Maryland Museums - Maritime Museum in Havre de Grace. MD
e-News, December 2008
click here for more on WINE & CHOCOLATE TASTING PARTY
click here for more on UNIQUE HOLIDAY GIFTS IN OUR MUSEUM STORE
click here for more on GIVE WHILE YOU SHOP FOR THE HOLIDAYS
click here for more on What’s New: CAPITAL CAMPAIGN & IMPROVEMENTS!!!!
click here for more on ANNUAL GIVING AND MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
click here for more on "NIGHT IN THE MUSEUM GALA "
click here for more on EAT, DRINK, BE MERRY - CELEBRATE TWELFTH NIGHT
click here for more on BOAT BUILDING TRADITIONS
click here for more on THE BEST SOUPS OF THE UPPER BAY
click here for more on TEMPORARY EXHIBIT OPENS
click here for more on X MARKS THE SPOT
click here for more on AWARDS WE ARE THANKFUL FOR
click here for more on CALENDAR OF EVENTS
WINE & CHOCOLATE TASTING PARTY
Experience the subtleties of wine and chocolate - and the delicious union of the two - it's better than milk and cookies.
If you have the right wine to complement the right chocolate, you’ll enjoy a treat you won’t soon forget. Sample for yourself on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at the Maritime Christmas. This elegant tasting event will showcase the wines and chocolates of two Havre de Grace favorites: Mt. Felix Vineyard and Winery, and Bomboy’s Homemade Candy.
Owned by Mary & Peter Ianniello and located on Level Road in Havre de Grace, Mount Felix is an eco-friendly vineyard that utilizes old world techniques to cultivate the mellow flavors you’ll enjoy sampling with our chocolates.
The chocolates are a special nautical-design selection from Bomboy’s Homemade Candy located on Market Street in Havre de Grace. Bomboy’s, owned by Barry and Jean Bomboy, is well known for its scrumptious fine chocolate recipes handed down through the family. Bomboy’s will also bring a chocolate fountain to satisfy your chocolate dreams.
Joining the ranks of local favorites will be renown author Katie Moose who will be giving cooking demonstrations and signing her new book “God’s Bounty: 365 Days of Inspirational Cooking.” Katie’s new book will include biblical passages, inspirational writing, favorite hymns all paired with a recipe. Katie is also known for her books Chesapeake’s Bounty I &II and her guidebooks on Annapolis and the Eastern Shore, to name a few.
Maritime Christmas will also feature “Create Your Own Gift Baskets”: after tasting featured treats combine your favorite wines, chocolates, cookbooks and other unique gifts into holiday gift baskets; we’ll provide the baskets and all the decor to make them unforgettable. All items in the museum store will be 15% off; the museum has a unique assortment of Native American jewelry, nautical-themed items and books, art glass and more.
While enjoying your treats and stress-free shopping, relax to some holiday and Celtic music provided by mid-atlantic performers Lyra with its enchanting harp selections between 5-6 pm, and Don Shapelle with his unique style of folk music throughout the day.
Maritime Christmas will start at 12 noon until 8 pm. The event is free of charge, donations are appreciated; to sample wine and chocolate, the fee is $7.50. It will be held at the museum at 100 Lafayette Street, and will give visitors an opportunity to see what all the exciting construction is about. Back to the top
UNIQUE HOLIDAY GIFTS IN OUR MUSEUM STORE
By Ann Persson
The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum invites you to stop and shop in our What Knots Museum Store. Whether you are looking for stocking stuffers, hostess gifts, or holiday presents, we have options for all budgets!
What Knots Museum Store offers a variety of items, including Native American crafts and
jewelry, artisan blown glass, sea glass jewelry, maritime and history books, Bay food items, marinades and mixes, stuffed animals and children’s toys, CDs, and souvenir items.
Our Native American themed items feature wampum jewelry crafted from shells, which glisten in shades of purple and white, as well as materials inspired by nature, including feathers, dreamcatchers, incense, and polished stones.
You’ll be mesmerized by the intricacies of the blown glass globes, ornaments, and sun catchers that spread a rainbow of colors across the room. Glass that has been washed ashore is featured in our sea glass jewelry, including bracelets, necklaces, and earrings. Colors range from blues and greens to purples and reds, and some feature nautical themes such as lighthouses, turtles, and seashells.
