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Group photo for 2014 Annual Meeting held at the National Museum of the Great Lakes. For more meeting photos, see the Annual Meeting page our website.

CAMM Membership Newsletter - July 24, 2014
Welcome
New Hampshire Boat Museum
New CAMM members

Announcements
Maritime Heritage Grants Program

Approximately $1,700.000 is available for grants supporting preservation and education projects that promote understanding of America's important maritime history. State, tribal, and local governments and private non-profit organizations can submit applications for National Maritime Heritage Grants until September 23, 2014. Education projects can request $25,000-50,000 and preservation projects can request $50,000-200,000. All grants require a matching share. The application deadline for the 2014 cycle in September 23.  The program is being administered by the National Park Service Maritime Heritage Program.
 
Maritime Heritage Conference

CAMM is pleased to be a sponsor of the upcoming Maritime Heritage Conference to take place in Norfolk, Virginia, September 17-20, 2014.

The Museum Small Craft Association (MSCA) will be holding its annual meeting in conjunction with the conference. Two MSCA organized sessions on small craft will be held: Documentation in the Digital Age on Friday morning, and Preserving and Disseminating Traditional Maritime Skills in Museum Settings on Saturday morning. There will be a tour of the International Small Craft Center at Mariners' Museum in nearby Newport News on Wednesday and an informal dinner is planned for Thursday. For more information contact David Cockey

Passport Program

The U.S. Lighthouse Society invites fellow CAMM members to join their passport program which provides visitors with an opportunity to collect unique stamp images at almost 500 locations. Stamps are available at participating lighthouses, lightships, life saving stations, as well as maritime museums across the nation. While the program is educational, the ultimate purpose is to generate income for those nonprofit organizations who are official stamp locations. When a visitor gets a passport stamped, he or she is requested to donate a minimum of one dollar in addition to any admission fee. Over the past four years, the Society has sold over 20,000 passports, primarily these are wholesale orders to lighthouse and museum gift shops that, in turn, make them available to their visitors (generating income for each passport sold). Each passport has spaces for 60 stamps.

 

The U.S. Lighthouse Society will assist you in creating your museum's unique stamp and has offered to create a special CAMM award patch for passport holders who have collected a certain number of stamps from our member museums. The Society has also created a free Passport Club that provides members with a newsletter containing up-to-date information about the stamps and their locations. For more information visit their passport website, phone 415-362-7255, or send them an email. (Be sure to mention that you are a member of CAMM.)
Resources Section on CAMM website

You may have noticed the RESOURCES tab on the CAMM website which are primarily links to CAMM members pages providing educational materials for teachers, blogs, online exhibits, information on  ships plan directory, and research links. We have also started a page for Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation projects funded by CAMM.

Please let our administrator Candace Clifford know if she has missed an online resource your museum or organization provides.
2015 ICMM Meeting Location Announced

The next International Congress of Maritime Museums conference will be held in Hong Kong-Macau from November 1 to 8, 2015.
The American Neptune Collection

The Phillips Library is pleased to announce a new digital collection - The American Neptune Collection. The quarterly journal of maritime history and arts, founded by a group of maritime enthusiasts, which included Samuel Eliot Morison and Walter Muir Whitehill, is available for your perusal and research.

 

From its inception in 1941 until publication ceased in 2002, The American Neptune: A Quarterly Journal of Maritime History and Arts has been considered America's premier maritime journal. Scholarly articles are of interest to readers who enjoy accounts of ships, the seas, and those who have sailed them, whether for mercantile gain, defending their nation's interest, or for the love of sea voyages and exploration. The articles cover a wide range of subjects, geographical areas other than America, and historical eras.

 

Currently, ten issues comprising Volumes 1 and 2, 1941 and 1942, and the first two issues of Volume III, January and April of 1943, have been uploaded into The American Neptune Collection. As new issues are scanned, they will be added to the collection.   

