Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

Today, the museum houses the world's largest collection of Chesapeake Bay boats and provides interactive exhibits in and around the 35 buildings which dot the campus.

First opened to the public in 1965 the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, was a project of the Historical Society of Talbot County, which acquired three waterfront houses along St. Michaels Harbor.

Too deteriorated for the fledgling museum to save, the J. T. Leonard sank and was cut up in 1974, but the vessel's plight emphasized the need to create the infrastructure to maintain floating exhibits, so a traditional marine railway was constructed in 1974 and a boat shop in 1977.

By the time Jim Holt retired at the end of 1987, the museum had grown to a collection of historic structures and multiple exhibition buildings along a 17-acre waterfront campus.

Valliant retired in 2006 and was succeeded by Stuart Parnes, who transformed the bulkheading of Fogg's Cove into a living shoreline and led other environmental initiatives.

Larger structures include Tilghman Island’s original Knapps Narrows drawbridge and the 1879 Hooper Strait Chesapeake screw-pile lighthouse.

One of the interactive exhibits the museum offers is Waterman's Wharf, where one can practice seafood harvesting by hauling an eel or crab pot out of the waters of Fogg Cove.

This collection of water vessels docked at Navy Point includes Edna E. Lockwood, a National Historic Landmark, and the last sailing log-bottom bugeye.

The dredgeboat Old Point, built from seven logs in 1909, was once used to haul fresh fish in the winter, carry oysters during the fall, and dredge clams during the summer.

CBMM offers field trips for students in grades PreK through college, emphasizing topics including history, geography, and the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay.