Annapolis Maritime Museum’s 2011
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Running on Thursday evenings, from January through March, the Museum's Maritime Seminar Series covers a range of topics in its nine lectures. All lectures will be held in the Museum's Buck and Marsha Buchanan Bay Room, from 7 - 8:30 p.m.
There will be one hour of presentation, followed by a discussion period. Enrollment fees for Museum members are $60 per person for the full series or $10 per seminar. For non-members, fees are $95 for the series or $15 per seminar. To enroll, call the Museum office at
410-295-0104.
Overview
- January 13 - Dr. William S. Dudley, on his new book, Maritime Maryland, A History
- January 20 - J. Wandres, on his new book The Ablest Navigator, about USNA grad Lieutenant Paul N. Shulman, “Israel’s Volunteer Admiral”
- January 27 - John Busch, on his new book, Steam Coffin, about Captain Moses Rogers and the steamship Savannah, the first steamer to cross the Atlantic
- February 3 - Change in Program: Music to Our Ears: The Sounds of the African American Experience at Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches Film and Discussion
- February 10 - Stephan Abel of the Oyster Recovery Partnership, update on Oyster Recovery Efforts on the Chesapeake Bay
- February 17 - Susan B. Langley, PhD, Maryland State Underwater Archaeologist, on the Patuxent River excavations of the Scorpion, the flagship of Joshua Barney, hero of the War of 1812
- February 24 - Don Parks, author of Chesapeake Splendor on the legacy of the Eastern Shore man
- March 3 - Jennifer Bodine, on the Chesapeake Bay photography of her father, A. Aubrey Bodine, world-renowned photojournalist who worked at the Baltimore Sun for 50 years – from 1920 until his death in 1970.
- March 10 - Rick Schwartz, on his book, Hurricanes of the Middle Atlantic States, a surprising history from Jamestown to the present
Details
William S. Dudley, author of Maritime Maryland, a History
Thursday, January 13
7-8:30 p.m.
Harvested for food, harnessed for power, and home to more than 3,600 species of plants, fish, and animals, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries have long been essential to the sustainability and survival of the region’s populations. Historian William S. Dudley explores that history in an engaging and comprehensive account of Maryland’s storied maritime heritage.
Dudley paints a vivid picture of Maryland’s maritime past in its broadest scope, exploring the complex and nuanced interactions of humans, land and water through descriptions of shipbuilding, steam technology, agricultural pollution, commercial and passenger transportation, naval campaigns, watermen, crabbing, and oystering. He also discusses the evolution of recreational boating—yachting, cruising, and racing—and the role of underwater archaeology in uncovering the bay’s shipwrecks. These interactions become chapters in the larger story of Maryland’s waterways, a story that Dudley tells through insightful prose and stunning illustrations.
William S. Dudley has long been associated with the naval and maritime history of Maryland and currently serves in positions with the Maryland Historical Society, the Naval Historical Foundation, and Sea History magazine. He is the historian general of the Naval Order of the United States and is author and editor of numerous works, including Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, James Fenimore Cooper’s Ned Myers, or A Life before the Mast, and The Early Republic and the Sea: Essays on the Naval and Maritime History of the Early United States. Dr. Dudley was director of the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., from 1995 to 2004. He currently serves on the Annapolis Maritime Museum’s Advisory Board.
J. Wandres, author of The Ablest Navigator
Thursday, January 20
7-8:30 p.m.
Lieutenant Paul N. Shulman graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy just in time to serve in the South Pacific during World War II. As a Jew, born and raised in Connecticut, Shulman was horrified by the German holocaust, and following the war he helped smuggle Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine. In 1948 he emigrated to Israel where he helped establish the Israeli navy. Shulman’s biographer, J. Wandres, will discuss Israel’s “Volunteer Admiral.”
