AUGUSTA — The American Association for State and Local History recently presented the Maine State Museum with two awards for its exhibition project, “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives.”

The museum received the Award of Merit in the AASLH Leadership in History Award program and the 2013 History in Progress award. The History in Progress award is an additional distinction for an Award of Merit winner.

Museum Director Bernard Fishman accepted the awards on behalf of the museum at the annual AASLH national conference in Birmingham, Ala.

The one-year exhibition — which closed on May 25 — contained historical photographs, artifacts, and documents that told the story of the poor, mixed-race, sometimes controversial community that lived on the 42-acre island off the Phippsburg mainland, according to a news release from the museum. The exhibition also presented information about the State of Maine evicting Malaga Island’s residents from their homes in 1912.

Educational material about the story of the Malaga Island community is available on the museum’s website, www.mainestatemuseum.org. An illustrated publication, “Malaga Island, Fragmented Lives,” by exhibition curator Kate McBrien, is available at the museum store. For more information, call 287-2938.