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8.10.10 A great find today! A document (above) in our collection, listing the sealing vessels out of the district of New London, records the Stonington fleet that returned in 1821. Among the vessels is the Hero, captained by 21-year-old Nathaniel B Palmer. It was on this voyage the young skipper from Stonington caught sight of the Antarctic penninsula that henceforth became known as Palmer Land, a story told in our current exhibition, based on Nathaniel Palmer's life,by Candace Sanford.
8.1.10 John Mock'sFrom the Shoreline concert doubled as a surprise birthday party: (near left) head docent & trustee Bill LaRoue turned 75, and John Mock 50! (near left, below) hospitality crew Brandy Baltimore, Jennifer Hillhouse, & Vincentia Belbruno.
7.31.10 The Custom House tent was the last stop on a Family Friendly Group Bike Tour of New London's Historic Sites, a project of of Bike New London with New London Landmarks. Cookies, lemonade and a tour of the museum were provided.
8.10.10 Rod Johnstone, of Stonington,stopped by this morning with an initial installation of material on the evolution of the Jboat. An exhibition on that subject will open on Tuesday, September 14, in the Custom House Maritime Gallery. As a preview, here are a few choice items: Far left is Rod's first Jboat ad, in Soundings Magazine, for which, at the time, he was selling ads. For those of you who don't know the story, Rod Johnstone and his brother built their first Jboat in his garage in 1977--it was (& still remains) a family affair. By 1979, (see poster, near left), Jboats were winning races, including this one in Newport.
8.10.10Whale Tail fountain (near left), whale bottle cap opener (far right - shown on gift shop counter along with maritime-themed matches, etc.)--what did you expect? New London is the Whaling City, after all!
You'll find the Whale Tail fountain on New London's Parade. It is being installed THIS WEEK~!
You'll find the adorable whale bottle cap openers in our gift shop at $18.00 apiece. These whales double as paper weights with personality.
8.25.10 We've brought back our friends from UCONN (far left)-- Elysa Engleman's Spring class in Public History-- because of our GOOD NEWS: the Custom House Maritime Museum was accepted as the first Connecticut site on the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom! You'll recollect, preparing the application was the class's project last semester. Although we received the news today, the official anouncement will be in October.
8 24.10 Happy 80th birthday to Sally Ryan! This evening, Sally's many New London friends gave the City's official historian a great party, one that doubled as an early bon voyage; presents were donations towards a wintertime trip to Australia Sally's planning with NNLCHS president Deborah Donovan. photo Tita Williams.
8.16.10 Pleased to hear from Craig Showalter, son of museum founder Lucille Showalter, today. Craig called from Ohio to purchase six (6) raffel tickets.Good luck!
8.14.10 Meet the Competition! With six (6) tickets under her belt, so far, this woman now has the greatest chance to Turn On the Whale Tail Fountain on New London's new $10-million Parade Plaza! But it's not too late! There is still time to enter.
Tickets are just $5 each or 3 for $10 and can be purchased at the Custom House Maritime Museum, 150 Bank Street, New London OR BY PHONE with a credit card: 203-444-2884 OR send us a check. We will sell tickets until the fountain is ready to be turned on -- which should be in about two weeks.
Proceeds will be evenly divided between the City and the New London Maritime Society. The City's portion of the proceeds will go towards funding one more special event on New London's Parade Plaza this fall. The New London Maritime Museum will use its funds to support the good work of the Custom House Maritime Museum.
We're finding the Parade a great place to be: near left is our Raffle table prior to Saturday's concert.
8.13.10 Nothing like being on the water...Far left is a photo of the Parade with a Long Island ferry and large shipping vessel in the background. We also caught sight of the Eagle back home at Fort Trumbull.
8.13.10 After a relatively quiet week, everybody came around on Friday. First thing, Rod Johnstonebrought additional material for his exhibition, slated to open September 14. Photo, near left, by Gilles Martin-Raget.
Turns out the latest Jboat, J95, was Boat of the Year in all the magazines: Sailing World, Cruising World, to name just two. Below is a photo from Cruising World's awards ceremony in Newport Rhode, Island.
Bill Springer
The dignitaries include, from left, George Brengle, CW/SW's director of marketing, Dave Reed, SW's editor, Mark Pillsbury, CW's editor, Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri, J/Boat designers Rod and Alan Johnstone, J/Boats President Jeff Johnstone, and Sally Helme, CW/SW's publisher.
8.13.10 Two women, above at left, visited on Friday, too, and each had information to share related to New London Harbor Light.
