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Volunteers with Vision: Origins of the Calvert Marine Museum by Rachelle Green, Deputy Director, and Robert Hurry, Registrar

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Volunteers with Vision: Origins of the Calvert Marine Museum by Rachelle Green, Deputy Director, and Robert Hurry, Registrar VOL. 44 / NO. 4 WINTER 2019-2020 Volunteers with Vision: Origins of the Calvert Marine Museum By Rachelle Green, Deputy Director, and Robert Hurry, Registrar Ribbon cutting ceremony dedicating Maritime Museum of the Calvert County Historical Society, October 18, 1970. (CMM Archives, Slide 0134) and celebrated. As with all origin stories, preserving artifacts and archival items from Editors’ Note — The Calvert Marine details vary, but there is no dispute that the community. When Col. Paine stepped Museum is celebrating its first 50 years of operations. Throughout 2020, these visionaries agreed on the need to down as chair of the museum committee the Bugeye Times will feature articles establish a museum to accomplish this goal. in September, 1969, he was succeeded by reflecting on the museum’s dynamic During informal discussions among Continued on page 3 history. local residents who shared an interest in This article traces the museum’s preserving the past, the idea of the Calvert Marine Museum was born. One of these in this issue… origins and its beginnings as a Volunteers with Vision: Origins volunteer-run organization under the founders, Solomons businessman Joseph of the Calvert Marine Museum . .1 aegis of the Calvert County Historical C. Lore, Jr., was elected president of the From the Director .. 2 Society. Subsequent articles will be Calvert County Historical Society in 1968. Horseshoe Crabs . 5 Wm. B. Tennison at authored by the museum’s former That August, the board of the society Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum .. 6 directors, Ralph E. Eshelman, C. designated a “museum on Marine Life” as a Paleo NOTES . 7 Douglass Alves, and Sherrod Sturrock, special project1 and established a Maritime Education Update . 7 as they reflect on their times at the Museum Committee with Colonel Albert Exhibits Update . 8 HERstory: Celebrating Southern helm of the museum. Paine as chairman. The effort received Maryland Women . 9 a boost when Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson Maryland in the Age of Sail . 10 olunteers are the lifeblood of the Patterson donated $500 that the historical Maritime Performance Series . 11 society earmarked for the museum. Activities & Events . 12 Calvert Marine Museum. The idea Volunteer Spotlight . 16 Vof a museum began as a shared The museum committee met regu- Staff Update . 16 vision of a group of local volunteers who larly, researched other maritime museums, CMM Society News Museum Store. 17 recognized that the maritime heritage of sought advice from professionals in the 2019 Board Dinner Highlights .. 17 their community needed to be preserved museum field, and began collecting and Membership . 18 Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums / www.calvertmarinemuseum.com museum has grown completing this remarkable capstone in size, scope, and project. Each of the following months, a mission to become different department will take the lead in the gem it is today. hosting a special program, all of which will By Jeff Murray Fifty years: A be designed to celebrate the museum and golden anniversary. what we do from their perspective. appy 2020! Doesn’t that sound The new year brings One of the signature highlights will just a little bit crazy? When I was a very significant be a feature exhibit on the 35-year history Hin high school back in the 1980s, I milestone in the of the Waterside Music Series, opening in used to daydream about what life would museum’s life. It the Mezzanine Gallery in May. It will be be like in the year 2020. Perhaps by then is a time to commemorate and reflect filled with the artifacts, stories, and music of we’d have flying cars, phones that we carry upon our storied past, to thank those who many of the big-name performers who have with us in our pockets, mass transit that have given, served, and supported, and entertained at CMM since 1985. operates automatically without a driver, to remember those who worked so hard 2020 is not only our anniversary, it also and a golf club that would magically fix to make the Calvert Marine Museum marks the 100th anniversary of the passage my slice. Alas, many of those things still such an impressive place. It is a time of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing haven’t materialized. However, those to celebrate and engage our local and women’s right to vote. To commemorate same intervening years have been ones regional community, without whom we this event, Deputy Director Rachelle Green of steady expansion and progress for the would not, could not, exist. It is also a is developing a micro exhibit dedicated to Calvert Marine Museum. Established in time to look forward, to share our plans, the stories and endeavors of 19 different a rather modest building in 1970 