Learning history in Lewiston

A box of shoe forms is among the artifacts at the Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor at 35 Canal St. in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Karen Geisen, left, and Alison Gibbs, right, look at artifacts Friday morning during a guided tour with Clayton Bessire, center, at the Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor at the Bates Mill Complex on Canal Street in Lewiston. The friends from the Portland area grew up and worked in Lewiston, but had never visited the museum. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Children look out the window of the Bates Mill Complex Friday morning during a guided tour of the Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor at 35 Canal St. in Lewiston. They were part of a Ridgeway Homeschool field trip from the Portland area. Educator and Community Outreach Manager Mary Kate MacVicar talked about the canal system that powered the mills and how they were built. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Children from the Ridgeway Homeschool look at old photographs Friday morning during a tour of the Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor in the Bates Mill Complex on Canal Street in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Mary Kate MacVicar, center background, community outreach manager at the Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning and Labor, talks Friday with children and parents from the Ridgeway Homeschool program. The students toured the museum at 35 Canal St. in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal