Education Programs - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

CBMM has a full slate of youth programs on tap this fall, with a wide variety of offerings designed to help children learn while exploring the Bay and beyond. (Photo by Sharon Thorpe)

ST. MICHAELS, Md., Sept. 20, 2023 – The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has a full slate of youth programs on tap this fall, with a wide variety of offerings designed to spark learning through exploration of the Bay and beyond.

This fall, CBMM’s after-school programs include the return of Rising Tide and Free Fishing Fridays, while Homeschool Days and Science Saturdays offer engaging examinations of important topics through the lens of CBMM’s campus and collection.

Open to sixth through ninth graders, the free Rising Tide after-school program offers the opportunity to learn new skills, work with hand and power tools, and explore the environment and history of the Chesapeake region. Projects this year will include the completion of the program’s second stand-up paddleboard, a skin-on-frame boat, and a possible replica build of a soft shell crab float in CBMM’s collection.

Rising Tide resumes next Monday, Sept. 25, and is offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 3:30-5:30pm for a majority of the school year. After-school transportation is offered from the Easton YMCA and St. Michaels Middle/High School and back to the Easton YMCA.

All necessary tools and materials are provided, and no prior woodworking experience is necessary. Register at bit.ly/RisingTide2023 or email risingtide@cbmm.org for more information.

CBMM’s Free Fishing Fridays program invites community members of all ages for catch-and-release fishing on Fridays from 3:30-5:30pm. There are six dates on the fall calendar (Sept. 29-Oct. 20, plus Nov. 10 and 17) for this weather-permitting, drop-in program that teaches the basics of fishing, including casting techniques and fish identification.

No fishing license or equipment is required to participate. Fishing rods and bait are provided, but participants are welcome to bring their own fishing pole. Children under 10 must be accompanied and supervised by an adult. Anyone interested in participating should contact Youth Programs Coordinator Sophie Stuart at 410-745-4974 or sstuart@cbmm.org.

This fall, participants in CBMM’s Rising Tide after-school program are set to take on a variety of projects, including a stand-up paddleboard and a skin-on-frame boat.

A new addition to the lineup, CBMM’s Science Saturdays will be held monthly from 1-3pm rotating between Little Explorers (ages 4-7) and Curiosity Club (8-11). Under the direction of an experienced educator, participants will learn through hands-on activities that incorporate science, art, and museum exploration.

The Curiosity Club will meet Oct. 14 and Dec. 9 as well as Feb. 10 and April 13 in 2024, while the Little Explorers are scheduled for Nov. 11, plus Jan. 13 and March 9 in the new year.

Registration for all sessions is open now at bit.ly/ScienceSaturdays2023. The cost is $15 per class, with a 20% discount for CBMM Members. Need-based scholarships are available by emailing registration@cbmm.org.

CBMM is hosting upcoming Homeschool Days on Sept. 26 and 28 and special homeschool workshops on Oct. 23 and Nov. 29. On all four days, there is a morning session from 10:30am-12pm followed by an afternoon class from 1-2:30pm. To register, visit bit.ly/CBMMHomeschool.

During next week’s program, participants will participate in the Oystering Legacy immersive tour, which offers an up-close look at an oyster nursery’s crabs, fish, and baby mollusks while exploring how the oyster has shaped the Bay and its people. The cost is $5 per participating student or accompanying adult.

The Oct. 23 workshop, designed for students ages 8-15, goes inside the life of a Bay lighthouse keeper in 1879 utilizing the Hooper Strait Lighthouse on CBMM’s campus, while the Nov. 29 workshop, titled “Feather Weather,” is geared toward children ages 5-8, who will explore how birds fly and their migration patterns and design their own bird-inspired paper airplanes.

The cost for each of these programs is $15 per participant. Students may be dropped off by a chaperoning adult and picked up at the end of the program. If accompanying adults and additional non-participant children would like to explore CBMM during the program, they may purchase a $5 ticket with children 5 years and younger free.

Beyond all that public programming, now is a great time to schedule a group visit for the 2023-24 school year.

Student groups, including school, Scout, and other youth programs, are encouraged to contact registration@cbmm.org for more information about scheduling a CBMM field trip. Group offerings include the popular Lighthouse Overnight Adventure program, which is available this fall for groups to spend a night on campus in the Hooper Strait Lighthouse.

CBMM will welcome Peter Panyon and Big Tribe to campus on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 7pm for “Songs about the Water,” an acoustic concert of songs and stories with a dose of science.

ST. MICHAELS, Md., Sept. 13, 2023 – Back in the early 1990s, Peter Panyon was taking part in a weeklong workshop for college professors focused on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries when inspiration struck while cruising the Patuxent River.

