below: New London Light from the North East, oil on canvas, William Gooding, ca. 1909. collection Lyman Allyn Art Museum. Now on view at the Custom House Maritime Museum, New London, Connecticut.
PLEASE
DONATE
No matter how the wind howls or the sea lashes, we see clear sailing ahead for our work preserving and promoting New London's maritime heritage.
None of what we do would be possible without support from like-minded individuals whose contributions keep us going every single day, week, month, and year; whether we're running our local-history clas for NL's thrid graders, or researching a manuscript in our library. By
contributing to the Society's Annual Fund, you provide the essential
day-to-day support that enables us to preserve, protect, and present New
London's maritime heritage.
Every contribution counts.
Please take a moment to make a 100% tax deductible donation to the New London Maritime Society. The New London Maritime Society, 150 Bank St, New London, 06320, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, tax ID #06-10866688.
New London Maritime Society (NLMS) CUSTOM HOUSE MARITIME MUSEUM l 150 Bank Street l New London, Connecticut 06320 l 860-447-2501 l email
The Custom House Maritime Museum - your local, independent, community museum - open year-round - telling the stories of New London's waterfront!
EXHIBITIONS
Submarine Memorabilia from the Collection of Ed Uditis: 1940s through 1990s, with additional items from Axel Westerberg and the New London Maritime Society Collection. .
AMISTAD: A True Story of Freedom
a permanent exhibition at the site of the original Amistad events of 1839.
from two private collections: Jay Kane and Ed Uditis.
The
museum's most important artifact may well be the building, itself. Built
in 1833 as New London's U.S Custom House and designed by architect Robert Mills,
it has been the museum's home since 1983. New London's Custom House opened in 1835. It is the longest continuously-operating custom house in the country.
PUBLICATIONS
Read the new 2016 SUMMER NEWSLETTER
Facebook New London Harbor Light
Facebook Race Rock Lighthouse
Facebook Sentinels on the Sound
Facebook MUSEUM SHOP
Facebook Lighthouse Inn
Facebook Long Island Sound Lighthouses
Learn about our Book of the Month
in the NEWS
New London Maritime Society pushes harder for dock as it faces another property dispute The Day 6.21.15
Video: The Mystique of the Lighthouse: Legend and Lore, at Hartford's Old State House, with Jeremy D'Entremont, Judy Dworin, and NLMS director Susan Tamulevich
See all News Here
VIDEO
In 2013, the US Postal Service made a video about New London Harbor Light. See it HERE.
Watch what we do
New London Maritime Society -- nicely nautical
The work of the New London Maritime Society - Custom House Maritime Museum is made possible by generous grants from The Chester Kitchings Family Foundation, the Gilder Lehrman Institute, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Connecticut Humanities Council, Dominion Foundation, the Bodenwein Public Benevolent Foundation, Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, Community Foundation of Eastern CT, Veolia / New London Water Authority, & and by the work of dedicated volunteers, members & friends.
WHAT'S UP at the CUSTOM HOUSE ?
EVENTS
SUPPORT US
We participate in the Blue Star Museums program, providing free admission to active-duty members of the armed services and their families all year.
Want to know what's up?
Volunteer at the Custom House!
Read our SUMMER Newsletter
Visit our sister Custom House in Newburyport, MA.
Seafood WATCH - What seafood to buy now.
Click right to see > Community / History Links
For all events going on Downtown, visit the
New London Maritime Society - open year-round your local, independent, community museum,
telling the stories of New London's waterfront.
OPEN: April through Dec., Wednesday--Sunday 1-5 PM
January through March, Thursday-- Sunday, 1 to 5 PM
Admission $7. USCG cadets, active-duty military and
their families, and children 14 and younger: free!
150 Bank Street, New London, CT 06320 860-447-2501
Congratulations to US! On August 6, 2015, New London Maritime Society took ownership of a 3rd lighthouse: New London Ledge Light. The cake, above, is by The Cake Lady.
We had Spanish exchange students visiting the Custom House Tuesday morning on their way to NYC. After learning about our lighthouses, they showed us pictures of their local lighthouse -- which dates back to Roman times. The students were amazed to see the actual document for Neal Armstrong, (below), when he reentered the US from the Moon and made his US Customs declaration for 'MOON ROCK AND MOON DUST SAMPLES'.