Wandres will walk his audience through Shulman’s action-packed life and career, from his time at the Naval Academy through his post-War efforts to help the Jewish Agency acquire vessels for its clandestine immigration sealift of Holocaust survivors to Palestine. It was at the request of Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion that the 25-year-old Shulman volunteered to set up a naval academy for Israel’s new navy, and three months later further distinguished himself during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War when he blockaded the Gaza strip and captured the Ein Gedi, an oasis near the Dead Sea. He continued to advise Ben-Gurion on naval matters as Israel struggled to establish itself as an independent country.
J. Wandres is a veteran U.S. Navy reserve public affairs specialist, and has edited two award-winning magazines. He has written extensively about the U.S. Navy’s secret propaganda broadcasts to the German U-boats and the Mulberry Harbors of D-Day. Currently an associate with the Center for World War II History and Conflict Resolution, he lives in Aberdeen, N.J.
John Laurence Busch, author of Steam Coffin
Thursday, January 27 - POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER
New Date Wednesday, March 30
When Captain Moses Rogers drove the steamship Savannah across the Atlantic Ocean in the spring of 1819 he established the profound notion that a vessel powered by something other than wind had economic viability in the burgeoning trans-Atlantic trade. His feat marked an epochal shift in history: the Savannah’s ability to overcome Nature to practical effect meant that steam-powered vessels were not just a provincial revolution, but a global one. John Laurence Busch, author of the book Steam Coffin about Captain Rogers and the Savannah, will discuss Rogers’s daring voyage.
John Laurence Busch is an independent historian whose book, Steam Coffin: Captain Moses Rogers and the Steamship Savannah Break the Barrier, includes original archival research in the United States and Europe, much of it never-before-published material. His story chronicles the first strides of the first generation of “steamboats” in history, including those operating out of Baltimore (two of which were under the command of Captain Rogers).
Change in Program
Music to Our Ears: The Sounds of the African American Experience
at Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches
Film and Discussion
Thursday, February 3
7-8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum, in partnership with the Banneker-Douglass Museum, Anne Arundel County Public Schools and the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, will host a film screening and community discussion on the history of Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches at the Maritime Museum. The documentary is the result of a semester-long effort by students to learn about Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches through research and conducting oral history interviews with community members. The general public is invited to attend the program and to take part in a post-film screening discussion on the legacy of the Annapolis landmark.
The Music to Our Ears documentary film is a collaborative effort between the, Banneker-Douglass Museum, and Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation. During the Spring 2010 semester, students in the Annapolis High School African American History Class researched the history of both beaches and the individuals involved in their success. Students studied images from the beaches and visited the area once occupied by Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches. Their research led up to oral history interviews with Annapolis community members with connections to Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches. Students interviewed George Phelps (head of security at the beaches), Larry Griffin (Carr’s Beach musician and Carr’s Beach reunion organizer), and Leslie Stanton (Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches attendee). The student-led interviews were compiled and edited to create the Music to Our Ears documentary film. Terry Poisson, Coordinator of Social Studies for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, who was instrumental in getting the project started, will be on hand to facilitate discussion, along with Leslie Stanton and Larry Griffin.
Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches, located on the Annapolis Neck Peninsula, served as popular entertainment venues for African Americans throughout the Eastern seaboard from 1929 through 1980. The beaches offered recreation and entertainment options for African Americans during segregation. Sparrow’s Beach hosted family and church groups while Carr’s Beach provided more lively entertainment including weekly Sunday afternoon concerts featuring the biggest performers of the day. Musicians including Chuck Berry, James Brown, Fats Domino, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughan, and Stevie Wonder attracted audiences from locations throughout the East Coast every weekend.
The program will begin with a brief concert by the Eastport Drum & Bugle Corps.
Stephan Abel, Executive Director of the Oyster Recovery Partnership
Thursday, February 10
7-8:30 p.m.
Stephan Abel, Oyster Recovery Partnership’s Executive Director, will offer an update on the status of oyster restoration in Maryland.
The Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) is a non-profit organization based in Annapolis, whose mission is to restore the oyster, clean our Bay and preserve our future. ORP actively promotes, supports and restores oysters for ecologic and economic purposes. Engaging in numerous Chesapeake Bay-related projects by conducting science-based “in-the-water” and “on-the-land” recovery efforts, this organization conducts public outreach and education in their quest to protect our environment, our heritage, and our knowledge of the Chesapeake Bay, its marshes and rivers, and the life that it sustains.
Stephan Abel has been the Executive Director of the Oyster Recovery Partnership since 2007. Prior to joining the Partnership, he was the Executive Director in the Office of Communications and Marketing at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. He enjoyed a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy, has held management positions at Sallie Mae and Careerbuilder, and earned a B.S. from Villanova University and a M.B.A. from George Washington University. A lifelong sailor on the Chesapeake Bay, he is married, has two children and resides in Annapolis.
Susan B. Langley, Maryland State Underwater Archaeologist
Thursday, February 17
7-8:30 p.m.
While there’s plenty of history to see and explore on land, the Chesapeake Bay is teeming with a flurry of underwater artifacts, many dating from the American Revolution, the Civil War and the War of 1812. State Underwater Archaeologist Susan B. Langley takes us on a figurative trip under the waves to investigate a number of finds that help bring Maryland history to life with her talk, “Star-Spangled Archaeology, Commemorating the War of 1812 through Maritime Archaeology.”
The Maryland Maritime Archaeology Program of the Maryland Historical Trust is investigating a number of submerged cultural resources throughout the State’s Chesapeake waters including some adjacent in Virginia. These include privateers, both federal and state Navy vessels, and merchant ships. Some research involves search and survey using electronic remote sensing technologies in order to search for specific vessels or to investigate the sites of maritime battles. Other studies involve multi-year planning for excavation, conservation and exhibition of significant events like the scuttling of the Chesapeake flotilla commanded by Joshua Barney on his flagship Scorpion.
Don Parks, author of Chesapeake Splendor
\Thursday, February 24
7-8:30 p.m.
Author Don Parks comes from a long line of Eastern Shore men, and he will talking about that legacy.
Don Parks’s father grew up on isolated Hollands Island, experiencing a completely different way of life than that on the mainland. With that as one resource among many, Parks investigates Eastern Shore heritage and culture through the eyes of his own family, including the history and influence these lower Eastern Shore people had on the seafood industry as it evolved over a century ago.
Jennifer Bodine, daughter of photographer A. Aubrey Bodine
Thursday, March 3
7- 8:30 p.m.
Considered one of the finest photographers of his time, A. Aubrey Bodine’s award-winning images have been exhibited in museums and featured in numerous books and magazines. The world-renowned photojournalist worked at the Baltimore Sun from 1923 until his death in 1970. Jennifer Bodine will discuss her father’s distinguished work and present a sampling his photographs.
He travelled the region documenting every aspect of life in the Chesapeake Bay area with artistic and compelling photographs. Constantly manipulating and experimenting with the medium, he “made” photographs rather than “took” them.
Jennifer Bodine edited Bodine’s Chesapeake Bay Country, published by Tidewater Press in 1975. “Photographing the United States was a big thrill,” she quoted her father in the book, “but I always get a bigger thrill when I make a picture of a fleet of dredge boats moving over an oyster bed on a beautiful autumn day.”
Richard Schwartz, author of Hurricanes of the Middle Atlantic States
Thursday, March 10
7-8:30 p.m.
SEMINAR CANCELLED DUE TO FLOODING
Learn about local hurricane risks and hear about the great Chesapeake Bay hurricanes of the past from Rick Schwartz, author of Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States.
Rick Schwartz has plenty of stories to tell about these mighty storms that have ripped up our coast over the years. Find out about the big ones, including the Chesapeake and Potomac Hurricane of 1933 (before hurricanes carried an identifying name), Hurricane Hazel of 1954 and Hurricane Isabel of 2003, among others. Gain perspective about recent hurricane seasons and gather insight into what upcoming years may offer.
Annapolis Maritime Museum |
PO Box 3088 |
Annapolis, MD 21403 
410 295-0104
office@amaritime.org