(Tilghman Island, Maryland) – Tilghman Watermen’s Museum has been awarded a $9,500 grant from Maryland Humanities to produce a documentary video about the Tilghman Packing Company. This video will be shown in the museum, on their website as part of a growing digital outreach and at special programs around the region. The organization’s previous videos, Growing up on Tilghman; Another Dawn – Tilghman in Transition; and 2016’s Tilghman Tales: Building Boats, Lives and Memories on the Chesapeake Bay, have been shown on Maryland Public Television and nationally on other PBS affiliates.
From 1897 until the early 1970s, Tilghman Packing Company was the economic engine and the heart of life on the island. At its peak it employed over 600 workers, packing and shipping seafood and farm produce throughout the country. The museum’s ongoing oral history program collects interviews with Island residents – many of whom worked at the packing company – which will be included in the documentary, while images from the extensive Hollyday photographic collection at the Talbot County Historical Society will show us life at the company at the peak of its operations. Ann Polo, president of the Museum’s Board, commented, “We are excited that thanks to Maryland Humanities we can now produce the very first video that explores the Tilghman Packing Company’s rich and influential history on the Island.”
Maryland Humanities is a statewide, educational nonprofit organization that creates and supports educational experiences in the humanities that inspire all Marylanders to embrace lifelong learning, exchange ideas openly, and enrich their communities. For more information, visit www.mdhumanities.org. Maryland Humanities is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the State of Maryland.
The Tilghman Watermen’s Museum is a nonprofit corporation founded in 2007 with the mission of celebrating the heritage and culture of the Maryland Eastern Shore watermen and Tilghman’s Island. Their oral histories, documentaries, displays, and special programs educate the public about the historical, environmental, economic and social aspects of Tilghman’s rich heritage, preserving and interpreting the tools and methods of the rapidly vanishing watermen’s trade.
The museum is located in the historic Lee House at 6031 Tilghman Island Road, and is open Saturdays and Sundays, 10 AM to 3 PM from April through November. For additional information, please visit www.tilghmanmuseum.org.
Carol Voyles says
This is great news. I can’t think of a museum that has contributed more to its community than TWM. Kudos to its founders, Hall and Mary Kellogg, and all who contribute to celebrating both the past and present lives of the residents of Tilghman Island.