News Release

Annapolis Maritime Museum / 723 Second St / Annapolis, MD 21403
Contact: Jeff Holland / 410-295-0104

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Jan. 3, 2012

Author of Annapolis, City on the Severn: A History
to lead off Annapolis Maritime Museum’s 2012 Maritime Lecture Series, January 19

The Annapolis Maritime Museum’s 2012 Maritime Lecture Series opens on Thursday, January 19, with author Jane McWilliams, who will present illustrated stories from her definitive, award-winning history of Annapolis, from its first European settlement in 1649 to 1976. This is the first of ten weekly seminars covering a range of fascinating topics to commemorate our unique maritime heritage.

The program begins at 7 p.m. There will be one hour of presentation, followed by a discussion period. Enrollment fees for Museum members are $10. For non-members, fees are $15 per seminar. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.

Who:     Jane McWilliams, Annapolis, City on the Severn: A History
What:    Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Lecture Series
When:    Thursday, January 19 
Time:    7 - 8:30 p.m.
Where:   Annapolis Maritime Museum
         723 Second Street
         Annapolis, MD 21403
Contact: 410-295-0104 / www.amaritime.org

Background:

Jane W. McWilliams is a native Annapolitan and a graduate of Washington College in Chestertown. She taught high school English for four years following college, before turning her attention to local history. Her first job for Historic Annapolis, Inc., was abstracting Annapolis items from the eighteenth-century Maryland Gazette. From there she moved on to research the people and land use of 1783 Annapolis under the direction of Edward Papenfuse and with him co-authored the popular Annapolis “Lot Histories.”        

For seventeen years, Jane was a member of the research staff of the Maryland State Archives, working primarily on the two volumes of A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635–1789, published in 1979 and 1984. While assigned to the Maryland Office for the Bicentennial of the U. S. Constitution, she spent two years as operations manager and director of education for the replica ship Maryland Federalist.

Jane left the Archives in 1990 to concentrate on free-lance editorial and research projects, most recently serving as co-editor, with Ann Jensen, of the 5-volume series Studies in Local History, published by the Maryland State Archives and the Maryland Historical Trust, and as editor of Lincoln in Annapolis, published by the Archives in 2009. She is author of several works on Annapolis history, including The First Ninety Years, a History of Anne Arundel Medical Center (1992), and co-author, with Carol Patterson, of Bay Ridge on the Chesapeake (1986).

Since 1999, Jane has devoted most of her time to the new comprehensive history of the city titled Annapolis, City on the Severn: A History, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press and the Maryland Historical Trust Press (2011).

Upcoming Lectures:

Thursday, January 26, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Stephen R. Brown, Tidewater: the Chesapeake Bay in Photographs
Washington, D.C., photographer Stephen R. Brown shares his experiences sailing the Bay. Images from the book will be on exhibit in the Buchanan Bay Room.
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.
 
Thursday, February 2, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Dave Gendell, Schooner America
Annapolis writer Dave Gendell reveals the history and mystery of the world’s most famous schooner, from her launch in 1851 to her tragic demise in Eastport in 1942.
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.
 
Thursday, February 9, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Jane Cox, Findings at Pig Point
Archaeologist Jane Cox reviews Anne Arundel County’s Lost Towns Archaeology Project exciting discoveries at the prehistoric site known as Pig Point on the Patuxent River’s Jug Bay.
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.

Thursday, February 16, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Peyton Robertson, NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Restoration Efforts
Peyton Robertson, Director of the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, reviews the federal government’s collaborative efforts to restore the Bay through environmental education, habitat and fisheries restoration, and data collection.
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.
 
Thursday, February 23, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Cece Donovan, Poplar Island: Vanishing Island Restored
Cece Donovan of the Maryland Environmental Service talks about the Poplar Island project, which is using dredge spoils to restore an island that nearly disappeared due to erosion.
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.
 
Thursday, March 1, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
George Daughan, 1812: The Navy’s War
Award-winning naval historian George C. Daughan tells the astounding story of the War of 1812, when a tiny, battle-tested team of American commanders, seamen, and privateers took on the haughty skippers of the mighty Royal Navy.
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.
 
Thursday, March 8, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Capt. John P. Hamill, Maryland Pilots Association
Maryland pilots have been guiding ships up and down the Bay since the 1640s. Capt. Hamill tells the stories of ships, shipwrecks, and the vessels at anchor in Annapolis Roads.
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.

Thursday, March 14, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Lt. Greg Bartles, The history of the Natural Resources Police
The Area 8 Commander of the Maryland Natural Resources Police tells the fascinating history of the NRP, which began in 1868 as the State Oyster Police Force, and reveals the story behind the visiting exhibit featuring a relic of the Oyster Wars: an 1868 cannon that battled “piratical Virginia oyster crews.” 
Museum members $10, non-members, $15. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.

Thursday, March 22, 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Annapolis Maritime Museum Winter Maritime Lecture Series:
Orna Garnett gives a stirring living history interpretation of the “Moses” of runaway slaves, while Barbara Tagger discusses the new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park Initiative on the Eastern Shore. This program is a partnership with the Chesapeake Children’s Museum and the Four Rivers Heritage Area.
As part of the Four Rivers’ Maryland day celebration, admission to this program is only $1 per person. To enroll, call the Museum at 410-295-0104 or log on to www.amaritime.org.

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