More than Lighthouses...

With Pequot Light’s restoration, 16 weekends of Sentinels on the Sound events, & 3 new lighthouse exhibition installations coming right up, New London’s local beacons weigh heavily on our minds. But there’s more going on at the Custom House than just lighthouses. February–Black History Month–is when NLMS runs our annual Reid MacCluggage Black Maritime History essay competition for high-school juniors and seniors. As this article is being written, with one week yet to go before the deadline, we have received zero entries; but that’s always the way. They all turn up on- or-about the last day of February. And if the past is any predictor, several of the essays will be most-impressive. The winning student receives a $1000 scholarship. In fact at the Custom House we teach about  freedom issues year-round. We are discussing new program ideas with Amistad Voyages, under the leadership of Hanifa Washington, for when the ship is in New London this summer. This year, we also received a grant from the Gilder Lehrman Institute/National Institute for the Humanities to run a series of discussions around the PBS Created Equal  video series. NLMS trustee Lonnie Braxton will lead these discussions in upcoming months. Watch for the dates and times on our Website: nlmaritimesociety.org.

Local history inspired two new books and we will have the authors at the museum. By now, you probably have read For Adam’s Sake, which is based, in part, on the Hempsted diaries. On Sunday, April 6, you’ll  have an opportunity to finally ask your questions as historian Allegra Di Bonaventura leads a   discussion about the work. On Sunday, May 4, author Michael J. Tougias

gives a presentation based on soon-to-be-released Rescue of the Bounty:

Disaster and Survival in Superstorm Sandy. Several of us have fond memories of the Bounty’s last visit to New London, then recollect the awful scene of the USCG’s helicoptor-rescue of the ship’s crew in the midst of Hurrican Sandy. Coincidentally, Michael wrote about perhaps the most-famous USCG rescue in The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue. The rescue of the oil tanker Pedelton is the subject of a new exhibition at the museum to open mid March: Vision. Process. Finished Painting: the Creative Process of Tony Falcone . A second new exhibition features our own ship models newly repaired by our friends at the Connecticut Marine Model Society. We’re touting their work in advance of the group’s annual expo: Saturday, April 26, at Ocean Beach’s Port ‘n Starboard. And finally, don’t miss folk duo Mustards Retreat on Wednesday evening, March 12! And look to the Website's HOME page for information about Jin Hi Kim’s upcoming Cross-Cultural Music Meditation Workshops.

Just added: Get up and get OUT for a Seal Watch on Sunday morning, March 23, 2014 at 9 AM.
Participants board Project 'O's Enviro-lab in New London at the Custom House Pier on Waterfront Park to travel to popular winter seal haunts.