“It occurred to me: Wait a minute, there’s a story to tell here,” Panyon remembered. “I was thinking, ‘Man, somebody should write a song about that, and nobody’s going to do it if it’s not me.’”

A biology professor by trade, Panyon would write and re-write the song over the years on the way to perfecting “Can’t Work the River.” The ballad tracing a watermen’s struggles was included on his band Big Tribe’s debut album in 2014, and its music video is now part of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s special exhibition The Changing Chesapeake.

On Sept. 28 at 7pm, Panyon and his Big Tribe bandmates Bonnie Eyler and Joe Huette will present “Songs About the Water,” an evening of songs and stories with a dose of science at CBMM’s Van Lennep Auditorium.

This “Changing Chesapeake Coffeehouse” concert will feature fare provided by Blue Heron Coffee of St. Michaels and highlight songs drawing inspiration from local rivers to the Gulf oil spill and hurricane disasters.

The suggested ticket price is $15 per participant for this event, which is sponsored by the Upper Shore Regional Folklife Center. To register and get more information, visit cbmm.org/SongsAboutWater.

Panyon has married two of his passions in coming up with a catalog to fill a concert like this.

The Calvert County resident is now retired after a lengthy career teaching biology at the University of Maryland, Catholic University, and Prince George’s Community College.

As a musician, Panyon has written hundreds of songs, dating back to his teenage years. Recently, he’s catalyzed Big Tribe, which has released two albums of eclectic rock tracks with a new one, “Postcards from the Mission,” due out later this year.

Those experiences have helped Panyon carve out a unique lane as a songwriter with something to say.

“Your normal rock and roll about cars and girls, that’s not what we do,” Panyon said. “What we’re really up to is trying to hit people with music that, while they’re having fun with it, there’s a message in there that hopefully we get them to think about.”

The “Can’t Work the River” video debuted in 2016 at a conference on teaching science through alternative media at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Now, the 5-minute, 25-second video that features two watermen from different generations grappling with the realities of working the Patuxent River is finding a new audience as part of The Changing Chesapeake, which is on exhibit through next March.

“I want to at least crack open the door that leads to thinking about this scientifically,” Panyon said. “Yes, it’s a story about a guy, and he lost his woman, and he’s having trouble making a living, but when you dive beneath the surface of that story, there’s this other story about what’s actually going wrong. Why is this way of life that’s millennia old getting more and more iffy?”

In concert, Panyon aims to expand on these important themes.

While Big Tribe’s albums feature big sound from a full band with bass drums, electric guitars, and an array of complementary instruments, its acoustic shows with Panyon, Eyler, and Huette are more easygoing, free-flowing, and even interactive.

“It’s not just music,” Panyon said. “We’re going to throw a little science in, and we’re totally open to having a dialogue.”

The set list for these live shows goes in different directions with various meditations on the importance of valuing our waterways, including another track with roots in the 1990s and a literal earnestness to its title, “We Are the River.”

As he prepares for his CBMM gig, Panyon is excited that he’s found a perfect partner to help him share these songs that mean so much to him.

“Most bands are looking to play big venues like stadiums,” Panyon said with a chuckle. “For us, it’s museums. We want to do as many museums as possible, and once we’ve conquered the museum world, then we’re going for the stadiums.”

CBMM and Temple B’nai Israel are partnering on an Oct. 11 Speaker Event to share the story of a Chesapeake packet steamship with a symbolic role in the formation of Israel 75 years ago. British Admiralty photo, 1947, Collection of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

ST. MICHAELS, Md., Sept. 8, 2023 – The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is partnering with Temple B’nai Israel of Easton on Wednesday, Oct. 11 to present “S.S. President Warfield to Exodus 1947: The Chesapeake Steamship That Launched Israel.”

During this Speaker Event hosted in the Van Lennep Auditorium, CBMM’s Chief Historian Pete Lesher and University of Maryland Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Herf share the story of a Chesapeake packet steamship with a symbolic role in the formation of Israel 75 years ago. Light refreshments will be served at 5pm, and the talk will begin promptly at 5:30pm.

The suggested ticket price is $8 per participant with both in-person and virtual options available. To register and get more information, visit cbmm.org/ShipThatLaunchedIsrael.

This program is made possible in part through the generosity of Marlene and Phil Feldman.

“The history of this steamship is familiar to many of us—its story was made famous both in books and in the movies,” Temple B’nai Israel Rabbi Peter Hyman said. “What may be less well known is that Exodus first sailed on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. This, for many of us living here, intensifies and makes more poignant our connection to this ship and to the role it played in post-World War II history.”

This program will trace the vessel’s interesting journey to its place in history.

S.S. President Warfield was the largest and last steamboat built for the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, nicknamed the “Old Bay Line.” The luxury liner ran overnight express service between Baltimore and Norfolk beginning in 1928.

Like several other Bay steamboats, President Warfield was requisitioned for service in World War II, and after surviving the war, it was ultimately sold via auction to a Zionist organization seeking to take European Jewish refugees displaced by the war to Palestine.

Despite opposition from the British government that controlled Palestine, President Warfield recrossed the Atlantic Ocean, took refugees aboard in southern France, and headed on.

British naval vessels followed and ultimately stopped the steamship just short of its destination. Amid the melee, new nameboards were revealed, dubbing the vessel Exodus 1947.

The international attention that ensued around the plight of the Jewish refugees ultimately led to the establishment of the State of Israel. While the venerable steamship saw no more use, it was called by some “the ship that launched a nation” and its story inspired Leon Uris’ novel “Exodus.”

CBMM’s collection features two models of the steamship, numerous historic photographs, and several related artifacts, including a brass state room key and a dinner menu from its maiden voyage.

During next month’s program, Lesher will share the history of the vessel through World War II, while Herf, an authority on modern European history, will speak about the international impact of the Exodus 1947 incident.

“It’s an extraordinary story, and because of its international dimensions, President Warfield was among the best-known Chesapeake Bay steamboats,” Lesher said. “We think this program will appeal both to those interested in Chesapeake Bay maritime history and 20^th century Jewish history, the founding of the State of Israel, and international relations in the aftermath of World War II.”

Find more information about CBMM’s fall series of Speaker Events at cbmm.org/speakerseries and all of its upcoming events at cbmm.org/events.

CBMM’s upcoming Speaker Event schedule features six events that will be hosted in the Van Lennep Auditorium and also available virtually, including programming built around CBMM’s special exhibitions The Changing Chesapeake and Her Helm.

ST. MICHAELS, Md., Aug. 25, 2023 – The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has a wide range of opportunities for lifelong learners to engage with the region’s history, environment, and culture over the coming months through its Speaker Event programming. The upcoming schedule features six events that will be hosted in the Van Lennep Auditorium and also available virtually.

The offerings, including programs built around CBMM’s special exhibitions The Changing Chesapeake and Her Helm, are designed to spark important conversations while fostering connections between the past, present, and future of the Bay. They are supported by the Upper Shore Regional Folklife Center under the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council.

The suggested ticket cost is $8 per session, except for the “Changing Chesapeake Coffeehouse” concert, which is $15. To sign up, and get more information, visit cbmm.org/SpeakerSeries.

“CBMM is pleased to host such a wide range of events this fall, including scholars, community leaders, and artists,” Vice President of Education & Interpretation Jill Ferris said. “We hope you will join us throughout this series, which explores so many facets of Chesapeake life, including the inspiration of art and music, climate change in the region, and local connections to significant historical events.”

The fall series begins Thursday, Sept. 14 at 5:30pm, with an exhibition-opening artist talk with Her Helm photographer Kristin Rutkowski.

With her two-year “Her Helm” portrait project, Rutkowski sought to challenge gendered stereotypes by highlighting more than 50 women who captain vessels on the Chesapeake Bay. In this talk, the Maryland-based photographer will share how the project started, what it meant to the women who participated, what it means to society, and some of the insights she learned along the way.

CBMM will welcome acoustic-electric trio Big Tribe to campus on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 7pm for “Songs about the Water,” a concert of songs and stories with a dose of science.

Big Tribe is catalyzed by singer-songwriter and retired biology professor Peter Panyon alongside Bonnie Eyler and Joe Heutte. The group’s music video for the song “Can’t Work the River” is currently on view in CBMM’s special exhibition, The Changing Chesapeake.

On Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 5:30pm, CBMM will partner with Temple B’nai Israel to present “S.S. President Warfield to Exodus 1947: The Chesapeake Steamship That Launched Israel.”

CBMM’s Chief Historian Pete Lesher and University of Maryland Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Herf will share the story of a Chesapeake vessel with a symbolic role in the formation of Israel 75 years ago. S.S. President Warfield was a luxury liner carrying passengers between Baltimore and Norfolk, Va., until it was called into service in World War II. Afterward, a Zionist organization attempted to use the ship, renamed Exodus 1947, to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine.

Light refreshments will be available starting at 5pm. This event is made possible in part through the generosity of Marlene and Phil Feldman.

The Speaker Event series continues Monday, Oct. 23 at 5:30pm with another Her Helm program, this time featuring Capt. Judy Bixler.

During “Her Helm: The Oxford-Bellevue Ferry Tale,” Bixler will share her experiences operating the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry—believed to be the oldest privately owned ferry service in the U.S.— over the past two decades.

On Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 5:30pm, CBMM, in collaboration with the Maryland Geographic Alliance, hosts Chesapeake Bay Foundation President & CEO Hilary Harp Falk for “Facing Our Unfinished Challenge: Saving the Bay in the 21st Century.”

Since January 2022, Falk has been the leader of the Annapolis-based conservation organization whose motto, “Save the Bay,” has become a regional rallying cry for pollution reduction throughout the Chesapeake’s six-state watershed. This talk will cover CBF’s continuing efforts to create understanding of the Bay’s poor health, engage public leaders, and maintain a cleanup approach that features real accountability through the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint.

Also, mark your calendar for CBMM’s first Speaker Event in the new year. Prof. Laura Guertin presents “Quilting Climate Science & Solutions” on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, at 3pm.

A distinguished professor of Earth Sciences at Penn State Brandywine, Guertin has turned to a unique medium to connect new audiences with science stories: quilting. In this program, she will present an overview of climate science, and highlight examples of actions we can take in addressing these changes – all communicated via quilts. One example, “Looking Out at the Ghosts of the Coast,” is on exhibit as part of CBMM’s The Changing Chesapeake.

Stay tuned for more Speaker Events coming in early 2024. Find more information about all of CBMM’s upcoming events at cbmm.org/events.

CBMM’s Exhibition Designer & Projects Manager Jim Koerner leads students in the Museum Masters summer camp on a tour of the new Welcome Center. (Photo by Sharon Thorpe)

By Eric Detweiler, Communications Specialist

ST. MICHAELS, Md., July 26, 2023 – Caiden Sackett carefully stuck a long drawer back into a library card catalog cabinet and turned attention toward a thick blue book filled with hundreds of pages of journal entries from a 19^th-century schooner captain.

“I feel like I’m on a scavenger hunt,” the 12-year-old from Easton said to his buddy Kenton Baynard.

The middle-school research partners were trying to learn all they could about a brass inkwell shaped like an alligator as part of Museum Masters summer camp at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.

Over the past two weeks, the newest offering in CBMM’s Summer Camp lineup gave children a unique look at CBMM’s extensive collection and a crash course on the responsibilities of a museum curator from artifact care to exhibition design.

Utilizing the newly renovated Norman & Ellen Plummer Center for Museum Collections, the Museum Masters campers used library materials and electronic resources to research real collection objects. They applied what they learned to create informational labels for the artifacts and combined their work to create an exhibition to share with their families and friends at an open house to close the week.

“I didn’t really know what to expect, but it’s so much fun,” said 12-year-old Ella Eckholm of Easton. “I thought it was just going to be going behind the scenes of the museum, but it’s way more than that. I love it.”

For CBMM, it was an opportunity to reach a different audience with its summer programming by creating a camp that showcased its enhanced collections and research space and shared the expertise of its curatorial staff with the next generation.

“I’m really proud of the impact that Museum Masters has had on the campers who participated,” CBMM Vice President of Education & Interpretation Jill Ferris said. “It’s very common for a museum to be a space where kids and families can come and have an enjoyable time, but what’s pretty unique about this is that the campers are able to delve into our collections and conduct real research to investigate what is interesting to them.”

CBMM debuted its Museum Masters summer camp this month, providing campers a unique look at its extensive collection and a crash-course on the responsibilities of a museum curator from artifact care to exhibition design.

The new camp – with one week geared toward grades 4-6 and the other grades 6-9 – was a collaboration between CBMM’s education and curatorial teams.

Museum Educator Alyssa Zajan leaned on a master’s degree in Museum Studies and assistance from Director of Curatorial Affairs & Exhibitions Jen Dolde, Museum Collections Specialist Gabriella Cantelmo, and Registrar Amanda Wachowiak to create age-appropriate lesson plans. Together, the team combed through CBMM’s collection of more than 80,000 artifacts to identify research options that would both interest and engage the campers.

Beyond the exhibition creation project, the highlights included a field trip day (one group went to Easton’s Academy Art Museum and the other to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center in Dorchester County), an afternoon of kayaking, a tour of CBMM’s under-construction Welcome Center led by Exhibition Designer & Projects Manager Jim Koerner, and time for the sort of fun and games that are a hallmark of summer camps everywhere.

“We’ve all talked about how this is the camp we would’ve wanted to go to as children,” Zajan said. “Creating it, we were guided by, ‘What would we have wanted to do when we were that age?’”

Dolde was eager to share all the ways that the Plummer Center can be used for historical research to tell stories about the history and culture of the Chesapeake Bay region.

In one particularly enlightening lesson, Dolde showed the children how to use a card catalog and then find their selections within the rows of books in the Howard I. Chapelle Library. When she asked the middle school group if anyone had ever seen a card catalog, one girl spoke up and said she remembered seeing one in the 1985 classic movie “The Breakfast Club.”

In today’s world, digital research is, of course, just as important, and Dolde also explained how to navigate CBMM’s online collections portal and take nuggets gleaned there into searching the wider web for reliable sources.

“We’re sharing a whole wider world of how to investigate history,” Dolde said. “It’s very different than just writing a paper.”

The result was fresh research into the chosen artifacts, many of which have been part of the collection for decades, and a chance to improve the information within their digital record.

In one case during the opening week, 10-year-old Carter Woody picked a purse, crab picking tools, and a glove that were originally catalogued without much additional information. Thanks to the camper’s research, the digital file now includes a photo of crab picker Fannie McCain Brooks and new details about her 35 years working in the industry in Hampton, Va.

“That is what this camp is all about,” Ferris said. “They are doing real research with real objects in our real collection, and it’s had a real impact on our understanding of life in the Chesapeake.”

CBMM’s Director of Curatorial Affairs & Exhibitions Jen Dolde shows students in the Museum Masters summer camp a painting of the schooner City of Baltimore in storage within the Norman & Ellen Plummer Center for Museum Collection

The artifacts the children picked spanned a wide spectrum of topics, locations, and eras of Chesapeake history, from a hand drill used for boat building, to a small decorative decoy, to a fishing trophy, to a Bay-themed license plate.

A member of CBMM’s Rising Tide after-school program, Eckholm picked a 1930s oyster shucking knife that was believed to be used by inspectors in Maryland’s Fishery Force, sparking a weeklong journey into the world of oystering.

Hudson Loveday was intrigued by a small lantern. The 13-year-old from Bethesda, Md., came to learn that it was a running light off a World War I power boat with a file that included a scan of a hand-written note from the donor Herman A. Hobelmann asking CBMM to accept it into its collection in 1975.

“I wanted to come because it sounded like fun,” Loveday said. “Definitely different than a chess or sports camp. Not a lot of places would offer something like this.”

For the 19 students who participated across the two weeks, it was an opportunity to start building research skills that will be useful in class projects going forward and perhaps one day even a career.

Caiden Sackett and Kenton Baynard were up for the challenge, diving in to learn more about their brass alligator’s owner Capt. Leonard Tawes and his schooner City of Baltimore.

After leafing through the collection of Tawes’ journal entries, “Coasting Captain,” published in 1967, they headed off to collections storage with Dolde and Zajan to have a look at a painting of City of Baltimore that they thought might yield more clues.

“It’s about putting the dots together,” Sackett said. “You learn one thing and then there’s another thing that goes off of that and you keep going until you find the end piece.”

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum hosted its inaugural Education Professionals Gratitude Day last Friday, welcoming dozens of teachers, administrators, and support staff from across the region and beyond. (Photo by Sharon Thorpe)

By Mikayla Heiss, Marketing & Communications Coordinator

ST. MICHAELS, Md., June 30, 2023 – Dozens of education professionals met critters living in CBMM’s oyster cages in the Miles River, grooved to live music, and enjoyed some sweet treats at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s first Education Professionals Gratitude Day last Friday.

Teachers, paraprofessionals, school and district administrators, and support staff were invited to spend a day by the water as guests of honor for the festivities.

“I live and grew up in this area, but we haven’t been to CBMM since my daughters were children,” said Michelle Smith, a second-grade teacher at White Marsh Elementary School. “I was so excited to come up here. We haven’t been here since they were little girls, and now they’re 21 and 23.”

The special guests stayed busy throughout the day, taking part in hands-on activities and exploring CBMM’s 18-acre campus.

A lighthouse enthusiast, Smith particularly enjoyed touring the Hooper Strait Lighthouse and learning more about the lighthouses of the Bay, while Jessica Kastel, an English Language Arts teacher at St Michaels Middle High, brought her son Chance to CBMM for a visit filled with relaxation and reminiscing.

“I’m just looking at how everything has changed since I was here in fifth grade,” Kastel said.

CBMM welcomes teachers from across Talbot County, the Eastern Shore, and beyond to campus on a daily basis during the school year.

Education Professionals Gratitude Day was born out of a desire to give back to these community leaders for their tireless work, compassion, and dedication. This year, the event was made possible by the generous support of CBMM’s community partners Easton Velocity, Mid-Atlantic Waste Systems, PNC Bank, and Shore United Bank.

“We were thrilled to welcome so many education professionals for this new event, recognizing all of the hard work they put in throughout the school year to support our PK-12 students” CBMM’s Vice President of Education & Interpretation Jill Ferris said. “We welcome education professionals all year on field trips, but Education Professionals Gratitude Day gave them a chance to start summer break by with a relaxing visit CBMM with their families and loved ones. With the support of our community partners, we look forward to continuing these efforts next year and beyond.”

CBMM’s Education Professionals Gratitude Day festivities included live music, hands-on activities, frozen treats from Hoots Shaved Ice, swag bags, and more. (Photo by Sharon Thorpe)

Last week’s event was designed to celebrate everyone involved in education and attracted a wide range of attendees.

Makayla Moore is just getting started with her career in education. With some experience already under her belt, Moore is going to Chesapeake College to become a teacher.

“I really like working with kids and giving them a positive experience, especially with through the challenges presented by COVID, and showing them that they can do anything,” said Moore, who remembers participating in CBMM’s Lighthouse Overnight Adventure as a Girl Scout.

The festivities drew education professionals from across the region and as far away as San Francisco. That included plenty of guests who live and work on the Eastern Shore, and others, like Amy Higgins, who savored the opportunity to make a special trip here.

“I grew up in the area, and when I received the notice about the day today, I knew I wanted to come be a part of it,” said Higgins, a technical assistant for fine arts in the Howard County Public School System. “I grew up playing on these grounds. I feel like the chance to learn more about the Bay, and especially for our kids, is priceless.”

For more information on CBMM’s youth education programming, including Lighthouse Overnight Adventures, CBMM Summer Camp, STEAM Team, and more, visit cbmm.org/youtheducation.

The middle school students in the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s Rising Tide after-school program launched their newly constructed St. Michaels sailing scow on Monday evening. (Photo by George Sass)

By Eric Detweiler, Communications Specialist

ST. MICHAELS, Md., May 24, 2023 – With a collective push, a group of middle school students from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s Rising Tide after-school program trundled the St. Michaels sailing scow they’ve spent the spring constructing onto the water for the first time on Monday evening.

The 12-foot wooden boat, dubbed Pickle by a consensus vote of the builders, launched into Fogg’s Cove to spirited cheers from the assembled group of family, friends and program supporters.

“It’s fun because you get to see all the stuff that you worked on, and then it’s finally done,” said seventh-grader Sofia Mercado, after taking her turn to get a short ride in the boat. “It’s fun to make something and see it turn out well.”

Monday’s launch event, including an awards presentation and pickle juice toast, was a well-deserved celebration of months of hard work on the project.

Meeting on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, a total of 19 middle school students logged a combined 630 hours toward the project this spring, following Shipwright Apprentice Megan Mitchell’s project plan with support from CBMM education staff and volunteers.

The scow build capped a busy and productive school year for Rising Tide, a free, donor-funded after-school program that has been teaching students in grades 6-9 basic boatbuilding and woodworking skills in a welcoming, relaxed environment since 2015.

“It’s been an incredible experience to see the Rising Tide participants take ownership of this project over the last few months,” CBMM Education Programs Manager Kendall Wallace said. “I hope this project will help to reinforce the ideas that anything is possible if you’re willing to try, and that patience and commitment can result in something to be incredibly proud of.

“I’m constantly inspired by the work they’ve put into this boat, which they can forever point to and say, ‘I built that.’”

Monday’s launch event, including an awards presentation and pickle juice toast, was a well-deserved celebration of months of hard work by the students in CBMM’s Rising Tide after-school program. (Photo by George Sass)

Beginning in January, the Rising Tide students contributed to nearly every step in the process to bring the boat to life in the program workshop.

The project started by studying original plans in CBMM’s collection, drafted in 1929 for the Miles River Yacht Club by George Krill, to draw information about the boat’s shape and size and making a building plan for the molds to set the vessel’s structure.

Once construction commenced, the task list included assisting with milling lumber, scarfing planks, and transferring patterns from the lofting to the building stock. They were involved with the gluing up and shaping the mast and boom, crafting and installing all of the components, and painting the vessel, as well.

Each day brought new lessons for the students, ranging from wood species selection to proper use of block planes to the fine art of varnishing. One memorable February afternoon brought a field trip to the newly renovated Norman & Ellen Plummer Center for Museum Collections to examine a sail in the CBMM collection that was originally built for a St. Michaels scow.

The result was Pickle, which sparkled in the evening sun on Monday with its bright-white hull and green trim. It was the first boat built by the program since launching a pair of Chesapeake crab skiffs, Mary and Susan, in 2018.

Eighth-grader Mac Hudson said his favorite parts were learning the history of the boat and using a hand plane to shape it, while his brother Oskar, a sixth grader, liked getting to visit CBMM’s working Shipyard and the teamwork necessary to get the boat completed.

“We all worked together,” Mac Hudson said. “It’s cool that we got to help make it, and now it’s an actual boat that we can take on the water.”

Students in CBMM’s Rising Tide program had the opportunity to try out the St. Michaels sailing scow on the water. (Photo by George Sass)

For Mitchell, the build served as a capstone project of sorts in her final year of CBMM’s Shipwright Apprentice Program. She agreed to take on the project in December and quickly found it a mix of fun and challenging.

“We’ve learned a lot from the project about what is necessary to complete a project like this with a build philosophy that the kids are helping in a meaningful way,” Mitchell said. “That’s so important. We want them to be involved. If they’re just occasionally rubbing sandpaper on the boat, that’s not meaningful and that’s not building skills for them.”

Beyond the chance to teach her craft to the next generation, Mitchell found it meaningful to take a step back in time to complete a classic design with a distinctly local history.

True to its name, the scow is a St. Michaels original, serving as the racing class of the Miles River Yacht Club in the 1920s and ’30s. One of the few surviving examples is in CBMM’s collection and will be featured in the new watercraft heritage exhibition in the new Welcome Center.

This is likely the first one to be built in town in decades.

“It has been very a cool project to be a part of,” Mitchell said. “The Chesapeake produces a lot of very strange styles of boat that are easily replaced by mass-produced, more-generalized designs, but sometimes having this specific design for this very specific place is an extremely valuable thing.”

“It’s one of the things I love most about CBMM and its programs. Here, we don’t shy away from that specificity.”

Monday’s launch marked the end of spring programming but certainly not the workshop fun for the students involved. Many of them will take part in CBMM’s Summer Camp in the coming weeks, and Rising Tide will resume in the fall with a new, yet-to-be-determined project to tackle.

Wallace is eager to make sure it’s something that will allow the students to build on the hands-on skills that they’ve practiced this spring and the camaraderie the group developed along the way.

“I don’t want you to forget the less technical skills that we practiced every day,” Wallace told the assembled group Monday. “We worked as a team, we practiced patience and understanding, we faced our mistakes when we made them, and we figured out how to do something that I don’t think any of us had ever done before.”

For more information on CBMM’s Rising Tide program, visit cbmm.org/youtheducation or email risingtide@cbmm.org. Find more photos of the launch event here.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is offering a unique look inside the world of lighthouse maintenance and preservation with a Speaker Event, “The Loyal Lampist: Adventures from the Top of a Lighthouse,” on June 8 at 3pm in Van Lennep Auditorium. (Photo courtesy David Zapatka, USLHS)

ST. MICHAELS, Md., May 23, 2023 – In conjunction with exhibit installation in its new Welcome Center, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is offering a unique look inside the world of lighthouse maintenance and preservation.

U.S. Coast Guard certified lampist Kurt Fosburg will detail his work with Fresnel lenses in lighthouses around the globe in a CBMM Speaker Event, “The Loyal Lampist: Adventures from the Top of a Lighthouse,” on Thursday, June 8, at 3pm in the Van Lennep Auditorium.

One of just a handful of certified professional lampists, Fosburg is visiting CBMM to move one of the Fresnel lenses currently on display in the 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse and install it in the new Welcome Center.

In this public talk, Fosburg will share his journey to become an expert in this specialized field and offer stories from a fascinating career working on some of the nation’s most iconic lights. The suggested ticket cost is $8 per person, with both in-person and virtual options available. Registration is now open here.

The event and the relocation of the third-order Fresnel lens are generously supported by Choptank Electric Cooperative.

“We are happy to support this event and relocation of a historic Fresnel lens at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum,” said Mike Malandro, President and CEO of Choptank Electric Cooperative. “Our co-op has served the campus for many years and is proud to continue lighting up the Miles River through this partnership.”

CBMM has three Fresnel lenses currently on display in the Hooper Strait Lighthouse, and, with the assistance of lampist Kurt Fosburg, this one will be moving one to greet guests upon their entrance to CBMM’s new Welcome Center. On loan from the United States Coast Guard.

The Fresnel lens, designed by French physicist Anthony Fresnel in 1822, revolutionized maritime navigation around the world in the 19^th century by offering the ability to cast lighthouse beacons miles farther than was ever possible before thanks to the refraction from hundreds of pieces of specially cut glass.

These lenses were vital for generations on the Chesapeake Bay, lighting the way for boats passing through its shallow, dangerous shoals. The Hooper Strait Lighthouse relied on a smaller, fourth-order Fresnel lens to guide vessels on the Bay in its original location, and since moving to CBMM’s Navy Point in 1966, the historic screwpile lighthouse has illuminated the Miles River at the entrance to St. Michaels harbor nightly.

CBMM currently has three Fresnel lenses on display in the Hooper Strait Lighthouse. With Fosburg’s assistance, the largest of these lenses, a third-order revolving lens on loan from the U.S. Coast Guard, will be moved from the second floor of the lighthouse to greet guests upon their entrance to CBMM’s new Welcome Center, which is slated to open this fall.

Situated at the mouth of an expansive floor map of the Bay in its new home near the Welcome Center reception desk, the lens will be part of an orientation exhibition, introducing guests to the stories and artifacts they will find across campus. The fully ADA-accessible building will also house two additional new exhibition spaces and the museum store, plus a terrace overlooking Fogg’s Cove.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a non-profit educational organization that preserves and explores the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and makes this resource available to all.

Every aspect of fulfilling this mission is driven by CBMM’s values of relevance, authenticity, and stewardship, along with a commitment to providing engaging guest experiences and transformative educational programming, all while serving as a vital community partner. For more information, visit cbmm.org or call 410-745-2916.

Choptank Electric is a non-profit, member-owned electric distribution co-op on Maryland’s Eastern Shore serving over 56,000 members. Choptank Electric Cooperative exists to provide reliable and cost-effective electricity that improves the quality of life for our member-owners.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s next Oyster Gardening Workshop will be held May 13 from 9am-noon in Van Lennep Auditorium.

ST. MICHAELS, Md., May 5, 2023 – The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s upcoming Oyster Gardening Workshop will provide participants with all the information and materials needed to grow oysters off their own dock.

The program, consisting of an informational class and cage-building workshop, will be held next Saturday, May 13, from 9am-noon in CBMM’s Van Lennep Auditorium. The cost is $200 for both parts, including materials, with a 20% discount for CBMM members. There’s also a class-only option for $10. Registration is available now here.

The Oyster Gardening Workshop is designed to set up participants for success in a uniquely Eastern Shore hobby. It is led by new owner of Oyster Girl Oysters and retired statistician Dr. Lawrence Rudner and CBMM Education Programs Manager Kendall Wallace.

The morning begins with a one-hour informational class devoted to the practical aspects of oyster gardening and explaining why the beloved bivalves are vital members of the Bay ecosystem. The presentation includes details on the difference between wild and aquaculture oysters, tips for protecting against the potentially lethal bacteria vibrio, info on how Maryland residents can write off oystering supplies on their taxes, and much more.

Then, there’s two hours of workshop time to construct the floating oyster cages. Participants will leave with at least one completed cage and the materials for two more. Seed oysters, sourced from Ferry Cove Oyster Hatchery in Sherwood, will be provided to get the gardens started.

Additional reading: CBMM’s Oyster Garden Workshop provides unique opportunity

CBMM is set to offer private river cruises aboard its historic floating fleet vessels to watch log canoe races on the Miles River.

ST. MICHAELS, Md., March 10, 2023 – In the coming months, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is offering private river cruises aboard its historic floating fleet vessels to watch log canoe races on the Miles River.

These two-hour charters, scheduled for June 24 and 25, July 29 and 30, and Sept. 9, 10, 16 and 17, are being offered in place of the log canoe spectator cruises aboard Winnie Estelle, CBMM’s venerable passenger-carrying buyboat that is undergoing a refit in the Shipyard this year.

The cost is $375 per charter for up to six passengers, with a 20% discount for CBMM members. Registration for these cruises is set to open March 17 at bit.ly/LogCanoeCruises2023, with a two-week sign-up period exclusively for CBMM members before open registration begins March 31. The number of charters is limited, and all cruises are dependent on marine conditions.

To become a CBMM member and access early registration as well as the charter discount and all the other exclusive programming and benefits of membership, visit cbmm.org/membership or contact Membership Services Coordinator Debbie Ruzicka at 410-745-4991 or druzicka@cbmm.org.

Registration for these private cruises is set to open March 17, with a two-week sign-up period exclusively for CBMM members before open registration begins March 31.

These cruises offer an up-close view of a unique Eastern Shore tradition. Races featuring Chesapeake Bay sailing log canoes are staples of the region with competitions held along the Chester, Miles, Choptank, and Tred Avon rivers.

With an iconic design featuring long masts and large sails, the log canoes keep upright as they accelerate to speeds of 10 knots or more, thanks to crew members climbing to the ends of 15-foot boards that hang off the side.

Amateur photographers, sailing aficionados, and wooden boat enthusiasts will all find something to enjoy on these action-packed charters led by an experienced captain and crew aboard a traditional Bay vessel in CBMM’s floating fleet.

With Winnie Estelle undergoing maintenance, CBMM will also be offering drop-in cruises aboard boats in its floating fleet, including Dory Boat, Volunteer, and Old Point, on Fridays, Saturday, Sundays, and select Mondays, beginning May 19.

These 45-minute Harbor Highlights Cruises offer guests the opportunity to explore St. Michaels Harbor, including CBMM’s working waterfront, while learning the history of the port. The cost for CBMM members is $8 for adults, $6 for youth 6-17, and $3 for children 5-and-under. For non-members, the cost is $10 for adults, $8 for youth 6-17, and $5 for children 5-and-under, in addition to the general admission fee.

Passenger cruises aboard Winnie Estelle are expected to resume in 2024.

Opportunities abound for youth learning & fun at CBMM this fall

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