Near left, Paula SantAngelo, who works for the GSA in Boston, met with us to arrange for a ceremony for when the New London Maritime Society will officially take possession of the lighthouse. (Several dates in late September were discussed.) The official hand-over involves a lot of coordination: the GSA representing the owner: the federal government; the NPS, which will oversee our agreement; the USCG--the Coast Guard, who will continue to maintain the light as an active aid to navigation; the City of New London; and the New London Maritime Society. A larger, public event will follow there-after in mid-to-late October.
8.13.10 Far left, above, is Marianne DeMayo, the granddaughter of the last lighthouse keeper at New London Harbor Light. She was in New London from Florida visiting her daughter and stopped in to see what was going on with the lighthouse.
8.13.10 Another nice surprise on Friday was a visit from Andrew Macklin (at left in green) & family. Andrew created the terrific model of the New London Custom House in the current exhibition of projects from New London's Multicultural Magnet School. We've been using a photo of the front of that model in our email blasts, but as you can see here, the back is pretty great,too, and shows the railroad tracks behind the Custom House and also the Custom House Pier.
8.12.10 The regular crew that daily operates the Custom House Maritime Museum is composed of people who love local history. So we have been having a good time examining a remarkable document included in Candy Sanford's exhibition: Nathaniel Brown Palmer: A Maritime Pioneer. Candy, herself, works as a docent at the Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer House in Stonington.
You'll remember, the document, stored in our safe, was pointed out this spring to the director by trustee Fred Calabretta, a curator at Mystic Seaport. The document lists sealing expeditions out of the 'district of New London' between 1819 and 1828. This summer, the director thought to include it in Candy's exhibition because NL Palmer is listed on the document as master of two of the vessels.
It was Rob Pittaway who pointed out that the first Palmer listing is on the 'Sloop Hero' -- the very vessel from which Palmer recorded "lands not found on any chart" -- a part of Antarctica he is thought to have discovered and which now bears his name: Palmer Land.
8.11.10 Everyone asks to see our new exhibit - Amistad: A True Story of Freedom. We had six visitors asking to see it today, and the museum was closed!
A mother & daughter came from New London (they'd never visited the museum before...); two, from British Columbia, were in town waiting to take the Fisher's Island ferry;and two were full-time tourist-bloggers from California. They took this photo of Susan in the Amistad
gallery. Click >> HERE to see the bloggers' take on New London County.
8.25.10 Our Tag Sale has morphed onto an Estate Sale with the addition of fine contributions from museum members Ruth & Charles Reluga, Alice Houston, Morgan McGinley and Ned Hammond. Ruth contributed the period lights, basket & glass float, Alice brought in the 19th-c powder horn. Morgan & Ned contributed fly-fishing gear-& there's lots more good stuff!
8.24.10 Toodling around town this week to visit our friend Val at the New London Public School Board of Education building, we happened by an old friend, the naval howitzer that briefly graced our courtyard one year ago last spring. Glad to see it looking so well cared for and, yes, loved by its nightbors at the top of Manwaring Hill. To prevent theft, the cannon is now securely bolted to a massive granite slab. Flowers are planted around the circumference in a patriotic combination of blue delphiniums, red and white petunias.
8.24.10 Meanwhile, NLMS librarian Brian Rogers has been researching many of the valuable maritime books donated to the Frank L. McGuire Maritime Research Library. Duplicates, all, he is pricing them for our next Tag Sale, to take place this Saturday in conjunction with Celts & Currachs, an Irish music and dance festival which will rtake place on New London's Parade. The book sale will raise funds for the library. While we are rich in books and manuscripts, we are in need of some basic preservation supplies. Sale of these rare vintage books will support that preservation effort.
8.24.10 There was a terrible north wind this week--so bad, they even stopped the ferries! At the Custom House, our beautiful pennant took quite a beating. It whipped back & forth like a fly-fishing line, tieing itself in dozens of small tight knots along the two slender pennant tails.
To the rescue: our docent Leslie, who we've learned likes challenges. Working with a pointed wooden chop stick, she patiently managed to pry apart the knots, one at a time, and bring our pennant back to life.
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The painting, left, of North Dumpling by Ellery Thompson, 1981, is now on loan from Brian McCarthy
9.1.10 It was an incredable day, because we not only purchased a brand new computer, but we also received two refurbushed lap tops courtesy of Electric Boat! The director gets the new computer, and the library and collections volunteers receive the lap tops.
9.1.10 The Turn-On-The-Whale-Tail Fountain raffle continues... But you can imagine our shock at seeing the Whale Tail fountain turned ON as we walked down State Street Wednesday afternoon!
Upon investigation, it turned out to be a test to regulate the water flow...and the water was quickly turned off. Turns out, there are another two weeks of work to complete the paving, which brings the Turn-On date to after the 17th.
