01.16.10 PM
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See what happened at the Custom House in July-August 2010,
summer festivities in June-July 2010, special Amistad events in April-May 2010, January-March 20102009, 2008, and see how the Whale Tail fountain was made.
9.2.10  Ancitipating Hurricane Earl, this morning, John grabbed Hyman and Ernesto of the Salvation Army, & with Archie Chester and Rob Groves disassembled our tent within 90 minutes.

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.
9.10.10  We are pleased to have expert paper conservator Sarah Dove on the team to evaluate our Robert Mills folio of original 1833 Custom House architectural drawings.
The building opened exactly 175 years ago this November.

Sarah 's evaluation will form the basis of our next grant application, which will ask to have the folio restored--something we hope will happen this next year. Next to the building, itself, the Mills folio is the jewel in our collection. In addition to the folio, Sarah will also evaluate our letters from Ingoldsby Work Crawford, the New London customs agent before, during, and after construction of the Mills custom house. Both the folio and letters are contained in the Frank L. McGuire Maritime Research Library at the museum.
9.14.10 New London did it's foggy atmospheric best early Tuesday A.M., as seen far left.

9.13.10 Monday & Tuesday this week were spent getting ready for two exhibition openings, an event, and then some. That 'extra' refers to three paintings, which artist Constance Kilgore kindly loaned to the museum. She brought them by Monday morning.

Constance's paintings will hang in the lobby and create a lyric & somewhat-mysterious transition from the 19th-c clipper ship designer on the first floor (N. B. Palmer), and our 21st-c yacht designer on the 2nd (Rod Johnstone). NB: the paintings are for sale! All involved--Palmer, Johnstons, Kilgore--are from Stonington.
9.14.10 Another reason why we love New London - an artist at work Tuesday night on Bank Street (above).
9.14.10 Tuesday evening saw the opening of two exhibitions devoted to designers of fast boats: Nathaniel Brown Palmer: A Maritime Pioneer, based on the young-adult biography by Candace Sanford, which opened in the 1st-floor North Gallery and Rod Johnstone and The Story of J/Boats, which opened in the 2nd-floor Maritime Gallery. Palmer designed the prototype and some of the fastest Clipper Ships in the mid-19th century; yacht designer Rod Johnstone designed the J/24 and a series of other 21st-century J/Boats--very fast, very navigable sailboats.

Candy Sanford presented an introduction to Palmer and her exhibition (shown at left with Rod Johnstone) and noted the similarities between Rod and Nathaniel Palmer--among these the fact they are both descended from Stonington's founding families.

Rod Johnstone then gave a tour of his exhibition, noting the changes in design and fabrication over the 30+ years J/Boats have been in production.
10.3.10 The Sea Scouts latest service project was to help clean up the interior of New London Harbor Light! The Scouts spent two hours this afternoon sweeping & washing and enjoying the spectacular view from the top!

9.31.10 New London Harbor Light is filling our days. We are very proud to announce that SEMI, the gifted & talented program in New London Public Schools, is going to adopt the lighthouse as their program for this year. On Friday, program leaders Jodi Barthel and Stephanie Morton met with the lighthouse team of Archie Chester, Bill LaRoue & Susan Tamulevich to discuss how the next several months will go. We start by bringing the students to the lighthouse, itself, beginning in two weeks. The students also will feature in our 250th Lighthouse Birthday Celebration on October 24.

And speaking of that celebration, our home team of NLMS treasurer John P. Desjardins and intern extraordinaire, Cassandra Cammamarta, were hard at work this week on preparations for the party. Cassandra developed a time line leading up to the event, while John adjusts to his new computer.

We are very lucky to have received the gift of a desk-top computer via our friends at Nutmeg Hill Computer Services. Two weeks ago, we also received the gift of two refurbushed lap-tops from Electric Boat!

And AT&T has generously funded purchase of a new computer for the director + new and updated computer programs for everyone!

9.29.10 Formerly known as Elder Hostelers, 25 Road Scholars paid a visit to the museum on Wednesday.

9.23.10 You may not have noticed, but at SailFest this July, our bronze Amistad plaque was kicked out of the front railing! To the rescue came sculptor / honorary board member Richard Salews, who replaced the plaque using titanium bolts! Richard is the sculptor of the handsome portrait of Cinque, which is mounted above the plaque.

9.23.10 The good / sad news is that our U.S. Customs / Dept. of Homeland Security Superintendant Nick Hanke, has received a promotion--that's the good news! Unfortunately for us, he will be going to his new job in Washington, D.C., at the end of October. Nick loves history and architecture and has been a great supporter of the Custom House Maritime Museum --the longest continously-operating custom house in the country!

People may not realize that U.S. Customs maintains an office in our building and regularly meet at the Custom House. They were here, in fact, this Wednesday (left).

9.22.10 Work continues on the Whale Tail fountain. This week, it was wrapped in pink plastic to protect it from concrete work foinf on around its base. The work will take longer than expected, so we will continue selling Turn-On-the-Whale-Tail raffle tickets for a while yet.

9.18.10 It was Cruise Ship Day - New SCSU intern Cassandra Cammarata wrapped cookies, which we sold at the train station, where we ran into Cassie Libardi, the former museum educator. Meanwhile the whail is awaiting paving bricks.

10.8.10 NLMS is media-friendly!  On Thursday, a crew from NYC working for NBC filmed trustee John Desjardins for their winter-weather promo, which will appear beginning in November, The promo will feature New London Harbor Light.

10.7.10 Above, NLMS president & host George Sprecace welcomed Stonington yacht-designer Rod Johnstone to the first Comcast cable TV program Maritime Matters, airing Wednesdays from 6 to 7 PM. Next week's guest: Candace Sanford.

10.7.10 Visiting boats this week at the Custom House pier included a small cruise ship from Newport and a replica of Henry Hudson's Half Moon, (see crew at left) here through the weekend from Albany.

10.6.10 Visiting the Custom House, itself, were Kelly (Niles) & Bill ElDorado from Texas. Kelly's great grandfather was customs agent here in the 1840s; he sailed 13 times round-the-world, & left the family two whale-tooth handled walking sticks.




10.16.10 Looking back at the last week, it's amazing any of us are still standing. It began Saturday, with a full swarm of 500+ visitors from the cruise ship. To accommodate the ship's schedule, the director manned a table at the train station from 7:30 AM and the museum opened soon thereafter, at 8, staffed by a hardy band of volunteers Bill LaRoue, Vincentia Belbruno, Ruth Nagle, Jennifer Hillhouse, and George Sprecace among them.
















On Sunday we picked up 50 additional Amistad ship models for future classes from our wonderful friends Sally Hill and Bill Brown at the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden. If you haven't been there yet, go now by clicking >>HERE. As they sayon their Web site: The Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop functions more like a busy factory than a conventional museum. While it is not a quiet, contemplative atmosphere, there are things to see and do, even if you aren't visiting with children. Give it a try!

A new exhibition opened on Saturday, Harold T. Griffin, S.E. CT. Master Woodcarver  and the related Heritage workshop took place Tuesday evening with Jim O'Dea, Lt. Cmdr., Retd. speaking about Harold T. Griffin,who died this past year. Harold's wife, Doris and family were seated in the front row.

We had our first (4) New London Public School SEMI classes --the Lighthouse Kids--visit the lighthouse, beginning on Wednesday, the morning of the much-anticipated formal ceremony conveying possession of New London Harbor Light from the federal government to us! There still are four more SEMI classes scheduled to visit the lighthouse this month! The ceremony began at the Custom House with introductions to all the groups involved in the lighthouse, from the USCG and NPS, to our local New London County Historical Society, New London Landmarks, and the New London Public Schools SEMI children and teachers.















The ceremony, itself took place at New London Harbor Light. It was brief--about 15 minutes--with an array of officials and a bagpiper!

