11.7.10 A spectacular (click right >>) video projection, using the Garde building as a screen, took place during the kick off the Garde Theater's 2010-11 BROADWAY SERIES last Sunday night. It was a day (and night) for celebration as thousands of patrons stormed the streets (and restaurants) of downtown New London to see Spamalot.
Our Tupilak figures, left, are taking a holiday this winter, visiting at the Lyman Allyn Museum of Art as part of the the exhibition The Thrill of the Chase, which was organized, in part, by trustee Alice Houston.
11.5.10 New London Maritime Society is pleased to have received a grant from the Connecticut Humanities Council in conjunction with four other area historical organizations-Lyman Allyn Museum of Art, Mystic Seaport, New London County Historical Society, Stonington Historical Society-to create an exhibition & publication on the War of 1812 in the New London area. OUR JOB is to find objects in private collections related to the 1812 War.
Do you have a cannon ball from the Battle of Stonington, or perhaps Commander Stephen Decatur's hat?
If so, please shoot Susan an email or call her at 860-447-2501.
Although we did not win the New England Museum Association Leaders in Innovation Award,
we were honored to be among the seven museums nominated. The judges said, "It is heartening
that the [Custom House] has been revitalized and has re-engaged with its community."
On October 13, 2010, the New London Maritime Society formally took ownership of New London Harbor Light.
It also was the first day of lighthouse visits for the
Lighthouse Kids from New London Public School's SEMI classes & launch of an exciting, THREE year-long program/partnership between the New London Public Schools and the New London Maritime Society.
At left - four of last year's SEMI students present New London Maritime Society with a big check for $300 to go towards the New London Harbor Light Fund.
11.17.10 CUSTOM HOUSE MARITIME MATTERS airs from 6 to 7 PM on New London Metrocast cable, channel 25. Produced by George Sprecace, with George Sprecace & Susan Tamulevich.
Our guest on Wednesday's show was Michael Theiler, long-established commercial lobsterman in these regional waters, officer of the regional lobstermen's association and participant in State conservations efforts. Our topic was the Crisis in Lobster Harvesting in the Waters of Southern New England.
11.17.10 The Whale Tail Fountain, on New London's Parade, is finished! As a result, we will end our raffel at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, November 28, when the City Manager Martin Berliner will draw the winning ticket. The Day's John Ruddy will be our special guest and he will present The Parade: New London's Front Door--a history of our newly-rennoveted plaza.
11.17.10 Last week, the Lighthouse Kids from New London Jenningd and Harbor Schools visited the Custom House Maritime Museum, where they learned about all types of maritime tools.Below head docent Bill LaRoue leads the class off with a description of whaling and the toold of mariners: ship, sails, line, compass, sextant, etc.
At left:Teacher Jody Barthels reads the Museum's Amistad plaqe with her SEMI students.
Jennings 4th-grade SEMI students learned about the Grandma Sue from docent Archie Chester.
At the age of eight, Archie's grandfather dreamed of building a boat of his own design and sailing it to Florida. After a lifetime spent working in the saw pit of the NL tugboat shipyard and raising his family, at age 78 Archie;'s grandfather built his boat and, at age 80, fianlly sailed south through the inland waterways.
At the Custom House last week, students saw the hand tools Mr. Chester used to build the boat and a 1:10 scale Grandma Sue model built by museum trustee Robert Stewart. At left are Archie Chester, in his grandfather's hat, and SEMI teacher Jody Barthels with Jennings students. In all, about 80 SEMI students will visit the museum this month. (That's ace intern Cassandra Cammarata at the lower right.)
11.10.10 We are pleased to announce receipt of an Historic Preservation Technical Assistance Grant from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. This grant allows us to make an architectural assessment of the lNew London Harbor Lighthouse structure & prepare a preservation plan for its future. Thank you Connecticut Trust!
11.9.10 Congratulations to New London Local First, which just published its 2011 New London directory.
We are please to be a sponsor of this spirited community effort.
11.8.10 Head Docent Bill LaRoue gave a riveting presentation about the Polaris Expedition, originally led by explorer Charles Frances Hall, at the Groton Bank Historical Association Meeting. In 1871 Hall, who had no sailing experience, set out to be the first to reach the North Pole having named Groton's arctic whaling captain Sidney O. Budington as his sailing master. The expedition set a new record reaching northern latitudes but, troubled with personnel and management problems, dissension of crew dissension of crew and staff, and Hall's suspicious death, ended before achieving its objective. The ship was wrecked but the crew were rescued in 1872.
11.7.10 We were pleased to host a concert by the virtuosic US Coast Guard Band Chamber Players Sunday afternoon, November 7, at 2 PM, & which was FREE to everyone!
