In 1878 a young surveyor walked the streets of Fryeburg Village with his instruments and drew them onto a map. The Fryeburg Historical Society later shared that map with the Maine Memory Network, where it's catalogued as the "Map of Fryeburg Village in 1878." The creator is listed as R. E. Peary. Three decades later, Robert Peary's name was tied to the North Pole.
On Friday, December 4, photographs and artifacts from that Arctic expedition come to Fryeburg Academy's Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center. The exhibition, "True North: Photographs from the Arctic," was organized with Bowdoin College's Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum. It opens from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Pace Galleries of Art. In Fryeburg, the exhibition is a return visit from a former resident.
The surveyor before the explorer
Peary's time in Fryeburg was short, but he was busy. The U.S. Navy's history of Peary says he worked as a country surveyor in Fryeburg, served as justice of the peace and worked as a taxidermist. He left in 1879 to join the Coast and Geodetic Survey. That federal survey job was the first step on the career path that later took him north.
The Admiral Peary Inn puts his stay in town at 1877 to 1881, according to the inn's own history of the building. The two accounts end in different years, but they agree on the main point. Before Peary was an explorer, Fryeburg was where he worked as a surveyor.
The Fryeburg Historical Society's Ham Research Library still has a collection on him. Its inventory lists a holding called "Fryeburg's link to the Arctic" alongside the "Maine, Plan of Fryeburg Village." Those library holdings cover the years before the expedition that the Pace Galleries will show.
What the Pace Galleries show brings home
The Academy describes "True North" as photographs and artifacts from Peary's Arctic expedition, assembled with the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin. In December, material from that museum's collection comes to the town Peary once surveyed.
The December 4 opening runs two hours, 4 to 6 p.m., and the galleries are inside the Performing Arts Center at 18 Bradley Street. For gallery hours after opening night, how long the show runs and any admission details, call the box office at 207-544-9066 or email [email protected].
The drawing on top of Jockey Cap
You can see Peary's work in Fryeburg without going indoors. Jockey Cap rises about half a mile from the village on Route 302 toward Bridgton. According to the Maine Memory Network record contributed by the Fryeburg Historical Society, it stands 200 feet high, 610 feet above sea level, with a 15-minute walking trail to the top.
The same record says Peary made a drawing of the mountains seen from the summit. In 1938 his wife and daughter erected a bronze monument on top of Jockey Cap that depicts that drawing.
Taken together, Fryeburg has three pieces of the Peary story:
- 1878: The village map he drew and surveyed, held through the Fryeburg Historical Society
- 1938: The bronze version of his mountain drawing on top of Jockey Cap
- December 4, 2026: His Arctic photographs and artifacts in the Pace Galleries of Art
The opening ends at 6 p.m. on a December evening, so the summit monument is a better trip for a different, daylight afternoon. Before the opening, the 1878 map is a good piece of background. It shows the village as Peary surveyed it in 1878.
Three weeks on the same stage before the gallery opens
The building where "True North" opens is busy for the three weeks before. The calendar runs from a student musical to an evening of international short films, with a craft fair in between.
- Chicago: Teen Edition, Thursday, November 12, through Sunday, November 15. The Fryeburg Academy fall musical plays at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Music is by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and the book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. The show is based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, with script adaptation by David Thompson. Tickets are $17.50 for adults and $5.80 for students.
- The 45th Asbury Short Film Concert, Friday, November 20, at 7:30 p.m., with Doug LeClaire as show host and director. The program runs about two hours and mixes comedy, drama and animation. It is recommended for ages 16 and up. Tickets are $28.50 for adults, $5.80 for students and $5.15 for Fryeburg Academy faculty and staff.
- The FATA Craft Fair, Sunday, November 22. FATA stands for the Fryeburg Academy Teachers' Association, as a Conway Daily Sun notice about the fair explains. The Academy calendar lists this year's fair as an all-day event.
The Asbury show is the outlier on that list because it's the one evening of the month built around films from outside Fryeburg. The venue's Etix listing describes Asbury Shorts USA as New York City's longest-running short film exhibition and touring show. This year's visit is billed as part of "Asbury Shorts USA's 16th Anniversary year." The same listing quotes director Jason Reitman, whose credits include "JUNO" and "Up in the Air":
"The best short film show I've ever experienced."
The listing also says each program pairs award-winning shorts from past years with new festival honorees, and promises "unannounced surprises." The film concert, the craft fair and the student musical all use the same campus, so the arts center sees a steady stream of visitors through November.
Weekend opera matinees, from December through June
The day after "True North" opens, the theater switches to opera. The Met Opera Live in HD presents Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila at noon on Saturday, December 5. Tickets are $34 for adults and $12 for students. If you're at the gallery opening on Friday, you can be back on Saturday for the noon screening.
The venue's Etix page lists five more Met Live in HD titles for Fryeburg, all at the same $34 adult and $12 student prices:
- La Fanciulla del West, a 1 p.m. show
- Silent Night, a 1 p.m. show
- Manon, a 1 p.m. show
- Otello, a 1 p.m. show
- Parsifal, a noon show
Tickets for all five went on sale October 17, 2026, and the screenings run from January into June 2027. Check the Etix listing for each screening's date and time before you plan around one. All of these events are at 18 Bradley Street, and the box office takes questions by phone at 207-544-9066.
Here at Saco Valley Real Estate, we love the parts of Fryeburg's history that are still easy to visit, like the Peary map, the monument on Jockey Cap and now his photographs on Bradley Street. If you'd like to talk about the town, its history or what's coming up on the Academy calendar, Ryan is always glad to hear from you. Start Your Local Search.
