The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland, explores and preserves the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and makes this resource accessible to all. The museum’s collections include historic watercraft dating back to the 1860s, maritime paintings and prints, ship models, a Chesapeake region folklife collection, and a dozen historic vessels still afloat on the Chesapeake Bay.
The museum is also home to Hooper Strait Lighthouse. Constructed in 1879, it was once one of the bay’s famed screwpile lighthouses. After its automation in the 1960s, the Coast Guard considered destroying the structure. With support from the Historical Society of Talbot County, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum stepped in to save the lighthouse. It was moved to shore and arrived at its final home on November 9, 1966, and it opened to the public in the following year.
The guest in this episode, Pete Lesher, is the chief historian and ambassador at large for the museum.
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Jeremy D’Entremont is the author of more than 20 books and hundreds of articles on lighthouses and maritime history. He is the president and historian for the American Lighthouse Foundation and founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, and he has lectured and narrated cruises throughout the Northeast and in other regions. He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society podcast, “Light Hearted.” He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org