Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
38°47′14″N 76°13′13″W / 38.787343°N 76.220229°W
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is located in St. Michaels, Maryland, United States and is home to a collection of Chesapeake Bay artifacts, exhibitions, and vessels. This 18-acre (73,000 m2) interactive museum was founded in 1965 on Navy Point, once a site of seafood packing houses, docks, and work boats. Today, the museum houses the world's largest collection of Chesapeake Bay boats and provides interactive exhibits in and around the 35 buildings which dot the campus. The museum also offers year-round educational seminars and workshops.
History
First opened to the public in 1965 the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, was a project of the Historical Society of Talbot County, which acquired three waterfront houses along St. Michaels Harbor. Within the first few years, the museum acquired historic watercraft and exhibited them afloat, notably the oyster sloop J. T. Leonard in 1966 and the log-bottom bugeye
His successor, John R. Valliant, led the museum through further growth, including a library, Oystering Building, and At Play on the Bay building, the latter two products of a $17.2 million capital campaign. His tenure also saw the marked expansion of the museum's programming, from resident scholars whose original research supported new publications, exhibitions and curricula to yearlong boat yard apprentices and a groundbreaking Apprentice for a Day drop-in weekend boatbuilding class. Also created during Valliant's tenure was the Academy for Lifelong Learning, which offers peer-taught classes. Valliant also dramatically expanded the museum's collections, from the purchase of the Downes Curtis sailmaking tools (1997) to the acquisition of a major group of artworks by Baltimore marine artist Louis Feuchter (1885-1957) and the Robert H. Burgess collection of maritime objects, manuscripts, and photographs (2006).
Valliant retired in 2006 and was succeeded by Stuart Parnes, who transformed the bulkheading of Fogg's Cove into a living shoreline and led other environmental initiatives. Beginning in 2009, his successor, Langley Shook, rebuilt the museum's finances following the downturn in the economy, while overseeing a major restoration of the 1955 skipjack Rosie Parks and acquisition of the historic 1920 buy boat Winnie Estelle, which replaced the buyboat replica Mister Jim for taking passengers on tours of the Miles River. Shook retired in 2014 and was succeeded by Kristen Greenaway, who expanded the museum's special exhibitions program beginning with A Broad Reach: Fifty Years of Collecting to mark the museum's 50th anniversary in 2015. She led an initiative to correct deferred maintenance on museum facilities, which included work on the
Exhibits
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum tells the
During the COVID-19 pandemic the museum opened a digital exhibit to allow the public access to the institution remotely. Island Life: Changing Cultures, Changing Shorelines is a photography exhibition that details the effects climate change are having in and around the Chesapeake Bay. Themes explore rapid climate change, shore erosion, and environmentally motivated community displacement.
Education and outreach
CBMM offers field trips for students in grades PreK through college, emphasizing topics including history, geography, and the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. A bus scholarship program helps visiting school groups with the cost of transportation. The Lighthouse Overnight Program allows children to experience the life of a mariner standing watch overnight. The museum also provides programs for children such as Sea Squirts Summer Camp, as well as hands-on games, crafts, and storytelling throughout the year. For adults, the museum's programs include a Lecture Series, Adult-Guided Tours, and the Academy for Lifelong Learning, a series of courses centered on continuing learning inside the classroom and beyond. In addition to a variety of programs, the museum offers a 10,800-volume library of ship plans, manuscripts, books, and sketches.
Working boatyard
The museum has a working
See also
References
- Webster, Philip (2003). Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. Virginia Beach, Va.: Donning Co. ISBN 1578642175.
External links
- Official website
- Campus Map
- National Maritime Historical Society
- Island Life: Changing Cultures, Changing Shorelines
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MD-108, "Tilghman Island Bridge, Spanning Knapp's Narrows, Tilghman, Talbot County, MD", 4 photos, 3 data pages, 1 photo caption page
- HAER No. MD-77, "Two-Sail Bateau E. C. COLLIER, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Saint Michaels, Talbot County, MD", 53 photos, 8 measured drawings, 18 data pages, 3 photo caption pages
- HAER No. MD-171, "Skipjack Caleb Jones, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Saint Michaels, Talbot County, MD", 5 photos, 3 measured drawings, 1 photo caption page
- HAER No. MD-182, "Tug DELAWARE, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Saint Michaels, Talbot County, MD", 3 photos, 2 measured drawings, 1 photo caption page