History Revival: Coastal Chronicles
The History Revival: Coastal Chronicles lecture series is a collaborative effort of the Zwaanendael Museum and Lewes Public Library. The Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay have been an integral part of Delaware’s history, and connected the small state to global events and issues. Maritime communities and industries have taken advantage of Delaware’s coast for centuries. Delawareans past and present benefited and struggled against the water’s constant change. The goal of History Revival: Coastal Chronicles is to widen the understanding of maritime history within Delaware.
Join us for a conversation with Michael Dougherty, author of The Wreck of the Faithful Steward on Delaware’s False Cape.
In the summer of 1785, a group of Irish migrants took to the Atlantic to escape the abuse and persecution of the ruling classes at home. They sought a new life in the United States, a place “where the banner of freedom waved proudly” and “every good was possessed.” Their ship was new and sturdy, and its captain had a good reputation. On this voyage, however, it was overloaded with migrant families and a massive cargo of counterfeit coins. By the first of September the ship was lost, somewhere off the mid-Atlantic coast. Dougherty tells the story of the wreck and the people on board.
Michael Dougherty served for twenty-five years in the federal government focused on law and policy. He is a former Ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services and a former Assistant Secretary for Border, Immigration and Trade Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He is a shipwreck diver. His home surf break is Indian River Inlet, Delaware.
We invite you to support the author by purchasing a copy of their book from Browseabout Books by clicking HERE. Call-in orders are accepted at (302) 226-2665 or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website. Each copy purchased comes signed. Books will be available for sale and for signing at the event.
** This session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. When you register, indicate which you prefer.
Join us for a re-creation of an old-time radio broadcast from the 1940s as Possum Point Players presents a fun-filled program of merriment and laughs. After a brief introduction to some of the popular shows of the “Golden Age of Radio,” they will present The Bickersons at Sea, followed with a pair of laugh-out-loud features: The Man Who thought of Everything and St. George and the Dragonette.
The show cast includes Andrew Hertzberg, Carole and George Mason, Bernie Noeller, Marilyn Ransom Noeller, Tony Pierantozzi, Jennifer Schultz, Anna Toyna, and Andy Rollman at the sound effects table.
A branch of the Possum Point Players of Georgetown and brainchild of the late David Palmer, the Possum Point Players Radio Theatre was founded in 1996. Its mission is double-pronged: to read plays aloud at monthly meetings and to present for the public staged readings of dramatic material. The group creates a networking studio, complete with microphones, sound effects, and transcribed music.
John Bolster will discuss the story of the Overfalls (LV118) and its history as a lightship from when it was launched in 1938 to when it arrived in Lewes in 1973. The talk also will cover the history of the Overfalls Lightstation – just east of Cape Henlopen – where there was a lightship stationed from 1898 until 1960.
John Bolster is a recent (2019) transplant to Delaware. He grew up around the water in Massachusetts and spent time working as dockmaster at a boatyard in Connecticut. A retired technical instructor and lifelong student of maritime history, he became a guide on the Overfalls lightship when he moved to the Lewes area. As the Overfalls curator, he now manages the preservation and display of the various artifacts on the ship and in the lightship’s museum. He also can occasionally be found sailing on Rehoboth Bay with his wife on the small wooden sailing dory he built.
** This session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. When you register, indicate which you prefer.
Claudia Leister will talk about the history of the H.M.S DeBraak, a famous British warship that sank off the shores of Cape Henlopen on May 25, 1798, as well as her experiences during the salvage of the ship in the 1980’s.
Claudia Leister has served as executive director of the Milford Museum since retiring as the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs’ curator of collections management in June 2011. She began her 34-year career with the division in March 1977 as a volunteer at the Island Field Museum. The following month, she was hired as a casual/seasonal supervisor for a summer archaeological team followed by work as an archaeological assistant. In 1980, she began full-time employment as the division’s registrar (later renamed curator of registration, then curator of collections management). Beginning in 1986, she was deeply involved in the processing, cataloging and curating of artifacts from the DeBraak shipwreck. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in archaeology/anthropology from Michigan State University, and a master’s degree in history from the University of Delaware.
