Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Fall 2007 Eastern Shore Growth • Kent Island Memories The convenience of Chevy Chase Bank at your fingertips. Open a Chevy Chase Bank checking account and get: • The most branches and ATMs • Free Online Banking • Extended branch hours • Free online bill payment • Free Direct Deposit Checking* • Free Change Express® coin-counting • Free Chevy Chase Check Card service For more information, call 301-987-BANK, 1-800-987-BANK (out-of-area), or visit chevychasebank.com. *There is no minimum balance requirement and it’s free as long as you have a monthly direct deposit into your account. Preserving the Past, Looking to the Future I have just passed my first WaterWays anniversary at CBMM. Fall 2007 My first year has been at once energizing and exhausting, reas- Volume 5 Number 3 suring and surprising, gratifying and challenging. I have been Editor welcomed into this region far Dick Cooper more quickly than I would have [email protected] expected (I am a New England- er, after all) and have discovered Graphic Design/Photography many unexpected joys of living Rob Brownlee-Tomasso on the Eastern Shore and becom- ing part of a new community. I have gotten to know and appre- Contributors ciate the exceptionally devoted James Boicourt and skilled staff of CBMM, and have been impressed again and again by the Jennifer Calub generosity and support of the Museum’s members, volunteers, and friends. Julie Gibbons-Neff Cox Thank you. Rachel Dolhanczyk I am about to join many of my colleagues at an International Congress of Robert Forloney Maritime Museums, and I know we will spend a lot of time worrying about Pete Lesher dwindling interest in our institutions. The reasons for this are myriad. But my John Miller experience leads me to believe that many museums, especially history muse- Stuart Parnes ums, have been so rooted in the past that they have not looked to the future. Kathleen Rattie Predicting the future is not what history people do, and yet we desperately Doug Ross ask, “Will the next generation really care about the work of museums such as CBMM?” Museums need to safeguard their core mission but, as times change, Michael Valliant they must also adapt to remain relevant. Over the past 42 years, CBMM has flourished. It is America’s most sig- Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum nificant preserver and interpreter of the Bay’s maritime heritage. Our mission charges us with preserving the culture of this region, but we recognize that this Navy Point, P.O. Box 636 means more than collecting artifacts. To preserve the very tenuous culture of St. Michaels, MD 21663-0636 the Bay’s people, we need to help sustain the Bay itself. 410-745-2916 Fax 410-745-6088 In the next year, I want to help CBMM spend more time and effort looking www.cbmm.org [email protected] forward. We are uniquely positioned to take steps in directions that are vital to our region and our nation, but relatively new for us. First, we must under- stand and disseminate information about what is happening to the health of The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is a private, the Bay and to the maritime culture that surrounds it. Second, we must start at not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational institution. A home and lead by example through embracing a campus-wide commitment to copy of the current financial statement is available institutional sustainability. Third, we must place a steady emphasis on envi- on request by writing the Vice President of Finance, P.O. Box 636, St. Michaels, MD 21663 or by calling ronmental stewardship in our educational programming and exhibits. 410-745-2916 ext. 238. Documents and information There have been only a few times in the past when the Chesapeake Bay submitted under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations has been the focus of national and even international attention. We live in one Act are also available, for the cost of postage and of those times. I hope you share my belief that this is the proper role for your copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401, 410-974-5534. museum at this critical time for the Bay and its future. On the Cover Workboats share Cambridge’s harbor with condos, part of the development that is adding thousands of new homes to the port Stuart L. Parnes, President city on the Choptank River. See Eastern [email protected] Shore Growth, page 16. Photo by Cooper Media Associates Contents (Above) A tired old workboat’s resting place is a field in Dominion Features on Kent Island. Journalist Larry Lewis grew up on Kent Island before the Bay Bridge connected Preserving Palmers 13 it to the rest of the world. His At 83, Dick Day, a retired federal government executive, is