by the and to communicate with constituents women who have positively influenced Calvert County Historical Society, the past and stakeholders our vision for the future Southern Maryland. five decades are a story of success — the to ensure that CMM continues to grow You are all invited to come celebrate and thrive for the next 50 years. We are with us at a 50th Birthday Bash in October, planning special anniversary events the month in which the museum was throughout the year to celebrate this founded. This will be a party not to be milestone. Following are just a few of the missed. highlights. Through it all we will continue to do Quarterly Newsletter of the To commemorate our golden the things we do so well: performances, Calvert Marine Museum anniversary, a video retrospective featuring lectures, school programs, public sails, (A Division of Calvert County Government) and the the best images from the museum’s summer camps, concerts, annual events, Calvert Marine Museum Society, Inc. past fifty years will be rotated on three and public programming. In short — the (ISSN 0887-651X) separate monitors. On January 22, we many activities that keep people coming — Jeff Murray, Museum Director host an opening reception for the recently and returning — to this very special place. Sherrod Sturrock, Co-Editor Robert Hurry, Co-Editor completed two-story mural at the end of I invite you to join us, hopefully The bugeye was the traditional sailing craft the Maritime History Gallery titled “Life on on many occasions throughout the course of the Bay, and was built in all its glory at Solomons, the “Bugeye Capital of the the Patuxent.” This after-hours event will of the year, and experience the many ways World.” Membership dues are used to fund feature a discussion by the artist, CMM’s in which we will celebrate … museum special museum projects, programs, and very own Tim Scheirer, who retired after style! this newsletter. Address comments and membership applications to: Calvert Marine Museum Society, Inc. P.O. Box 97 • Solomons, MD 20688-0097 410-326-2042 • FAX 410-326-6691 TDD 410-535-6355 Solomons Visitor Information Center Museum Store: 410-326-2750 www.calvertmarinemuseum.com Layout by Stuller Designs he Solomons Visitor Information Center closed at the end of its regular season . Working in partnership with the county T Department of Economic Development, an agreement was reached to relocate the visitor center function to the museum’s lobby . This is a win-win for both the county and the museum . Our volunteers can provide support to the part-time employees that staff the visitor center desk and the museum is well positioned to provide information to visitors . The information center desk will be staffed on weekends until it resumes its regular schedule in the spring . - 2 - WINTER 2019-2020 Volunteers with Vision Continued from Page 1 William Dovel, a fisheries scientist at of the project. Volunteers operated the Chesapeake Biological Labora- and staffed the temporary museum, tory, who was a museum enthusiast. open to the public only on weekends. The committee looked for Admission was free, but donations a suitable site, and John Bluster were accepted. Although Solomons made available a slip of land on was not the tourist destination that it Solomons Island between his Pier is today, word of the museum spread One Restaurant and the Solomons and attendance grew. Post Office. On October 18, 1969, a Even before the museum group of volunteers broke ground opened in its temporary quarters, for the 24 by 40-foot temporary the volunteers embarked on a museum structure. By April, using campaign to expand the Calvert money raised by the historical Maritime Museum. William Dovel, society and the donations of labor committee chair and volunteer and materials by local supporters, curator, envisioned Solomons Temporary building housing the Calvert County Historical individuals had volunteered 650 Society’s Maritime Museum. (CMM Archives) developing into what he referred to hours to the construction project. By as a “Little Mystic,” patterned after the end of construction, the total cost was $5,366.22 and volunteers the landmark on the Connecticut River. Dovel hoped that an had contributed over 1,450 hours. When the museum building expanded museum complex would be a catalyst for Solomons to was complete, display cases, artifacts, and interpretive labels develop into a cultural center.2 were installed. Hundreds more hours were volunteered by Joe The historical society board and its museum committee were Lore, Alton Kersey, Dan Barrett, Pepper Langley, and many other also looking to secure a larger site that would allow the development enthusiasts to complete the project. Local families donated an array of expanded museum facilities. A month before the official opening of commercial seafood harvesting gear, ship models, shipbuilding of the temporary museum, the Calvert County Historical Society, tools, boat parts, and Miocene fossils to display in the fledgling in a unanimous vote, endorsed a resolution requesting that the museum.
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