Entitled New London Nexus, the program includes:
"Views of the Blues" by Gordon Lewin
"A Klezmer Fantasie" by Samuel Adler
"Summer Music", op. 31 by Samuel Barber
"Serenade for Two" by William Cahn
Meeting our endless demands for cookies and treats were Hospitality mavens, at left, Vincentia Belbruno and, right, Carolyn Leuze.
Holding down the front desk during the USCG concert were volunteers Brandy Baltimore, Ivan Metzger, Archibald Chester & George Sprecace.
11.18.10 In preparation for an upcoming exhibition, we recently announced a search for all things War of 1812. By coincidence, last week we also received a gift from Richard Carson of Waterford, whose father-in-law William MacKay was a U.S. Customs agent in New London in the 1960s.
While working here, Mr. MacKay saved a remarkable Bond Book (1796-1804) from disposal. On page three of that book is a certificate signed by NL's first customs agent, who was appointed by George Washington in 1780, (Click>) Jedediah Huntington, for one (Click>) Issac Hull, of Derby, soon-to-be of (Click>) U.S.S. Constitution fame, and who we believe later may have been responsible for giving the Custom House front doors made from wood of the U.S.S. Constitution. The wood would have been taken when the ship was refurbished in the 1830s. New London's U.S. Custom House was built in 1833 and opened in 1835, exactly 175 years ago this month.
Thank you, Mr. Carson, and to everyone else out there KEEP LOOKING!
11.28.10 This afternoon, the New London Maritime Society held its 2010 Annual Meeting. About 40 people attended to hear a presentation by The Day's John Ruddy - New London's Front Door: The Parade, and to make important decisions for the coming year at the Custom House.
The meeting began with Mr. Ruddys fine presentation. (You'll remember, he wrote the text to our 2008-2009 exhibition on the history of the Parade, which was held to coincide with the worst of the construction.) With the Parade now complete, we felt it a good time to review its history. Thank you, John Ruddy.
We then asked John to do the honor of drawing the winner of our Turn-On-The-Whale-Tail raffle. And the winner is... Bruce Hyde of New London! How totally fitting:(click right>>) Bruce, the former New London City Planner, is, in fact, the person most-responsible for the re-design of the Parade. We look forward to next Spring, when Bruce flips the switch!
Among important decisions at the meeting was a vote on the new NLMS Board of Trustees.
Officers Re-Elected:
President: George A. Sprecace, M.D., J.D.
Vice President: Benjamin Martin, AIA
Treasurer: John Desjardin, RN, Capt. US Army Retired.
Please Note: Gwen Bosco has resigned as Secretary.
Board of Trustees At - Large Members:
Lonnie Braxton ll, Esq.
Arnold Danielson, Rear Adm. U.S.Coast Guard Ret.
Nicholas DeGange
Kathleen Gaynor
Robert Groves
Jennifer Hillhouse
Alice Houston
Harrison Lee Jewett
William H. LaRoue, Ph.D.
Carolyn Leuze
Morgan McGinley
Alma Peterson, RN Ret.
Robert A. Pittaway
Oliver Porter
James Reyburn
James Streeter
NEW: John Johnson
NEW: James Fleishell, Capt. U.S.Coast Guard Ret.
N.B. Vincentia Belbruno, Greg Stone, and George White are now Honorary Trustees
Greg Roth, Immediate Past President, has resigned (but will stay in the picture, as time permits).
Thank you, all.
12.5.10 It's December and time for special holiday shows and parties. The John Gardner Small Boat Society met for the first time at the Custom House on Sunday where Jim Gallagher gave a talk on building traditional Irish curachs. Meanwhile, the New London winter revels "Make We Joy" took place at Conn. College. On Bank Street, Studio 33's holiday show features paintings of New London Harbor Light.
12.03.10 Deconstruction commenced on Friday, when new volunteers Chris Nelson, Floyd Pfaff, and trustees Lee Jewett, Rob Groves and George Sprecace spent the morning removing Wall #1. Our Robert Mills architectural drawings have a new home in the museum's lobby.
11.29.10 We had a shock this afternoon when Fire Marshall Calvin Darrow reported that a formal complaint had been lodged against the Custom House Martime Museum. A man, who had attended the USCG Band Ensemble concert the previous weekend, and who had spoken to me about his concerns at that time, told Cal he was worried that people attending an event on the museum's 2nd floor would not be able to escape safely in the case of a fire. In fact, he has a point; the Custom House, which opened 175 years ago this month, does not conform to modern safety standards. Our stairway hand-rail is too low. We have only one exit from the 1st & 2nd floors, etc. The result of this complaint was that our total building maximum occupancy suddenly was reduced from 49 to 20!
The fire-safety situation was nothing new to us, as we had gone over the building previously, in depth, with the Fire Marshall. But the event caused us to review the situation afresh. Within 24 hours we had reconfigured the doors and general layout of the lobby to make the museum safer. We also decided to be pro-active and make some long-overdue changes. The fact is, many people are unable to get to the 2nd floor and so cannot attend our lectures and classes.
