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What's Up at the Custom House
April 21, 2024
Photo, above: sometimes there are many (photo from 2022)...
Photo, top: and sometimes there are few (2023). But it's always fun to go on a Seal Watch! Our annual trip on the Black Hawk is coming up on May 4.
The Custom House is open Thurs.-- Fri. 1 to 5 PM,
Sat. 1 0 AM to 5 PM, & Sun. 1 to 5 PM.
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Donations like yours make moments like this. | |
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Your generous gifts
sustain the Custom House museum and ongoing NLMS programs like Jibboom.
Please DONATE today!
Photo: Joe Maco speaking at Jibboom last Tuesday.
Cheers to our sponsors - Charter Oak Credit Union - Chelsea Groton Foundation - Community Foundation of Eastern CT - Eleven+ - Frank Loomis Palmer Fund - Maco Family Fund - Robinson+Cole - Veolia/NL Water Authority - Yankee Remodeler. Thank you!
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next Sunday, April 28, 6-9 PM
Open Mic at the Museum
Our 35th monthly Open Mic welcomes music, poetry, prose, stand-up -- or you can just say what's on your mind. Come on, give it a try; it's a friendly crowd.
Co-hosted by Kenny "Doc" Frazier and Christina Corcoran, Open Mic meets on the last Sunday of the month at the beautiful Custom House Maritime Museum.
Couldn't make it downtown? The program was live streamed on the Custom House Maritime Museum's Facebook page, where you can find it.
Photo, above: March's Open Mic.
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Saturday, May 4, 6:30 PM
A Sunset Seal Watch
The Black Hawk is donating an exciting trip to view the seals who live off New London. View these animals in their natural environment. It's a fundraiser for NLMS.
The seals are actually Maine natives who make Long Island Sound their winter/spring and sometimes permanent home. On this trip, we'll leave from Niantic and head out to Little Gull and Plum Islands.
Purchase tickets online: https://sunsetsealwatch.bpt.me
Beginning in the 1800s, hunters harvesting seals for fur and oil virtually eliminated seals in Long Island Sound. Fishermen continued to kill seals believing they were competing with them for fish. In fact, up into the 1950s Connecticut offered seal hunters a bounty. From NOAA: The Marine Mammal Protection Act was enacted in 1972 and established a national policy to prevent marine mammal species and population stocks from declining beyond the point where they ceased to be significant functioning elements of the ecosystems of which they are a part. Following new federal regulations, seals began returning to LIS in the 1970s. Today five species can be found, many now making the Sound their permanent home. They've been reported as far west as Greenwich!
Bring your camera and binoculars. We'll bring a drink and snack! It's a 2 hour round-trip. Sunset's at 7.58.
Tickets are $35 for adults, $30 for NLMS members, and $25 for children ages 6 to 18 (the same prices since 2020!). Call 860-447-2501 with your questions or sign up online today.
Photo: Donna Whitehouse (from a recent seal watch!)
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Tuesday, May 21, 1:30 PM
JIBBOOM Club #1
Our May Jibboom speaker is author/artist Patrick Lynch, who will present A Tale of Two Estuaries. It's three estuaries, actually: the Thames, the Connecticut, and don't forget Long Island Sound.
Connecticut’s two largest riverine estuaries have long been recognized as world-class natural treasures, also rich with the human history of our region. The two very different characters of the Connecticut River and the Thames River estuaries are due to accidents of geology that determined their fates. We owe the gorgeous rural character of the Lower Connecticut River to vast sediments left behind by the Ice Age glaciers, which prevented the development of large ports on the Connecticut. The historical importance of the Thames River ports of New London and Groton grew from the deep natural harbors of the Thames estuary. Both rivers have been critical to New England’s natural history and human development, and both estuaries are now part of the new Connecticut National Estuarine Research Preserve. This talk will compare and contrast the Thames and Connecticut River estuaries, emphasizing the natural history of our regional estuaries and coastal habitats.
Jibboom is not a club, but a friendly gathering with a speaker, treats, and good fellowship. The event is FREE and open to all - please come on May 21, 1:30 PM, and bring a friend.
Biography: Patrick J. Lynch is an artist, photographer, and author who has written ten books published by Yale University Press, including “A Field Guide to Long Island Sound.”. His next book, “A Field Guide to the Connecticut River,” will be published by Yale Press in the spring of 2024. After 45 years as a director of various media departments at Yale University he retired in 2016.
Sponsored by the Maco Family Fund. Photo: Patrick Lynch.
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What can you do with an NLMS membership?
You know us from museum visits, Jibboom events, and Lighthouse tours, but did you know NLMS members also have access to research materials, extra discounts in the Shop, and advance notice of special events?
Become an NLMS member - sign up today (download pdf) or Sign up online.
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By appointment year-round
a popular destination for more than a century.
Visit Inside NL Harbor Pequot Light
It's Long Island Sound's oldest and tallest lighthouse.
Climb 116 steps up into the lighthouse lantern. The views are spectacular! Tours for up-to five people take approximately 40 minutes. We offer tours every Saturday at noon. Sign up online: https://harborlighthousetour.bpt.me
To book a tour at other times, send us an email.
Tours are available every Saturday and Sunday at 11:45, or you may schedule a custom time during the week. Please provide a minimum of two day's notice for a custom tour. Tickets are $35, $30 for NLMS members, $25 youth 8 through age 18.
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We've refreshed the Shop for Spring.
Photo, above: The perfect Mother's Day gifts: lavender sachets to stash in with the lingerie. Yes, that's a pileated woodpecker and oyster catcher among the fine birds, above. Best of all, they're from a Ukraine maker. Above, right: a wooden whale blocks. Photo, left: a happy shopper with two new scarves!
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This week at the Custom House
Let's close a circle at the Custom House.
This week I received a reply about the fog horn:
Hi Susan,
Forgive me for not replying sooner, it’s been very busy here in London since we last spoke.
The recordings you sent over were brilliant, but in the end the director decided that, although accurate to the time, they didn’t fall in line with what the general public recognizes as a foghorn. The sound asked too many questions outside of the story, and became distracting.
It was a sad day for me when that was decided I can tell you, but I had to agree. Reed horns from that period aren’t widely known sadly.
Despite this your help was instrumental in our research and brought me so much joy, so huge, huge thanks. I very much look forward to your part of the world one day.
Many thanks again to you and your brother,
Best wishes,
Tom.
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We're still inching towards finishing the museum's back yard. We had three USCGA cadets help out on Saturday, above, mostly moving things around inside. But they also began taking the benches out. With any luck, we will get our crushed clam shell paving this coming week.
After our cadets left, I stayed on with Regan 'til closing on Saturday. What an interesting assortment of visitors we had from a fresh USCG cadet to an 84-year-old, New Havenite hairdresser, who serenaded us on the piano.
We are always looking for volunteer docents, workers, lighthouse tour-givers. Please contact me at nlmaritimedirector@gmail.com to learn more about these opportunities.
--Susan Tamulevich
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We're online & on Facebook! | |
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Watch the New London HarborCam, our 24/7 eye on the harbor since July 2019. Photo: a boat passes through the swing bridge to Shaw's Cove.
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View Online Exhibitions of New London Maritime History from the Custom House Maritime Museum's Frank L. McGuire Library.
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Facebook the Custom House SHOP for gifts with an extra feel good factor -- when you shop with us your purchases support our exhibitions, & educational programs. Out Sale runs through Saturday, March 30.
Photo: We thank Sue Davis for the latest scrapbook -- the last quarter of 2023. It covers NLMS news and the New London waterfront. This photo shows a copy of an NLMS Sunday blast.
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We're on Instagram! @nlmaritime.
Photo: Small bulbs in the Briney Bank Border.
Easy - effective - earth-friendly. Tru-earth laundry detergent is sold in strips -- no plastic! And now it is 30% off with the code: STRIP. Support the NL Maritime Society while protecting the earth. Find out more at http://tru-earth.sjv.io/NewLondonMaritimeSociety Thanks!
Photo, below: Christina Corcoran caught this harbor view on Thursday at around 6PM.
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