Stock up on our Bay food items for unexpected guests and holiday parties! Soups, dry seasoning packets for the best dips in town, bottled marinades, hot 
sauce, coffee, cookie mixes and seasoned peanuts are sure to spice up meal time. Be sure to take home soup bowls, coffee mugs, and hand-crafted cookie cutters to pair with your new pantry goods.
Children will fall in love with our stuffed animals, featuring local critters and sea life, as well as kites, bug catchers, and assorted trinkets. Stocking stuffers include old-time favorites: jacks, yo-yos, and more. While the kids are shopping, be sure to check out our selection of books and CDs featuring boat building, sea shanties, and Bay history. Remember your visit to the Maritime Museum with a souvenir t-shirt, keychain, magnet, or patch!
Our items make terrific presents year-round! Get a jump on holiday shopping now and return throughout the year for unique gifts from the place Where Bay Life Begins.
GIVE WHILE YOU SHOP FOR THE HOLIDAYS: A New (and FREE) Way to Donate!
GOODSEARCH & GOODSHOP BENEFIT THE MARITIME MUSEUM
What if the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can, with GoodSearch and GoodShop.
GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!
GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to Havre de Grace Maritime Museum! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting Havre de Grace Maritime Museum.
Just go to www.goodsearch.com and be sure to enter Havre de Grace Maritime Museum as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word!
www.goodsearch.com. For traditional ways of giving to our museum, visit our donations section of our site. Back to the top
What’s New at the Museum: CAPITAL CAMPAIGN & IMPROVEMENTS!!!!
by Brenda Dorr Guldenzopf
The museum’s Board of Directors and staff have been busy developing the Strategic and Long Range Plans to carry the museum successfully through the next five years. Two years ago in December 2006, the museum launched its Capital Campaign to complete the facilities as laid out in the museum’s original master plan. Improvements planned include 1) building out the ground floor to house the museum’s permanent programs - the Chesapeake Wooden Boat Builder’s School and the Susquehanna Flats Environmental Center, 2) completing the museum’s gallery to include a Bay Life Discovery Room, and temporary and permanent exhibits related to the Upper Bay ecology, boat building, and significant historical events, and 3) constructing a second floor to house our Collections Preservation Center and a Maritime Library and Resource Center. The museum has been successful in obtaining both a 2007 State Bond Bill and state and federal grants to help begin to fund the museum’s plans. However all grants, no matter the source, require matching funds from private sources. In fact it is imperative for the museum to raise more monies from the greater community in order to fulfill our goals.
In the last 6 months the museum has been alive with construction activities. In July we began our improvements by building a mezzanine to care and conserve our growing maritime collections. We also began the plans to provide access to all three of the museum’s levels by building an elevator shaft. In order to prepare for the museum gallery improvements, the Chesapeake Wooden Boat Builders School has been temporarily relocated to the Seneca Cannery, while it awaits its permanent home on the ground floor of the museum. This phase of construction activities has just begun. Meanwhile staff and exhibit designers have been developing the plans for both temporary and permanent exhibitions. We hope to have the ground floor and first phase of exhibits completed in the spring.
How Can You Help? In order for the museum to complete its plans, it needs your involvement. From volunteering time, in-kind donations, to capital contributions, we could use your help. After all, our mission states that we are preserving the irreplaceable maritime heritage of the Upper Bay for you as well as for future generations to understand and appreciate the unique history, ecology and quality of life we all know and have come to love. In order to accomplish this we must have the requisite space to carry out the museum’s programs to preserve collections and traditions and educate the public about our past, present and future. Please contact the museum if you can contribute in any way. [Phone: (410) 939-4800; Email: museum@comcast.net ]
WE GRATEFULLY APPRECIATE ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ~ IT REALLY TAKES A COMMUNITY TO STEWARD AND PRESERVE ITS HERITAGE! Special Thanks to the following individuals and organizations who have been indispensable to our progress thus far: Cecil Hill, Allen Fair, Ned Colburn, John Smack and Travis Holman of Vulcan Materials Company, Bill Kirby of Jerry Preston Hauling, Doug Gruber of York Building Products, Steve Goetz of JSG, Heron Harbor LLC, Bill Klunk of Aberdeen Mason Contractors, Red’s House of S&G Concrete Company, Stuart and Robin Shane of Shane Custom Metal Fabricators, and Garrett Pensell of Tidewater Marina.