Our museum shop offers all kinds of unique gifts.
We have a special section full of fun things for kids. Everybody is welcome in the shop, you don't need a museum ticket.
Artist Alan Claude has just completed his silk screen print of Race Rock Light, above. Both Race and Ledge Lights are featured in his 2017 calendars. We now have both prints (in 2 sizes) and both Alan's mini and full-sized 2017 calendars in the Shop. The MUSEUM SHOP is open Wednesday -- Sunday, from 1-5 PM.
Dear friends of New London Maritime Society,
None of what we do would be possible without support from like-minded individuals whose contributions keep us going every single day, week, month, and year; whether we're running our local-history classes with New London's 3rd grade, or researching a manuscript in our library. By contributing to the Maritime Society, you provide the essential day-to-day support that enables us to preserve, protect, and present New London's maritime heritage.
Every contribution counts.But now your gift will be doubled,
Please call Susan at 860-447-8700 to have your gift matched.
Visit the Custom House MUSEUM SHOP
No matter how the wind howls or the sea lashes, we see clear sailing ahead for our work preserving and promoting New London's maritime heritage.
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Remember: The Custom House is available for private rentals.
NB: Per the fire marshal, our maximum occupancy is 49 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.
Explore the region's lighthouses with the one who knows them best. We offer three different cruises.
Find your lighthouse!
For 2016, through October we present an expanded version of our Yankee Magazine award-winning 'Best Lighthouse Tour' aboard the 20-passenger Popeye.
Find your lighthouse!is our personal, 90-minute signature tour, with only 20 passengers. Tours run every Wednesday & Saturday at 11:30 AM.
Sunset & Full-Moon Lighthouse Boat Tours take place monthly across the three nights of the full moon: last tours of the season October 15, 16, 17.
Register for the intimate, 6-person, 60-minute Sunset tour here: http://www.brown papertickets.com/event/2560310
See local lighthouses at night, as they were built to be seen. Sign up for our memorable 6 person, sixty-minute Full-moon tour here:
Find your lighthouse!
tours run hrough October
SAVE THE DATE - Friday, December 2
An Evening of Song and Conversation with Peter Yarrow
Peter Yarrow’s talents as a creative artist—both with the legendary trio Peter, Paul & Mary and as a solo performer—are frequently directed at using music to convey a message of humanity and caring. His gift for songwriting has produced some of the most moving songs from Peter, Paul & Mary, including ‘Puff, the Magic Dragon,’ ‘Day is Done’, ‘Light One Candle’ and ‘The Great Mandala.’
As a member of the renowned musical trio, Yarrow has earned multiple gold and platinum albums, as well as numerous GRAMMYs. He performs for NL Maritime Society on Friday, December 2. ■
Yes, it will be nostalgic for many. But on another level, it will bring them a sense of what is still possible. Yes, they will sing ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane,’ and I will give them a sense of the current history of what this music is doing, and why it’s important. So it will be a history lesson, it will be a singalong that inspires, but it will also assert the importance of the continuation of this kind of music in people’s lives today.
And where we’re going from here in those terms. It’s not necessarily a big lecture — it’s inherent in the music. They’ll get it. I know it, ’cause that’s what I do.
– Peter Yarrow
Update on New London Harbor Lighthouse
In April, New London’s Planning & Zoning Commission took a vote...and while all seven members expressed the sentiment that allowing people—residents, school children, even tourists—to visit New London Harbor Lighthouse on a limited basis would be a good thing and was an act consistent with the stated objectives of the City’s own development plan (promoting historic preservation and tourism, adaptive reuse of historic structures, etc.), five of the seven members voted against our zoning text amendment to allow for public access to historic sites, such as Harbor Light. As a result, we now are without the ability to bring any visitors to see the lighthouse, period. We—and you, the public—are essentially shut out of our own property.
Harbor Light still is an active US Coast Guard site. According to the Coast Guard, from the lantern one can see more lighthouses than from any other place on earth! —an astounding fact in which the City should take real pride. Citizens built and restored
this historic property—the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Long Island Sound and scene to much significant local history. NLMS now owns it on the public’s behalf. Access to the lighthouse should not be a matter of zoning, but of civil rights.
