Join Pete Lesher, chief curator of Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland, for a virtual exploration of collections that tell stories about the relationship between people and place in the Bay region—revealing how culture has been shaped by the delicate intertwining of land and water around America’s largest estuary.

He provides an overview of the facility’s 12 exhibition buildings and historic structures on the 18-acre waterfront campus and offers detailed looks at the museum’s permanent exhibitions. Explore Oystering on the Chesapeake and Maryland Crabmeat, exhibits in which working lives on the Bay are revealed in the words of mixed-race skipjack crews and African American women who traditionally picked crabs. The role of the Bay as a maritime highway that connects people and moves commodities is explored in part at the Hooper Strait Lighthouse, a cottage-style historic structure moved to St. Michaels for preservation. And the transformation of the Bay into a place of recreation is told in At Play on the Bay through stories like the racing of sailing log canoes, a living tradition with roots among oyster tongers.

The Bay continues to provide meaning and inspiration to residents and visitors, as evidenced in rich art collections from 19th-century painters to contemporary photographer David Harp, whose environmental photojournalism is shaping the conversation around the impacts of climate change on the Chesapeake and its waterfront communities.

Patron Information

• If you register multiple individuals, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses so they can receive a Zoom link email. Please note that if there is a change in program schedule or a cancellation, we will notify you via email, and it will be your responsibility to notify other registrants in your group.
• Unless otherwise noted, registration for streaming programs typically closes two hours prior to the start time on the date of the program.
• Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from CustomerService@SmithsonianAssociates.org.
• Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program. If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of the program, please email Customer Service for assistance.
• View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.