ANNUAL GIVING AND MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
This is the time of year that we are all making many decisions about giving. We decide what to give family and friends, and what to give to charities. We hope you know how important your support to the museum is. Please remember The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum when you are making all of those giving decisions. Remember to renew your membership to ensure you keep all your benefits and special discounts coming. Don't forget to updat your e-mail address with us too. For more details on ways to give, please go to our donations section of this website.
SAVE THE DATE: ANNUAL FUNDRAISER IS A FUN "NIGHT IN THE MUSEUM" GALA
Watch as the Museum transforms itself and comes alive with featured specialty foods and live entertainment. This annual event Supports the Museum’s educational programs and outreach activities. This is a great opportunity to see the new exhibt that should be well underway at this time.Contact the museum for tickets which will be available later in December. Back to the top
EAT, DRINK, BE MERRY - CELEBRATE TWELFTH NIGHT WITH US!
By Ann Persson
Join us for this festive celebration on Saturday, January 10 at 12-7 pm; cutting of the King's Cake at 6pm. Enjoy King's Cake, Wassail, Children’s Games, Elizabethan Music!
What is Twefth Night? Twelfth Night is celebrated on January 5th, or the 12th night from Christmas and the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany. In Elizabethan and colonial times, the Christmas season was a time for many social gatherings and activities. Christmas Day was customarily celebrated low-key by attending church and having a meal with family, but Twelfth Night was the last party of the social season.
English tradition also marks this night as the time to remove Christmas decorations, to avoid bad luck in the coming year. Parties often incorporated the removal into games and activities. English tradition also brings us Yuletide, the 12 day period between Christmas and the Epiphany. The Yule Log was ceremonially lit on the first day and welcomed guests throughout Yuletide. This later evolved into an edible version by the French, called the ‘buche de noel.’
Twelfth Night is celebrated by costumes, music, dance, and games, both for children and adults. The festivities centered on the cutting of the Kings Cake, which was an elaborate creation into which three trinkets or beans were baked. Children who received a bean in their slice of cake were named kings or queens of the party and wore a crown for the rest of the party. At adult parties, a bean and pea decided the king and queen, who made their ‘subjects’ perform wild stunts or act in unusual manners.
Celebrations ranged from calling on friends and families, to costumed dancing and merriment throughout the streets of towns, to grand parties and balls held at palace halls. Plays were also performed on this night and some were written especially for this occasion. Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, is set during this festive season, and the confusion which ensues is partly due to the costumes and pageantry of the holiday!
Lambswool was a punch served in the wassail bowl. Lambswool is a drink made from cider or ale, with sugar, spices, and roasted apples mixed in. It was customary to pour some lambswool on apple trees on 12th Night to ‘bless’ them for the upcoming year!We plan to have a fun time in grand style for this traditional celebration and hope to see you there. Back to the top
BOAT BUILDING TRADITIONS
By Debbie Hayes
Jim Simmons is a tour guide at the Maritime Museum and he is available to help you understand some of the finer details about early ship building. He showed me some of the tools that are on display at the Maritime and with pictures and models he helped me to visualize the building of a big wooden merchant ship.
The shipwright’s first task in building a merchant ship was the meticulous search for the perfect trees that would be used to construct the ship’s underpinnings called the keel and the ribs; this skeleton is covered with planks, fastened— not with iron nails—but with wooden dowels that expand with moisture to form a water tight seal. Jim showed me a small wad of cotton batting, called oakum, and explained that this material was used to caulk the seams of wooden ships. The oakum was pounded into the seam with special chisel-like tools; white oakum is used for the first layer (nearest the inside of the hull) and then black oakum (white oakum mixed with pitch) filled the seam to a fraction of an inch below the outer surface of the plank. Finally, the remainder of the seam is filled with pitch. Pitch is the resin or sap extracted from pine trees.
Another interesting exhibit at the museum depicts the famous 1604 voyage of John Smith when he sailed the Atlantic from England in a quest to establish a settlement in Virginia. Smith’s remarkable exploration and mapping of the Chesapeake Bay Region, in 1608, is chronicled with pictures and fascinating tidbits. Smith’s voyage across the Atlantic was accomplished in a huge sailing merchant ship, but these merchant ships were too big to sail close to shore and to navigate the small inlets and rivers found in this region. The shallot, a small open boat with a sail and oars was the perfect answer for navigating the shallow waters. The shallot was constructed in England in two pieces and carried in the hull of the huge merchant sailing ship. Upon arrival on the North American shore, the two halves of the shallot were rowed ashore and then quickly assembled into one perfect boat. This small, highly maneuverable vessel is famous in John Smith’s story, but was equally important later on, as colonists used the shallop extensively for fishing, trading and traveling. Back to the topTHE BEST SOUPS OF THE UPPER BAY
By Carolyn Colburn
The chill of fall and winter make us yearn for a warm and comforting soup. We live in the Upper Bay, so we hold a special place in our bellies for seafood soups. Annually at Mari*Fest, the Hdg Maritime Museum holds "the Upper Bay Soup Challenge"; this year, we held our fifth annual challenge. The Challenge is an ideal opportunity for area restaurants to showcase their secret recipes of our traditional favorite soups. For a mere $5.00, visitors are able to taste-test then vote on upto ten of the best soups around.
Winners of this year's challenge were: Bulle Rock Restaurant won the Judges' Favorite in the Cream of Crab Soup category; The Wellwood won the Judges' Favorite in the Maryland Crab Soup category; Bruce Bitners Café and Grille won the Judges' Favorite in the Seafood Soup Category; Coakley's Pub won the Peoples' Choice Award for their Cream of Crab Soup
Each of the above restaurants were honored with a very unique and appropriate award. For the year they will be able to display a shadow-boxed carved wooden soup spoon made from the bowsprit of a Cheasapeake Bay Skipjack, the Mary W. Somers. Each spoon was beautifully carved by Maryland carver, Dr. D. Edwards Smith.
Participating restaurants were: Bulle Rock Restaurant of Havre de Grace, Bruce Bitners Café and Grille of Bel Air, Price's Seafood Restaurant of Havre de Grace, The Grist Mill Tavern of Perryville, Coakley's Pub of Havre de Grace, Susky River Grille of Port Deposit, and The Wellwood of Charlestown, Maryland.
Our judges were: Noted cookbook author, Katie Moose of Easton, Maryland. With a number of books to her credit, her Chesapeake's Bounty series is especially enticing to us locals. Katie was also available for book signing after her judging duties were performed. Don Shappelle, another of our judges, is a singer/songwriter from Wilkes-Barre, PA, who also calls Perryville home at times. Don is a frequent and welcomed performer here at the Maritime Museum. From Laurel, Maryland, our third judge, Judy Cook, is not only a singer and musician, but an interpreter of traditional songs. Back to the top
TEMPORARY EXHIBIT OPENS THIS MONTH 
By Ann Persson
With so many special events and construction changes taking place, there is always something new to see at the Maritime Museum – and the new temporary exhibit opening in December is one that you don’t want to miss!
The new exhibit is called Lights! Camera! Ocean! A Look at Classic and Modern Maritime Movies and premiered on Friday, December 3rd. The evening was the last of four film screenings held at the Museum leading up to the opening of the exhibit.
Two films from the Golden Age of movies starring powerhouses Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, and Olivia DeHaviland, Captain Blood and Mutiny on the Bounty set the standard for swashbuckling fantasies.
Two movies featured in the exhibit are based on hugely popular series of novels. Horatio Hornblower, written by C.S. Forester, follows the naval career of a young midshipman through the ranks to Admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. Also set in the same time period, Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey-Stephen Maturin series was the basis for Master and Commander.
Pop culture blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean completes the exploration of our love with the sea.
The new exhibit will reveal fun facts about the making of the movies and historical trivia about the real life events that inspired the films. It’s fun for the whole family, but hurry! This exhibit will only be around for a few months, and is included with the price of regular admission, and is free to members. Back to the top
X MARKS THE SPOT By Ann Persson
You have probably noticed a new addition to the waters of Havre de Grace. No, it’s not a new condominium but a bright yellow buoy floating in the channel between Havre de Grace and Perryville. It is one of only six ‘smart buoys’ to be launched in the United States and marks the spot of the northernmost travels of Captain John Smith during his Chesapeake explorations of 1607-1609.
The talking buoy is part of the Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System (CBIBS) that was launched in 2007 as part of the celebration of the anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Information on cultural and natural history will be related via cell phones or computers. The buoy is also equipped to record data on weather and water quality. Hear for yourself by calling 1-877-BUOYBAY or visit the web at www.buoybay.org. The buoy links the Chesapeake Gateways Network and the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, which was established in 2006 as the nation’s first national trail system to be based on water instead of land.
The buoy was launched on Saturday, September 13, 2008, with local politicians and members of NOAA, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Chesapeake Bay Trust, Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, National Park Service, and Friends of the John Smith Water Trail present. In case you missed it, this day was also a special event for our Museum, as we were presented with big checks from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and the National Park Service for grants awarded to us for $35,000 and $81,175, respectively. This money will help fund the design, installation, and interpretation of the Beyond Jamestown: Life 400 Years Ago indoor and outdoor exhibit.
This event was the culmination of years of hard work to prepare for a nomination to become a Gateways site. Up and down the Chesapeake Bay throughout Maryland and Virginia, you will find more than 140 museums, parks, ships, and cultural institutions that have been designated as a Chesapeake Bay Gateways site. This means that the institution helps to promote the heritage and health of the Bay and advocates stewardship and environmental awareness.
This past spring, the Maritime Museum was designated as a Gateways site, joining the other museums and parks in the area to tell the story of life along the upper Bay. The Maritime Museum is the only museum in the Upper Bay to be doing direct interpretation of the voyages of Captain John Smith, which will be showcased in our Life 400 Years Ago exhibit.
This is a very exciting step forward for the Maritime Museum. Our museum is the place to learn about all aspects of life along the waterways of the upper Bay, from the first peoples of the Chesapeake living here thousands of years ago to the Chesapeake Wooden Boat Builders School, which carries on the tradition of 19th century boat building. We hope you join us throughout the year as we celebrate our heritage of life along the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Back to the top
The Maritime Museum recently was given four awards.The museum received $81,175 from the National Park Service for the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network. It is for finalizing the exhibit “Beyond Jamestown: Life 400 Years Ago,” to improve access, interpretation and education at Gateways specifically along the Upper Bay. The exhibit will promote the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail through the creation of interior and exterior interpretive exhibits and teaching stations. The interior exhibits and teaching stations will feature the historical significance of Captain Smith’s voyages, the lifeways of the native Susquehannock culture, and continued European settlement to 1660, showcasing the pre-Contact environment of the Bay and the effects of interaction on our modern community. The exterior exhibits will connect the visitor from the pier on the Bay to the Maritime Museum, introduce the visitor to the history and culture of the area, and orient the visitor to the other Gateways in town.
Maryland Heritage Areas Authority awarded the museum 35K for the exhibit. The importance of this project lies in its overall end result. The exhibits will depict the maritime and environmental history of this region—encouraging visitors to explore the area further and instilling in them a greater appreciation for the locale. These displays will be state-of-the-art, interactive and hands-on interpretive encounters, inviting visitors to not only read and see, but to experience the past as well. The exhibits will impart information that will educate visitors in regards to the cultural, historic, and natural resources of this unique region and explain how this area fits into the larger picture of state/national history.
It is our intention, through these high-end, interpretive exhibits and programs, to make the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum a leader in maritime and cultural education on the Upper Bay. That an institution of this caliber is located in and depicting the story of the Susquehanna Heritage Greenway area will make it an asset to the heritage area providing unique educational opportunities and programs.The Maryland Humanities Council granted the Maritime Museum $2,494, and allowed us to bring interpreters Willie Balderson and Daniel Firehawk Abbott to speak and perform at MariFest.
We were also awarded a “Connecting to Collections” Bookshelf from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences and the American Association for State and Local History, which expanded our library by more than 20 volumes on the care and maintenance of artifacts and collections.
Mark Your Calendars for MariFest 2009: July 24-26!
We have a full calendar for 2009 available. Click here to see the year in review.
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Havre de Grace Maritime Museum Maryland
100 Lafayette Street
Havre de Grace MD 21078
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