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What's Up at the Custom House
March 10, 2024
Photo, top: Prof Matt Swagler's Connecticut College African-American history class visited the Amistad exhibition on Thursday. Christina Corcoran
Photo, above (and below!): Watching you watching me -- on the NL HarborCam.
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.
Your generous contributions sustain NLMS and our initiatives, including the Custom House Maritime Museum, Open Mic at the Museum (since 2019), Jibboom Club #1 (over 16 years) and our third-grade Local History & Landmarks program (15 years). Please DONATE today! Thank you.
Photo: Matt Swagler's class at the Custom House last week.
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Cheers to our sponsors - Charter Oak Credit Union - Chelsea Groton Foundation - Community Foundation of Eastern CT - State of CT - CT Humanities - CT Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts - Eleven+ - Frank Loomis Palmer Fund - General Dynamics/Electric Boat - General Dynamics/Electric Boat - Maco Family Fund - Robinson+Cole - Veolia/NL Water Authority - Yankee Remodeler. Thank you! | |
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Photo, above: the Olmsted crew from Meadow Court (now the Lighthouse Inn) planting shrubs along Pequot Avenue, ca. 1905. The lighthouse is to the center-left back. Olmsted archives.
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 take approximately 40 minutes. To book a tour for up-to five people, 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 two day's notice for a custom tour.
Tickets are $35, $30 for NLMS members, $25 youth through age 18.
~ And thank you Carol Sommer for your history of Ledge Lighthouse in last Sunday's Day! Watch our facebook page in June for tour information to visit inside Ledge Lighthouse.
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next Sunday - Sunday, March 17, 1 PM
Saint Patrick’s Day Parade
Rain or Shine
New London's St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place on next Sunday, March 17 at 1 p.m., stepping off at the corner of Bank and Tilley Streets and proceeding north past the Custom House on Bank Street, left on State Street and the left again onto Washington Street. See you on Bank!
According to folklore, you get pinched on St. Patrick's Day for not wearing green because green makes you invisible to leprechauns. Leprechauns are mischievous creatures, and according to legend, they like to pinch people (because they can!).
Why do people in Ireland wear green?
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Photo: Christina & Ben are getting the old ship in shape. | |
March 19, 1:30 PM
JIBBOOM Club #1
returns in March with author Peter J. Emanuel, Jr. for the launch of his first book, Course Change.
Join us at Jibboom Club #1 on Tuesday, March 19. Jibboom is not a club, but a friendly gathering with a speaker, treats, and good fellowship. The event is FREE to all - please come and bring a friend.
Bio: Peter J. Emanuel, Jr. has been an educator and musician in New London County, Connecticut, since 1978. In 2009, Emanuel began working on a master’s degree in history, with the hope of becoming a full-time member of the Williams history department. That aspiration became a reality in 2014 when his course load shifted completely to history. From 2017 to 2020, it was his distinct honor to serve as history department head. He retired from The Williams School in 2020 -- and began to write.
Sponsored by the Maco Family Fund. See you March 19!
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March 19, 7 PM GMT
New London in (old) London?
No update this week on the fog horn.
A production of Eugene O'Neil's A Long Day's Journey Into Night is opening March 19 on London's West End. NLMS was asked to send over a recording of the authentic fog horn (which currently is on view at the museum). We did. Now we're waiting to hear if they'll use it in the production. No news this week...
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Sun., March 31 (yes, Easter!), 6-9 PM
Open Mic at the Museum
Our 34th monthly Open Mic welcomes music, poetry, prose, stand-up -- or you can stand up and 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.
Photo: performer at February's Open Mic.
For the first time, in February Gene successfully livestreamed the program on the Custom House Maritime Museum's Facebook page. It's posted. Take a look.
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Now in the SHOP
The Shop is filling up with items for Spring. Quirky bowls, duck umbrellas, and woven fishnet bags from Laos handmade by indigenous Khmu artisans using handspun fiber from a wild-growing vine.
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This week at the Custom House
Anticipation is the byword this week at the Custom House.
Projects have been simmering on a number of burners: the parade float, the fog horn, 1st Jibboom event, a new exhibition.
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Christina Corcoran invites her 3rd graders -- past & present -- to march with her & the Jibboom whaleboat float next Sunday. It's fun & exciting. Want to take part? (We've got the sailor caps & striped shirts.) Please show up by noon at the museum. Children must march with a guardian.
Photo: Christina & friends and the 2023 float. Kenny Frazier.
By now, the front pots at the Custom House should be re-potted with pansies. In fact, it was gardening at the museum that got me into this condition. The gravel strip alongside the museum -- part of what used to be a boat slip for the customs inspectors -- seemed ripe for a small garden. But when I tried digging it out, the 'fill' was the same as was used to make the nearby railroad bed: large rocks and gravel. Jumping on a shovel trying to pry out those boulders unhinged several connections in my feet. In the end, USCGA cadets dug the strip out using pickaxes. Meanwhile, I've progressed to walking about with one crutch -- 75% weight on the left foot, which means I'll be driving and back to normal very soon.
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There was a little confusion as to the date of the discussion of Ellery Thompson's autobiography Draggerman's Haul: The Personal History of a Connecticut Fisherman Captain with Historic Stonington.
It's Thursday, March 28.
Sign up for the book talk today.
Here, above, is one of two Ellery Thompson 'Memory Charts' donated to NLMS by Marian Krepcio.
--Susan Tamulevich
Happy to learn of a painting depicting the stairway inside the Custom House, ca. 1939, in the new Beatrice Cummings exhibition at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum.
Photos, below, from left: 1939 Beatrice Cummings painting, Lyman Allyn Collection, courtesy Alice Houston. Photos from a wedding party at the same spot inside the museum, ca. 2018.
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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. We're at 5.6M views. This week for several days we were unable to control the camera remotely. That's fixed.
Photo: Spring is here -- & this may be the last dredging barge of the season, according to Captain Kennedy.
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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.
Photo: The Hambeys on Saturday.
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We're on Instagram! @nlmaritime.
Photo, above: Easy - effective - earth-friendly. Tru-earth laundry detergent is sold in strips -- no plastic! Support the NL Maritime Society while protecting the earth. Find out more at http://tru-earth.sjv.io/NewLondonMaritimeSociety Thanks!
Photo, below: see you next week -- there's a lot of see on the NL HarborCam!
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