the guru remembrance of island life starts when it comes to marine engines that powered fishing boats on the on page 20. Chesapeake Bay and around the world. By James Boicourt Eastern Shore Growth 16 The Eastern Shore, bypassed by development for centuries, is on the verge of a population explosion. Almost every small town is expected Departments to grow rapidly over the next 25 years. By Dick Cooper Calendar 6 Island Time 20 To the Point 10 Kent Island used to be a remote place, accessible primarily by boat. For a boy growing up in the 1940s, it was an idyllic island with summers full of sandlot baseball, fishing, and exploring. By Larry Lewis Wood Works 34 Chesapeake Bay Artist 26 Mystery Answers 35 The late John Moll sketched and painted Chesapeake scenes for decades. He left behind a large body of work that has made the Bay’s lighthouses and watercraft icons of the region. By Jennifer Calub This Just In 31 In another age, postcards were used to spread breaking-news photographs and commemorate events. The postcard collection of Dr. Laurence C. Claggett, Jr. contains numerous examples. By Dick Cooper 5 Calendar Fall 2007 lished on America’s largest estuary, covering birds and what they do in the marsh, along with an overview of how important marshes are to the Bay as well as the food and detritus that keeps the marsh system cycling. Steamboat Building, Van Lennep Auditorium. Non- members $8, CBMM members $5 Birding Cruise Aboard Mister Jim November 10, 9 – 10:30 a.m. Wayne Bell was the founding director of Washington College’s Center for the Environment and Society and Sculpture by Bart Walter is an officer of the Maryland Ornithological Society. Join him as he lectures aboard CBMM’s buyboat, Mister Jim. October Possible sightings include raptors such as osprey, eagles Chesapeake Icons and hawks, geese migrating into the area for the winter, Opened October 6 as well as the earliest sea ducks. Meet at Admissions Steamboat Building, 2nd-Floor Gallery Building. Reservations required. Non-members $20, What do you picture when you think of the Chesapeake CBMM members $15 Bay? This exhibit highlights five classic Bay icons: blue crabs, lighthouses, oysters, skipjacks, and waterfowl. How did these and other familiar images come to sym- bolize the Chesapeake Bay? This exhibition will showcase iconic artifacts from our collection—from oyster cans and seafood marketing materials to fine art and models of skipjacks. Family activities will explore how these icons came to be used as well as provide opportunities to cre- ate new representations of the Chesapeake. OysterFest (New Weekend!) October 27, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. October 28, noon – 4 p.m. 20th Anniversary of OysterFest. What better way to kick off a celebration than with CBMM’s 2nd Annual Oyster Slurp Off? Join in on the fun as amateurs and the occa- sional professional compete for the fastest time, or take part in all in things “oysters,” cooking demonstrations, tonging trips down the Miles River, KidsTown, and more. Wye Oak Commemorative Have a boo-rific time at the Museum’s Haunted Hallow- Oyster Knives een while at OysterFest. Food and boat rides an addi- November 10, 5 – 6:30 p.m. tional cost. Non-members $13, CBMM members Free Dale German, master furniture and cabinet maker, Paul Bartlett of Kitchen Solutions Consulting LLC, and George Hastings, national oyster shucking champion, recently November collaborated on the design for the Wye Oak Commem- orative Oyster Knife. Modeled after the “Chesapeake The Lure & Lore of Wetlands stabber,” a style of oyster knife used by watermen since Lecture by Robert L. Lippson the late 1800s, the handle is expertly crafted from se- November 8 at 10:30 a.m. lect pieces of the famous Wye Oak. Steamboat Build- An illustrated talk by the author of Life in the Chesa- ing, Van Lennep Auditorium. Non-members $8, CBMM peake Bay, one of the most important books ever pub- members $5 6 and a companion book to the exhibit has recently been December published by Yale University Press. The exhibit came to Sweeter Side of CBMM: CBMM directly from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is continuing on A Classic (Boat) Christmas to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, December 8 & 9, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Texas, upon leaving St. Michaels. You can’t have a St. Michaels Christmas without classic boats! Members of the Antique and Classic Boat Soci- ety’s Chesapeake Chapter will display these works of art under a tent at CBMM. Bring the kids for children’s January 2008 activities and light refreshments in the Steamboat Build- ing, and watch model boats sail and race on the Miles Skipjack & Screwpiles: River! Admission is included with your Christmas in St.