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Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum presents annual Fall Speaker Series

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md., will begin its Fall Speaker Series on Thursday, Oct. 10, and continue on select dates through Wednesday, Nov. 13. All sessions take place in CBMM’s Van Lennep Auditorium, and advance registration is encouraged.

CBMM’s newest exhibition, On Land and On Sea: A Century of Women in the Rosenfeld Collection, explores evolving roles of women through much of the 20th century, as seen through the camera lenses of Morris and Stanley Rosenfeld. This year’s Fall Speaker Series dives deeper into the shifts that the Rosenfelds captured, and picks up where the exhibition leaves off in the 1970s, exploring the complexities of cultural change as well as the personal connections of women involved in different aspects of the maritime world. On Land and On Sea: A Century of Women in the Rosenfeld Collection is on display in CBMM’s Steamboat Building now through April 2020.

The speaker series begins on Thursday, Oct. 10, at 5:30pm with “On Land and On Sea: A Talk with the Author.” As the author of On Land and On Sea: A Century of Women in the Rosenfeld Collection, the book upon which CBMM’s exhibition is based, University of Delaware Rosenberg Professor Emeritus of Sociology Margaret Andersen Rosenfeld, will discuss what inspired her book—a panorama of women’s lives over the course of the 20th century as viewed through the Rosenfeld Collection. The Rosenfeld Collection, famed for its collection of maritime photography and curated by Mystic Seaport Museum, includes close to one million images, many of which tell different stories about 20th-century social history.

“Thereʼs No Make-up in Kandahar: In Uniform and in Command in the U.S. Navy,” will feature Capt. Valerie Overstreet at 2pm Wednesday, Oct.16. With more than 4,300 flight hours and 425 carrier arrested landings to her credit, Overstreet has led an impressive career in naval aviation. Following a Pentagon policy change in 1993, she was one of the first women to fly combat missions, and was the first female commander of the “Wallbangers,” an E-2C Hawkeye squadron. Today, she balances her current assignment as Deputy Superintendent/Chief of Staff at the United States Naval Academy with her responsibilities as a mother of two young children.

“Reconsidering the Roles of Women on the Chesapeake,” on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 5:30pm will address the fact that women have played significant roles in the fisheries, maritime industries, and communities along the Chesapeake Bay, yet their stories are often missing from the historical record and in historical narratives. In this presentation, Associate Curator of Collections Jenifer Dolde will discuss the portrayals of Chesapeake women from the CBMM collection as captured by the lenses of well-known photographers, cultural historians, and ordinary people, and will suggest new ways to interpret women’s place in our region’s history.

CBMM President Kristen Greenaway will be featured at 2pm Wednesday, Nov. 6, in a lecture titled, “Messing About in Boats.” By day, Greenaway is at the helm of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum as the institution’s first female president. Her connection to the water runs much deeper, however. In this talk, she will share stories of her many adventures on boats propelled by sail, power, and paddle, from living aboard a 32-foot wooden yacht as a child, to sailing with an all-woman crew in the inaugural two-month Auckland-Fukuoka (Japan) Yacht Race, to competing in the annual 300-mile WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. Her experiences are varied, and she is quite the storyteller.

The final offering in the series is “At the Helm of Kalmar Nyckel,” set for 5:30pm Wednesday, Nov. 13. Within the world of tall ships, heritage tourism brings the maritime past to life for present day audiences. In this talk, Capt. Lauren Morgens will discuss her role as the first female captain of Kalmar Nyckel, an accurate replica of a 17th-century Dutch pinas, and the official tall ship of Delaware. With two decades of experience in sailing tall ships, Morgens is notable for both her leadership and seamanship, overseeing paid officers and volunteer crew to bring Kalmar Nyckel to ports along the eastern seaboard.

The cost per session is $7.50 per person, with a 20% discount for CBMM members. Register online for all five sessions for an additional discount. To sign up, and for more information, visit cbmm.org/speakerseries

The first offering, on Thursday, Oct. 10, invites Margaret Andersen Rosenfeld, pictured, the author of the book upon which CBMM’s exhibition is based, to discuss what inspired her book.