** This session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. When you register, indicate which you prefer.
Author Bill Manthorpe will give a talk about his book Ships Named Delaware and the People who Built Them and Sailed in Them.
Bill Manthorpe is a retired Navy Captain and government civilian Senior Executive. Since retiring full time to the Delaware Coast in 1998, Bill has been researching, writing, and speaking on the naval and maritime history of Delaware. He has contributed articles to Pull Together, the publication of the Naval Historical Foundation, and the Journal of the Lewes Historical Society. In addition, he has written a classified history of one aspect of naval intelligence for the Office of Naval Intelligence and Navy Archives as well as articles for the Naval War College Review and the Naval Intelligence Professionals Quarterly.
** This session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. When you register, indicate which you prefer.
Alan Davis will discuss his journey into oyster farming and what that farming process is like.
Alan Davis is the owner and operator of Inland Bays Shellfisheries, LLC, an oyster farm in Rehoboth Bay. He comes from a commercial fishing family, with 20+ years of experience in lobster, seabass, conch, crab, and longline fisheries. Mr. Davis is the former chair of the Governor’s Council on Shell Fisheries and has been engaged in oyster aquaculture since 2019.
** This session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. When you register, indicate which you prefer.
Zwaanendael Historical Interpreters Thomas Pulmano and Laurie Conner will provide a history of sea shanties and their use on ships. Afterwards audience members may join in a sing along of various historical shanties.
Thomas Pulmano has worked with the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA) for over 15 years. Tom has had the opportunity to work in many facets of Delaware historical interpretation including exploring the states heritage, culture, and archeology. Prior to joining HCA, Tom served for 24 years in the U.S. Air Force where his travels took him, among other places, to the Netherlands where he learned the language and immersed himself in the culture. He holds a bachelors degree in liberal arts from Wesley College.
As a child, Laurie Conner spent her summer vacations at Cape Henlopen State Park and visiting the historical sites and museums in Lewes. She credits the large, diverse, and curious collection at the Zwaanendael Museum for her love of teaching and interpretating at various museum sites – from building dioramas at the Byron Prairie Preserve in Illinois to working as a zookeeper in her home state of Pennsylvania. Most recently she worked as a teacher and naturalist at Abbot’s Mill Nature Center in Milford.
** This session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. When you register, indicate which you prefer.
Join us for a presentation by Fred Dylla on the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse.
Lighthouses are the sentinels that warn sailors of dangerous shorelines. Lighthouses in the US before the 1850’s were so poorly lit these beacons often lured sailors to dangers rather than offering fair warning. The original lighthouses constructed on US shores in the 18th and early 19th century were lit with whale oil lamps with simple parabolic mirror reflectors. On a clear night the visibility could be measured in miles. The situation changed dramatically in Europe when a young French engineer, Augustin Fresnel, designed and manufactured a remarkable new type of lens that could project lighthouse beams more than 20 miles. These new “Fresnel” lenses were not adopted by the US Lighthouse Service until after a key measurement was made in the Delaware Bay comparing the brightness of the Brandywine Light with a newly installed Fresnel lens to the Cape Henlopen light with its simple parabolic reflector. When the young Naval engineer who performed the experiment showed the US Congress that the new lens also saved considerable whale oil, Fresnel lenses were rapidly deployed on the US coasts with considerable savings in lives and lost cargoes.
Presenter Fred Dylla is a physicist with a long interest in the history of science and technology. Before retiring to Lewes in 2015, he was the Executive Director of the American Institute of Physics. Dylla co-moderates the “Science and Society” series at the Lewes Public Library.
The Fenwick Island Lighthouse had been in operation for only a decade when William Edward Pepper was assigned as an assistant lighthouse keeper in 1869, a position he held for 16 years. More than a century later his great-great-great-granddaughter, Winnie Lewes, became president of the New Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, dedicated to maintaining and preserving this iconic landmark.
Join us as Winne and her daughter, Tracy Lewis, present the history of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse.
This lecture series is partially funded by the Delaware Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