Our decision was to take down the two remaining temporary walls in the first-floor main gallery and open the room up. The ground-floor Ingoldsby Work Crawford Gallery will now be our main meeting room. In another week, the grand piano will be moved downstairs into this gallery, too!
11.29.10 In response to our request for information about items having to do with the War of 1812 in New London & south-eastern Connecticut, posted in the museum's weekly emalil blast, we received these photos of an early 19th-century British-made mug from Jonathan Rickhard. Jonathan is a ceramics enthusiast and the world's expert on mochaware. He curated an exhibition on the late 17th-c./early 18th-c. ceramics for the museum at Williamsburg and wrote an amazing book on the subject. This particular mug was made for the 'Landlord of the Hotell(sic) New London No. 124' (!) and is an example of the export ware made in Britain for America in the years before the embargo.
12.10.10 Our volunteers saved the day on Friday, stamping, assembling and folding our new WINTER 2011 newsletter with the ANNUAL APPEAL letter & envelope,addressing & triple sealing the packets and then getting them into the mail by 4:30 PM.
Here is our volunteer crew, at left (with only two finals left to go this semester!) is terrific intern Cassandra Cammarata, next is our newest volunteer Louise Fabrykiewicz, and beside Louise are a couple of our all-time favorites, Pauline & Russ DeMarco. (Missing from the photo is head docent Bill LaRoue.)
12.9.10 When their heat unexpectedly turned off on State Street at 4:30 Thursday, we happily hosted a charming holiday recital from Caruso Music at 6 pm!
12.6.10 Working across the street (thank you Modern Electric) we created a holiday window to commemorate the USCG Academy's 100 years in New London. Thanks to Jennifer Gaudio, at the USCG museum, we have copies of past USCG holiday cards & photos mixed into the display.
On the opposit side of Bank Street this week another temporary wall now is gone as part of our transformation of the ground floor into a more-accessible meeting space!
12.13.10 The deluge and warmer temperatures were a bit of a disaster to our display window across the street--things started falling off the glass. But that all will be fixed on Wednesday, when the air dries out.
12.10.10 Almost forgot to mention an important visit last week: when students from NL's Multicultural Magnet School walked on over and spent the afternoon with Bill LaRoue, learning about the Amistad, and with Vinnie Blebruno, who taught about whaling and also about whales as mammals! They are doing the 'Selbourn Project' - learning all the historic sites within one kilometer of the school.
12.19.10 Thank you, Caruso brothers, for your kind letter in today's Day. Click HERE to read the letter.
12.19.10 At left is the view from the end of our alley Saturday night: the holiday lights on the USS Eagle, anchored in New London at Fort Trumbull.
12.16.10 The SS Chanteens, high school students from New Haven's Sound School, gave a happy concert of sea chanteys at our 2010 Winter Celebration - Third Thursday presentation. It was the first event to take place in our newly opened-up first-floor gallery, and we were filled to capacity.
It was a crazy rush this past week to remove two walls, clean-up and reoranize the gallery space in time for the event. In fact, we called in Rogovin movers to shift the furniture and Caruso's to move the two pianos. However, the results are well worth it--the room is more inviting, the views out to the harbor are restored, and there is room for our capacity crowd: 49.
A number of guests comments upon how happy they were to not have to climb the stairs to the museum's second level.
With the shift, we finally brought the last two pieces of the Howard Collection furniture out of the sub-basement, where they were temporarily stashed during our last big move (to bring in the collections cases).
NLMS trustee Carolyn Lewes, working with honorary trustee Vinnie Belbruno andloyal volunteer and museum greeter Ruth Nagle, created the Winter Celebration treats. Carolyn also thought to make goodie bags for all the Chanteens--which proved a big hit with the kids.
12.16.10 Here, at left, we see the Ingoldsby Crawford Gallery as reconfigured for Thursday's Winter Celebration. As is, the room is a work-in-progress, in need of some care and thoughtful planning before completed.
12.15.10 In December, New London SEMI 'Lighthouse Kids' students are learning about nautical knots and discovering Stonington Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer with author Candace Sanford.
12.20.10 Two officers in the NL Police Department came to the rescue to help bring the magnificent carpet, previously upstairs, down to the ground-floor main gallery. Thank you--it looks magnificent!
12.20.10 Above: author Candace Sanford teaches Harbor School SEMI students about Stonington's Captain Nathaniel Palmer - A Maritime Pioneer! After hearing about Palmer, the students learned to tie four knots: the square knot, bowline, figure S & half-hitch.
Below: CT State Preservation Officer Susan Chandler meets with NLMS trustee Ben Martin to discuss developing a comprehensive plan to bring the museum up to code.
12.21.10 Today we held our annual Volunteer Appreciation-Holiday party! Hurrah to them all!
The museum is now closed until Thursday, January 6. See you in 2011!