Continuing with our week: there's our new TV show on Wednesdays from 6 to 7 PM. This week it featured Stonington author Candace Sanford, who spoke about the 19th-c captain & ship designer Nathaniel Palmer.

Early Friday morning, we had a gathering of home-schoolers -- 25 students of all ages, who toured the museum with Bill LaRoue, learned some fancy knot tying with Carolyn Leuze, and learned the story of the Amistad while making a ship model with the director. They were a thoughtful and resourceful group.

And meanwhile, we've been working like crazy to sell tickets to the Lighthouse Luncheon 250th Birthday Party set for next weekend, Sunday, October 24.

It should be on no surprise that, at the end of the week, after the last class left on Friday, our director came down with a cold!

10.9.10 Another beautiful Saturday in The Whaling City.. and for the second time in one month, a cruise ship The Crown Princess, was in. According to The Day, the Crown Princess left New York on Thursday and stopped in Newport, R.I., on Friday and is scheduled to make calls at Boston, Portland, Maine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John, New Brunswick. It will end its 10-day trip in Quebec City. It's an east-coast Autumn Foliage tour.

Turns out, once again, the Custom House Maritime Museum may be the largest single beneficiary of the ships' stays in New London. On each of the last two visits, more than 500 cruise-ship passengers visited the Custom House!

Coping with the huge nmber of visitors & opening the museum's doors at 8 AM takes the planning & energy of head docent, Bill LaRoue, working with volunteers Ruth Nagle, Vinnie Belbruno, George Sprecace, & Jennifer Hillhouse. Susan Tamulevich manned a table at Union Station, greeting visitors along with Waterfront Coordinator Barbara Neff, and nonprofits The Friends of Fort Trumbull and New London Landmarks. Bike New London stopped in to say hello, as did the City Manager & Mayor!

10.8.10 Much of this week, we have been obsessing over New London Harbor Light. The lighthouse, established in 1760--250 years ago---is the 4th oldest light in North America and the oldest one established on Long Island Sound. It has been more than a year since the New London Maritime Society received the lighthouse deed & key, but next week, the formal hand-over ceremony will take place. It's a brief 15-minute event, but guests wull be converging on the Custom House from the NPS in Philadelphia, GSA in Boston and Fishers Island, the USCG, IRS, NLMS, City of New London, a USCG babpiper--you name it!

The public celebration luncheon/brthday party is scheduled for Sunday, October 24, at the USCG Officer's Club. Get your tickets, now! 860-447-2501.)

In anticipation, last week the Sea Scouts did a preliminary cleaning of the lighthouse interior. This week, trustee Rob Pittaway (left) began replacing the rope handrial .
10.6.10 Frank L. McGuire Library volunteers Marian Shilstone of New London; and Jeanette Astrauckas of Quaker Hill, both former staff members at Connecticut College's Shain Library, were caught after their Tuesday afternoon shift (near left above). 

Meanwhile, the museum's computers can now produce mailing labels & determine who is a current member, thanks to John Desjardins, Nutmeg Hill Computers, & Bob Kammer's concerted effort this week (above). THANK YOU!
Our friends at the Eli Whitney Museum in Hamden.
HAPPY 250th NEW LONDON HARBOR LIGHT!
10.24.10 Following on the heels of the Conveyance Ceremony, New London Maritime Society hosted a 250th birthday party for New London Harbor Light at the USCG Officers Club and the Coast Guard Academy.

A group of New London Public School SEMI students donated a big check to the Lighthouse Fund past president Ben Martin cut the cake (from The Cake Lady) with our Heidenreicvh Sword, George Sprecace gave a brief Welcome, Kate Wyck - representing NL Main Street - gave a preview of New London's 2011 light-pole banners featuring the lighthouse, and (below) we unveiled a painting by New London's chronicler of all things historic & picturesque, artist Lou Bonamarte. We will be selling prints of this painting soon in the museum shop.