper items that weren’t submerged can grow mold due to high humidity. If you can, move items to a dry place with good ventilation.
3. You can freeze wet photos until you can deal with them properly. That’s because letting items partially dry can cause more damage.
4. Separate photos that are stuck together & remove them from sleeves/albums.
5. Gently rinse photos and film with distilled or clean water to remove debris before drying.
6. Lay photos image-side up on something absorbent, like towels (see #1!). Swap out towels periodically until photos are dry. Plain paper towels work, too.
7. Note: some things like ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, and tintypes are very sensitive to water damage and should not be frozen. Air dry them and consult a conservator as soon as possible.
We’ve gathered more resources and links on our website. Find them via the link in our bio.
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#WhatcomMuseum #PhotoPreservation #FamilyArchives #CollectionCare #ArchiveCare #MuseumTips #EmergencyPreparedness #FloodRecovery #PreserveYourPast #BellinghamWA
Dinger is coming to the museum TODAY! (5/14) 🐹⚾
The Bellingham Bells' mascot will be in the Family Interactive Gallery at 3:30 PM — stop by and say hi!
Psst: the Whatcom Museum is also a participating attraction in Dinger's Play Pass this summer. More details at bellinghambells.com.
📸 Photo courtesy of @bellinghamschools
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#WhatcomMuseum #Bellingham #BellinghamBells #BellinghamKids #WhatcomCounty
Bellingham Bay is calling. 🛥️
Summer Sunset Cruises tickets are on sale now! Every Tuesday, July 7 through August 25, sail out of the Bellingham Cruise and Ferry Terminal for two hours of stunning bay views, local storytelling, and a little maritime history.
This season: history cruises with Kolby LaBree of the Good Time Girls, a geology cruise with WWU's Colin Amos, Ph.D., and a special family storytelling night rooted in Coast Salish tradition.
Members $50 | Public $60 | Kids 5 and under free with registration
Tickets available online or at the museum store. Link in bio.
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#WhatcomMuseum #Bellingham #SummerSunsetCruises #BellinghamBay #ThingsToDoBellingham #BellinghamWA #PNWSummer #PacificNorthwest #SalishSea
Today is Free First Friday. 🧱
The LEGO® Festival is here and it's completely free.
Swipe through for the full lineup, then here's what to know:
📍 Lightcatcher Building | 250 Flora St. | Opens 10 am
📍 Old City Hall | 121 Prospect St. | Opens 12 pm
The Community LEGO® Competition Gallery is inside Old City Hall, so plan to head there after noon. Vote for your favorite build, meet local LEGO® Masters contestants Brad & Mike, and catch the winner reveal at 6 pm.
Live music from Limited Addition closes out the night at 6:30.
Free admission. All ages.
🔗 Full schedule at the link in bio.
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#FreeFirstFriday #WhatcomMuseum #BrickByBrick #LEGOFestival #LEGOMasters #Bellingham #BellinghamWA #BellinghamEvents #FamilyFriendly #FreeEvents #ThingsToDoBellingham #PNWFamily #MuseumLife #KidsActivities #CommunityEvent
One door closes. Another one opens — straight into the Twilight Zone. 🌀
When staff member David Miller was starting out as an illustrator, he shopped his portfolio to Warren Publications in New York City, dreaming of seeing his work in magazines like "Eerie" and "Famous Monsters of Filmland." He landed an assignment, poured everything into it, and delivered it — only to have the editor tear it apart and tell him he'd never work in the industry again.
The next day, Twilight Zone Magazine called. That editor loved his work and kept coming back to him for years.
On display now at the Whatcom Museum: a collection of Twilight Zone Magazine issues featuring David's illustrations, straight from his personal collection.
And we want yours, too. Do you have a small collection you'd love to share? Follow the link in our bio to fill out the interest form and have your collection considered for display.
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#WhatcomMuseum #Bellingham #BellinghamWA #TwilightZone #TwilightZoneMagazine #IllustrationHistory #ComicArtHistory #PulpMagazines #HorrorArt #LocalArtist #CommunityCollection #WhatcomCounty #PNWMuseum #PacificNorthwest #MuseumOfBellingham
So proud to announce that LUMINOUS GLOW will be opening @whatcom_museum July 11th, 2026, featuring photographs with @gilbertphoto888 and the Lightcatcher Constellation, my largest neon installation yet, all inside the stunning Lightcatcher Gallery. These videos were taken as we placed the Blue Door on the edge of Whatcom Falls, a Pacific Northwest treasure. More details will follow, but for now we are steadying our breath, soaking in the atmosphere of this place. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone at the Whatcom Museum and to everyone who has helped us along the way! #pnw #neon #light #art #photography
A small human visited Old City Hall and said what we were all thinking.
Welcome to "Overheard at the Museum," where we share the unfiltered wisdom of our visitors alongside a little history they probably weren't thinking about at all.
The quote was overheard somewhere in Old City Hall. The photo we paired it with? Shipwrights posing on April 2, 1917, with the S.S. Firwood, a 242-foot wooden freighter under construction at the Pacific American Fisheries' yard at the foot of Harris Avenue. In two days, she'd be christened and launched. By December 1919, she'd burned off the coast of Peru.
So. The small human wasn't wrong.
Photo by Steen's Studio, H.C. Hanson Collection, Whatcom Museum #1994.2.125.
Got a quote you've overheard at the museum? Drop it in the comments.
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#WhatcomMuseum #OverheardAtTheMuseum #Bellingham #PhotoArchives #LocalHistory #BellinghamHistory #MuseumHumor #KidsInMuseums
Final tickets are available for "Introduction to Earth Pigments: Watercolor Paintmaking with Julie Kim" — don't miss your chance to join this hands-on workshop!
Learn to forage, process, and transform rocks and minerals from around Washington into your own artist-grade watercolor paints. You'll go home with the paints you make, plus a recipe to keep the practice going. Open to all levels, adults only. Space is limited to 12 participants.
📅 Saturday, April 11, 1–4 pm
📍 Lightcatcher Studio, Whatcom Museum
🎟️ Members $160 / Public $180 (includes museum admission and all supplies)
Link in bio to register.
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#WhatcomMuseum #EarthPigments #NaturalPigments #WatercolorWorkshop #PaintMaking #JulieKim #BellinghamWA #ArtWorkshop #HandmadePaints #NaturalPaints #Bellingham #PNWArtist #WatercolorArtist #MakeArt #ArtClass
Something 300 million years in the making opens this Friday.
”Painted Forest: The Science and Beauty of Petrified Wood” is a new exhibition featuring ancient forest specimens from the Pacific Northwest, Arizona, Utah, Argentina, Madagascar, and Turkey — ranging in age from 15 to 300 million years old, on loan from the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks & Minerals.
Petrified wood forms when buried trees are slowly replaced, mineral by mineral, preserving rings, grain, and even cellular detail in stone. The result: vivid colors from deep reds and yellows to purples and blues, and a record of forests that existed long before humans walked the earth.
Opens April 3. On view through 2026. 🪨🌲
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#WhatcomMuseum #PaintedForest #PetrifiedWood #FossilFriday #NaturalHistory #Geology #ScienceAndArt #PacificNorthwest #Bellingham #BellinghamWA #ExploreWA
