The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) is hosting a series of  Sea Glass Sundays! this summer on the following Sundays: July 25, August 1, 8, 15, 22, & 29, 2021, from 10 am-5 pm on the museum’s patio overlooking the Harbor. Summer Glass Sundays! are free and open to the public. 
The Santa Barbara Sea Glass & Ocean Arts Festival, which usually occurs each year in September, has been cancelled for 2020 and 2021 and will not return until 2022; but the Sea Glass Festival organizers wanted to provide the community with the opportunity to purchase sea glass items before then! Summer Glass Sundays! will feature a variety  of handmade, ocean-themed art and authentic sea glass jewelry created by dozens of talented artists. 

Door County Maritime Museum has expanded our policy to offer free admission to the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve. DCMM provides free admission for those currently serving in the United States Military – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard – and up to five family members.

This admission policy is available year-round, especially honoring the service of the three local US Coast Guard stations in Door County. The City of Sturgeon Bay is one of 28 cities that have been designated by Congress as Coast Guard Cities, and the only one in the state of Wisconsin.

During the summer months, the DCMM military personnel policy is part of Blue Star Museums, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 2,000 museums in all 50 states that offer free admission to active-duty military personnel and their families from Armed Forces Day (May 15) through Labor Day.

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) is delighted to announce that it will be hosting the annual summer Southern California Artists Painting for the Environment (SCAPE) Art Show and Sale both online and in-person this year. A percentage of the sale proceeds will be used to benefit SBMM and help rekindle its post-pandemic maritime educational programs.

SCAPE and SBMM are co-hosting Images of Our Rekindled Maritime Community, as an online exhibit and in-person sale of fine art. The exhibit and sale will be available online from Wednesday, August 18-Tuesday, August 25, 2021. The in-person show and sale will be held on Wednesday, August 25th and Thursday, August 26. This event will feature the work of more than 75 artists and their views of our ocean and Santa Barbara’s maritime life. Artwork may be viewed and purchased online at https://sbmm.org/20scape/ beginning Wednesday, August 18, 2021. Prior to the opening of the exhibit, some of the artists and their work will be profiled on SBMM’s Facebook, Instagram and Web pages as well as on SCAPE’s Instagram account. Artists who are interested in participating in the show and sale, are invited to submit up to three (3) artworks with a $10 fee per submission, a photo of themselves, and a short biographic artist’s statement between July 1 and midnight of July 28, 2021. Once the artwork has been received, all submissions will be reviewed by SCAPE for inclusion, and will be selected by the SCAPE Juror.

SCAPE was founded in 2002 and has grown to over 200 members, a diverse group including nationally known and local artists, students, patrons, and gallery owners. Membership is open year-round to everyone who wants to participate. SCAPE’s goals are to have exhibitions to help raise money to protect open spaces, to increase public awareness of environmental and conservation issues, to promote camaraderie and provide education for artists. They mount 2 or 3 juried exhibits every year. To date over $100,000 has been raised to benefit local non-profit beneficiaries including the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Channelkeeper, and Heal the Ocean, among others. 

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park celebrates the release of a new mobile application that provides a virtual tour through the historic 1907 tugboat Hercules, the only surviving steam powered ocean tug in the United States. Hercules represents not only 1907 marine steam reciprocating technology at its height, but also the strength and fortitude of sailors who survived terrifying storms at sea. Explore this unique survivor of the American maritime story and share in this virtual on-board experience. Take a close look inside the pilot house, crew quarters, and the engineering spaces. In each of these places, you’ll have the opportunity to view 360-degree images, historic photos, and videos describing the events of working and living on this ocean tug.

To find the app, visit the App Store or Google Play, and type in “San Francisco Maritime.” When you see “Xplore Hercules Steam Tug” and/or “San Francisco Maritime,” you’ve found the right one. The App will create an augmented reality version of the ship then start your adventure!

To provide greater access to museum exhibits and programs to ALL Door County residents, Door County Maritime Museum (DCMM) is excited to announce a new partnership with the Door County Library. DCMM family membership cards are now available for checkout for anyone with a library card at all branches of the Door County Library system.

The passes allow families (two adults plus children under 17) to visit the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, the Death’s Door Maritime Museum in Gills Rock, and the Cana Island Lighthouse in Baileys Harbor. They are ready for checkout starting July 1 at all eight Door County libraries, called “Door Access Pass.” The passes are checked out like other library items and are good for five days, and then left at the museum site. No holds will be allowed on the passes.

There are eight Door County Library branches: Baileys Harbor, Egg Harbor, Ephraim, Fish Creek, Forestville, Sister Bay/Liberty Grove, Sturgeon Bay and Washington Island. The library in Sturgeon Bay also houses the Miller Art Museum. Each branch of the library has copies of the new DCMM magazine The Beacon available in their magazine section. The museum also donated eight copies of the Journal of Cana Island Lightstation to the Door County libraries.

This new initiative combines with several other DCMM programs designed to increase accessibility to the exhibits and collections of the Museum for visitors and local residents. DCMM joins a large coalition of museums nationwide making a broad commitment to seek, include and welcome all audiences.

Mystic Seaport Museum announces it will be hauling its 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan for routine maintenance and preservation work on Monday, July 19.

The ship will be moved from its berth on the Museum’s waterfront to the shipyard at the south end of the property. The public is invited to watch as the ship is pushed and towed down the river beginning around 3:30 p.m. Once at the shipyard, staff will haul the Morgan out of the water on the yard’s synchronized shiplift and then move it onto dry land so the Museum’s shipwrights can access the hull for work. The Museum hauls the ship approximately every 3 years for inspection, maintenance such as painting and caulking, and repairs as needed.

“This is a rare opportunity to see an historic vessel such as the Charles W. Morgan high and dry, where one can walk right up and see the shape and details of the hull, which is normally invisible under the water,” said Peter Armstrong, the president of Mystic Seaport Museum.

The ship should be out of the water for about a month and will remain open to the public to go on board during much of that time.

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) Board of Directors is excited and proud to announce that the Museum has earned national accreditation from the prestigious American Alliance of Museums (AAM). 

To reach this important goal, the Museum spent three years working toward its AAM accreditation by improving its processes and procedures, organizing collections and other policies, completing an extensive 

year-long self-study report and application, writing a new 5-Year Strategic Plan, and undergoing a novel “virtual” site visit by a team of museum peer reviewers. Once SBMM had submitted all of its documents 

and the visiting committee had completed its report, AAM’s Accreditation Commission, an independent body of museum professionals, awarded the Museum a full 10-year accreditation at its annual meeting June 17-18.

According to Evan Richardson, Chair of the AAM Accreditation Commission, “This means the museum meets National Standards and Best Practices for U.S. Museums and joins a community of institutions that have chosen to hold themselves publicly accountable to excellence. Through a rigorous process of self-assessment and review by its peers, the museum has shown itself to be a good steward of its resources held in the public trust and committed to a philosophy of continual institutional growth.” Of 33,000 museums in the United States, only 1,069 are currently accredited.

Richardson went on to say, “We commend the museum for its educational programming and project-based learning approach, as well as efforts to widen its audience to reach Title 1 schools in the county. The Navigators Circle program and the Code of Ethics can serve as interesting models for other institutions. “ 

With this AAM accreditation, SBMM can now join the ranks of some of the most prominent museums in the United States, such as Colonial Williamsburg, the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island, and the San Diego Museum of Art; and as a result, the Museum will now be able to attract more new exhibits from across the country.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is pleased to offer the public a chance to be a part of history and join CBMM shipwrights this fall as they build Maryland Dove, a reproduction of the vessel that accompanied the first European settlers to Maryland in 1634.  

Scheduled for Saturdays Aug. 21, Oct. 16, Nov. 13, and Dec. 18, from 10am–4pm, guests are invited to CBMM’s working Shipyard to hone their woodworking skills while helping to craft pieces of the new Maryland Dove. Currently under construction at CBMM, the vessel is owned by the state of Maryland and operated and maintained by Historic St. Mary’s City. To learn more about the project, visit marylanddove.org. 

Projects will include the construction of the interior cabin doors, the grated hatch cover, and the binnacle. The cost to participate in any of these workdays is $55, with a 20% discount offered to CBMM members. For additional details and to register, visit cbmm.org/shipyardprograms.  

he USS Constitution Museum is the winner in the “Historic Sites & Tours” category for Boston Parents’ Family Favorites. It is the fourth year in a row that the Museum has received this award from the readers of Boston Parents Paper.

The USS Constitution Museum is honored to receive this recognition in a field with so many other dynamic sites and tours including Fenway Park, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Plimoth Patuxet Museums, and Old Sturbridge Village.

All winners will be featured in Boston Parents Paper’s August 2021 issue.

Boston Parents’ Family Favorites gives readers in Greater Boston and throughout the Northeast a chance to voice their opinions on their personal family favorites in 100 categories. Voting is conducted in a two-round process: the first round gathers open write-in nominations and the second round asks voters to select their favorite from the top nominees in each category.

“We are thrilled to receive this award for the fourth year in a row,” said Anne Grimes Rand, USS Constitution Museum President & CEO. “The USS Constitution Museum educates and entertains families from Boston and beyond, sharing the stories of ‘Old Ironsides’ through hands-on exhibits and engaging experiences.”

The USS Constitution Museum was also recently ranked #5 in USA Today’s 2021 10Best Readers’ Choice travel awards in the category of “Best History Museum.” In a highly competitive category of top museums from around the United States, online votes determined the winners from a group of 20 initial nominees. The Museum was the sole nominee and winner in this category from New England.

The USS Constitution Museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

The Museum also continues to offer virtual content and engaging digital experiences to visitors at home. It recently launched the online exhibit Join the Crew, based on the award-winning in-person exhibit All Hands on Deck. Join the Crew is an immersive, research-based online experience that integrates humanities themes with dynamic interactive elements for a virtual audience. The exhibit uses artifact imagery, video shorts, games, quizzes, and at-home activities to explore the lives of real USS Constitution crew members and their families during the War of 1812. This online exhibit has been made possible by a National Endowment for the Humanities: CARES Act Grant.

The Museum also offers digital visitors A Sailor’s Life for Me, an award-winning dynamic game and educator resource that gives people of all ages a chance to step into the shoes of an 1812 sailor. Additional content, such as videos, blog posts, collection highlights, are available through the Virtual Museum’s social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and the website usscm.org.

Registrations for both the onsite AASLH conference this September in Little Rock and the virtual conference in October are now open on our website. Both conferences focus on the theme of Doing History/Doing Justice, and each event will offer thought-provoking session, inspiring keynotes, and opportunities to network and brainstorm with history people from around the country. Early bird registration ends August 6! Read more.