Maritime Museum News

Maritime Museum News Maritime Museum News is a publication of the
Association for Great Lakes Maritime History

This page seeks to provide professionals with a global perspective on maritime heritage preservation and interpretation, along with insights into best management practices for museums, trends in tourism and cultural resource management, and personnel-related news and information.

John U. Bacon has been named the 2026 winner of the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature for his...
08/12/2026

John U. Bacon has been named the 2026 winner of the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature for his book The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The award is named for the late Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison, a Harvard University history professor and one of the country’s most distinguished naval historians. It is administered and presented by the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States.

Cdr. John Cupschalk, USNR (Ret.), the commander of the New York Commandery, will present Bacon with his award during a ceremony in New York, N.Y. on Oct. 19, 2026. For more information on the event or award, click on the link below.

https://navalordernyc.org.

Images Source: Boswell Books Co.

Vantage Data Centers, Oracle and OpenAI recently announced a combined $60,000 donation to support restoration work at th...
08/12/2026

Vantage Data Centers, Oracle and OpenAI recently announced a combined $60,000 donation to support restoration work at the 1860 Light Station in Port Washington, Wis. The station has been stewarded by the Port Washington Historical Society since the 1ate 1990s.

The funding will support construction of a new retaining wall for the 1934 generator building, one of three buildings that make up the Light Station. The retaining wall is part of a broader effort to fully restore the generator building, which has not previously undergone a historic restoration.

Additional planned work includes restoring the building’s exterior to its original appearance, developing interpretive exhibits on Port Washington’s maritime heritage and adding a fully ADA-accessible entrance to improve public access.

Image Source: U.S. Lighthouse Society

Information Source:
https://vantage-dc.com/news/port-washingtons-historic-1860-light-station-restoration-receives-60000-community-investment-from-vantage-data-centers-oracle-and-openai/

On Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, N.Y. host its annual Bob Speltz Day which provides visit...
08/12/2026

On Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, N.Y. host its annual Bob Speltz Day which provides visitors with a behind-the-scenes look at its Lou Smith Library and Marion Clayton Link Archives. The event takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET.

Planned activities include digitization demonstrations that will show how historic photographs and documents are digitized and preserved, and a digitization station which will provide free scans and digital copies of visitor-supplied photographs,.

There will also be a scavenger hunt across the Antique Boat Museum campus, along with a research help desk where staff members will answer visitor questions related to boats, boat builders wooden boat history and research resources.

Bob Speltz was a historian, author and lifelong boating enthusiast whose series, The Real Runabouts, remains a respected resource on classic wooden boats. He was also known for his dedication to documenting boats, boat builders and their stories.

Admission to the Antique Boat Museum is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors (age 65+), $9 for youth (ages 7-16), and free for children (ages 6 and under) and museum members. For more information, click on the link below.

https://www.abm.org/bob-speltz-day/

Images Source: Woody Boater

On Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, the Elberta Heritage Center in Elberta, Mich. will host a screening of the 1988 film “The Wrec...
08/12/2026

On Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, the Elberta Heritage Center in Elberta, Mich. will host a screening of the 1988 film “The Wreck and Rescue of the Schooner J.H. Hartzell.” The event is free and will begin at 7:00 p.m. ET.

The film will be shown in its original 16mm format and filmmaker Rich Brauer will be on hand for the screening. Launched in 1863, the two-masted schooner J. Hazard Hartwell was wrecked on Lake Michigan on October 16, 1880 during what became known as the Alpena Storm.

The Hartzell’s crew was rescued by the members of the Point Betsey Life-Saving Station in Frankfort, Mich. One life was lost. The film re-creates the rescue, which has gone down as one of the most heroic and challenging in the history of the U.S. Life-Saving Service.

For more details, click on the link below.
https://elbertalaborheritagecenter.org/event/film-screening-the-wreck-and-rescue-of-the-schooner-j-hazard-hartzell/

Image Source: Amazon Prime Video

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, the Eastland Disaster Historical Society will host an on-line panel discussion entitled “L...
08/11/2026

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, the Eastland Disaster Historical Society will host an on-line panel discussion entitled “Lessons Written on the Water: Safety After the Eastland.” The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. CT and will be held on the Zoom platform.

The program is part of the Historical Society’s “History From Home” series that goes beyond its library presentations to offer in-depth conversations of the causes, effects and long-term impact of the maritime tragedy based on almost 30 years of research.

The cost for the event is $4,99 per person for premium Historical Society members, $7.99 for basic members, or $9.99 for non-members. To register, click on the link below.

https://eastlanddisaster.org/get_involved/history-from-home-registration?blm_aid=65504

Image Source: Passenger steamer Eastland underway, circa 1900-1915 (Source: Library of Congress – Detroit Publishing Co. Collection).

Dorris Akers, long-time president of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History passed away on July 25, 2026 in Ka...
08/10/2026

Dorris Akers, long-time president of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History passed away on July 25, 2026 in Kalamazoo, Mich. She also served as executive director of the Michigan Maritime in South Haven, Mich. for many years.

Akers was born in Princeton, Ky. on Oct. 24, 1939. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Dalton, Georgia. After graduating from Dalton High School in 1958, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago.