In the six years since we began offering tours to the lighthouse, visitors have come from as far away as Alaska, Oregon, Texas, and Maine to climb the 118 steps and see that spectacular view. With all the current effort to make New London a tourist destination, a US Coast Guard City, and the all-out push for a national USCG museum in 2020, it is bewildering that an existing, downtown maritime museum serving all these same ends and more, does not get the City’s support on this critical concern.
One can only believe, as with many issues of civil rights, that it’s a matter of education.
The City’s trusty lighthouse has suffered worse insult.
Harbor Light is where Benedict Arnold landed his troops en route to burn New London down in 1781. To keep the British away, the Light was extinguished during the War of 1812. Now the current lighthouse neighbors have figuratively turned the Light out.
Meanwhile, we are not giving up our efforts toward access. The ZBA appeal and federal litigation defending NLMS from the lighthouse neighbors, the Waesches, are being actively pursued. ■
August 15, 2016
Charter Oak Federal Credit Union is giving away $100,000 in 100 Days! Learn how you can help New London Maritime Society get some much needed funding! Please help by clicking HERE.
meets on the third Tuesdays September 20, at 1 PM
Join Rob & Russ for a speaker's program, coffee and treats. Please come & bring a friend. Donation for refreshments, only.
Fairy Tale Tableaux, Childhood Scenes, & an Alpine Idyll - Aymeric Dupré la Tour with Alison Holt
On Sunday
September 25, at 5 PM, pianist Aymeric Dupré la Tour with Alison Holt
on viola, perform a program of Romantic music by Robert Schumann and Johannas Brahms.
The first part of the concert will be dedicated to Robert Schumann (1810-56). Pianist Aymeric Dupré la Tour will interweave his performance of the thirteen childhood scenes Kinderszenen op. 15 (1838) with his duo with Alison Holt, performing Märchenbilder op. 113 (1851), a suite of four movements evoking fairy tale tableaux from Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Sleeping Beauty. After a brief pause, the duo will perform the Sonata in F minor for viola and piano op. 120 no. 1 (1894) by Johannes Brahms (1833-97). Brahms completed this mature composition in idyllic Bad Ischl, Austria in July 1894.
Space is limited. Aymeric's last concert sold out, so please book in advance. Admission $20, $15 NLMS members and students.
Remaining tickets will be available at the door prior to the concert.
Register here 24/7: brownpapertickets.com/event/2567476
Born in the UK, violist Alison Holt studied at The Royal College of Music under Frederick Riddle and Brian Hawkins. She began teaching violin and viola while continuing to play for the English String Orchestra, Midlands Opera, and chamber groups in the UK Midlands until 1999, when she and her family moved to Stonington Connecticut. Here, she helped to found Calvary Music School in Stonington with her husband, Simon, where she taught until 2010. Alison plays with the Salt Marsh Opera orchestra and chamber groups in the area. She has recently begun teaching for Music City Strings in New London.
Aymeric Dupré la Tour, a native of Lyon, France, studied music at an early age at the Conservatoire National de Région. After both earth-science and organ-performance studies in Paris, he earned an Artist Diploma in organ and a Masters in historical performance at Oberlin College, OH, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Juilliard School, NY. His performances have taken him across France, the United States, Canada, and South America in venues such as Weill Hall, Carnegie Hall. Dr. Dupré la Tour plays as principal for harpsichord/organ/piano with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, Ottorino Respighi. He also organizes concert series as Artistic Director of the New London Maritime Museum and the North Stonington Historical Society. Dupré la Tour works as Musical Curator at Zuckermann Harpsichords International in Stonington and Assistant Organist at St Theresa Roman Catholic Church, Trumbull.
Sign up 24/7 online at:
Space is limited. Aymeric's last concert sold out, so please book in advance.
Admission $20, $15 NLMS members and students. 860-448-2501.
Remaining tickets will be available at the door prior to the concert.
JIBBOOM CLUB #1
Our new submarine exhibition - in conjunction with Connecticut Submarine Century
Submarine Memorabilia from the Collection of Ed Uditis: 1940s through 1990s, with additional items from Axel Westerberg and the New London Maritime Society Collection.
This month, Ed Uditis speaks about his deep-sea diving experiences and his work as a member of the Historical Diving Society. Ed also gives a personal tour of his collection,on view at the Custom House.
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