Greetings,

 

Welcome to the summer newsletter for the Council of American Maritime Museums. I am pleased to report this is looking to be a very successful year for Maritime Museums across the country.

 

Mystic Seaport has made an incredible journey, setting sail with the Charles W. Morgan. Congratulations to the entire staff of Mystic Seaport for a job well done. San Diego Maritime Museum nears completion of its replica of the Spanish galleon San Salvador--a project years in the making. 

 

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has appointed Kristen Greenaway as its new President; we welcome her aboard and wish Langley Shook all the best in his retirement.

 

This past April our annual conference was hosted by the new National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio. We were one of the very first groups to tour the new exhibits and campus, and as many of you witnessed, it is an impressive museum.

 

The conference offered a great look at some Midwest maritime projects underway and two days of fellowship with colleagues from across the country. We send a special "thank you" to the entire staff of the National Museum of the Great Lakes for hosting a successful conference.

 

Next year our conference will be in sunny Los Angeles, for what promises to be an all-access look at the port of Long Beach, the incredible container ship operations, and a cruise on the historic tug Angel. Please mark your calendars and start planning your trip today for CAMM's return to the west coast!
 

Dave Pearson

CAMM President


2015 CAMM Annual Meeting 

Los Angeles Maritime Museum has graciously offered to host next year's annual meeting. Please put April 13-14 on your calendars and plan on attending.

Venue for the next CAMM meeting, the Los Angeles Maritime Museum is located in the nation's busiest container port
Charles W. Morgan among whales on the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
Charles W. Morgan Sails Among Whales on Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

 

Nearly 100 years after its last voyage, the whaleship Charles W. Morgan returned to sail among whales during a visit to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, one of the world's premier whale watching sites. On a day sail out of Provincetown, Mass. on Friday, July 11, the ship encountered humpback whales on the sanctuary.

 

In company with the sanctuary's research vessel Auk, the Morgan lowered a whaleboat to pursue whales in a gesture to symbolize the change in humankind's relationship with the oceans and marine mammals.

 

The Morgan is on its first sailing voyage since 1921. Over an 80-year whaling career, the Morgan sailed on 37 voyages to the remote corners of the globe. During this historic 38th voyage to ports across southern New England, the ship is spending several days from July 11-13 visiting the sanctuary. While there, the Morgan crew is teaming with the National Marine Sanctuaries staff to conduct outreach activities highlighting the sanctuary's role in whale conservation and ocean research.

 

Stretching between Cape Ann and Cape Cod, offshore of Massachusetts, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is a critical feeding and nursery ground for several whale and dolphin species, including the endangered humpback, North Atlantic right, sei and fin whales.

 

The sanctuary is a center for whale watching in New England. Ongoing research at the sanctuary is focused on better understanding whale behavior so as to reduce whale mortality caused by entanglement in commercial fishing gear and ship strikes. Human-induced sources of underwater noise and their potential impacts on marine animals are also topics of substantial concern among scientists.

CAMM Reciprocal Admissions

One of CAMM membership's best benefits is the Reciprocal Admissions Program. This provides your supporters with free admission to other CAMM institutions when they show a CAMM Reciprocal Admissions Card at CAMM institutions' admission desks. These cards are available to your donors at the $100-and-up membership level.

 

At some CAMM museums, the Reciprocal Admissions Card will admit others in your party or provide a discount at their shop, depending on the institution. Of course, you'll need to inform your admissions staff about this program regularly to ensure its smooth operation.

 

Cards are available from CAMM Secretary Paul Johnston at johnstonpf@si.edu, who can also provide a sample form letter for your members letting them know about this benefit.

 

For more information visit our website.

 

This newsletter is intended for the CAMM membership. 
Please share this newsletter with your staff.  If you have a colleague who is not a member of CAMM, please encourage them to join. See the Join Us page on our website.

For the latest news follow the CAMM news blog. If you have a news item of interest to other CAMM members, please submit them to MaritimeMuseums@gmail.com
 
Candace Clifford
Administrator
Council of American Maritime Museums

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