After teaching and working in Chicago, Akers moved to France and then to South Haven, Mich. in the 1970s. From 1980 to 1994, she was with the Michigan Maritime Museum, one of the founding institutional members of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History.

After leaving the Maritime Museum, Akers spent seven years in Murfreesboro, Tenn., working at the children’s museum and helping care for her mother. A private memorial of her life will be held. To leave a memory or offer condolences, click on the link below.

https://www.starksfamilyfh.com/obituaries/Dorris-Annette-Akers?obId=49150782

On Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, the Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum in Kent, N.Y. will host its annual fundraiser featuring an...
08/10/2026

On Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, the Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum in Kent, N.Y. will host its annual fundraiser featuring an evening of music with a buffet of unusual dessert. The two-hour event begins at 7:00 p.m. ET and will be held at the Carlton United Methodist Church.

Located on the shores of Lake Ontario, the museum is housed in a replica of the 1871 wooden pierhead lighthouse that once stood on Point Breeze at the mouth of the Oak Orchard River. The original light was destroyed by a storm in December 1916.

Tickets for the fundraiser are $25 at the door or $20 pre-sale. They can be purchased during the summer concerts at the Oak Orchard State Marine Park, or by calling (585) 230-7829

Image: The Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum is housed in a replica of an 1871 wooden pierhead lighthouse (Source: TripAdvisor).

Information Source:
https://orleanshub.com/oak-orchard-lighthouse-museum-plans-aug-29-lyrics-and-the-lighthouse-fundraiser/

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, the H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego, N.Y. will host a presentation entitled “Seeing...
08/10/2026

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, the H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego, N.Y. will host a presentation entitled “Seeing Below the Surface: Exploration of Water Quality in Lake Ontario” by Andew S. Brainard, Ph.D., and David Andrews of the Upstate Freshwater Institute.

Brainard and Andrews will discuss the institute’s advanced monitoring buoy system collection of near-real-time data on temperature, waves and weather, and how that information supports scientific research and recreation in the Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary.

With data and imagery captured by underwater cameras, participants will also be able to take a virtual dive beneath Lake Ontario’s surface to learn about water quality monitoring and its connection to recreation. The free program will begin at 6:00 p.m. ET. Call (315) 342-0480 for more details.

The event is part of the Maritime Museum’s new Sanctuary Speaker Series. The series will include programs in marine science, history, preservation and underwater exploration. It is partially funded by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s Sanctuary Community Fund.

Image Source: Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary

Information Source:
https://www.oswegocountyny.gov/news_detail_T17_R4496.php

On Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, the Charlevoix Historical Society in Charlevoix, Mich. will host a presentation entitled “Sch...
08/10/2026

On Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, the Charlevoix Historical Society in Charlevoix, Mich. will host a presentation entitled “Schooners and the Lake Michigan Frontier” by historian and author Dr. Ted Karamanski, Professor Emeritus of History at Loyola University Chicago.

The free event will begin at 6:00 p.m. ET at the Charlevoix Public Library. Dr. Karamanski has written a number of books on Great Lakes maritime history including Schooner Passage: Sailing Ships and the Lake Michigan Frontier (2001).

Karamanski’s works also include Great Lake: An Unnatural History of Lake Michigan (2026); Mastering the Inland Seas: How Lighthouses, Navigational Aids, and Harbors Transformed the Great Lakes and America (2020): and Fur Trade and Exploration: Opening the Far Northwest, 1821-1852 (1983).

For more information on the upcoming program, contact the Charlevoix Historical Society at (231) 547-0373 for more information.

Image: During the 19th century, sailing ships made Chicago one of the world’s busiest ports. Schooners made up the bulk of the fleet, which was responsible for the development and growth of the grain and the lumber trades on Lake Michigan (Source: Chicago Maritime Museum).

During August 2026, the Sanilac County Historical Society’s traveling exhibit “Echoes of Sanilac: Exploring the History ...
08/09/2026

During August 2026, the Sanilac County Historical Society’s traveling exhibit “Echoes of Sanilac: Exploring the History of Michigan’s Thumb” will be on display at seven sites in the Thumb region of Lower Michigan as part of the America250 celebration.

The exhibit includes 20 professionally-produced display panels. Among the topics covered are steamboat ports of the Great Lakes, heroism at the Pointe Aux Barques Life-Saving Station, the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 and rum running on Lake Huron during Prohibition.

Admission to the exhibit is free at all sites, which include:

August 12 – Thumb Octagon Barn & Agricultural Museum in Gagetown, Mich.
August 15 – Lumberyard Museum of the Thumb in Port Hope, Mich.
August 16 – Port Hope Depot in Port Hope, Mich.
August 21-23 – Millington Arbella Library in Millington, Mich.
August 24-28 – Harbor Beach Area District Library in Harbor Beach, Mich.
September 18-20 – William H. Aitkin Memorial Library in Crosswell, Mich.
September 26-27 – Pioneer Log Village in Bad Axe, Mich.

For full tour details, venue contacts, and digital exhibit resources, contact the Sanilac County Historical Society at (810) 622-9946 or e-mail [email protected].

Image: A painting by marine artist Capt. Bud Robinson depicting the freighter Regina during the Great Lakes Storm of 1913. The ship was one of the vessels lost off the Thumb region of Michigan during the storm (Source: Capt. Bud Robinson).

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