By Olivia Olson, Public Programs and Volunteer Manager
Autumnal winds have shaken colorful leaves from the trees and have blown in a new season at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. What happens at the Museum once we close our doors and wave goodbye to the last visitors of the year? Read on to learn more and get involved!
Every year the Museum grounds and exhibits are free and open to the public from mid-May to mid-October. We welcome over 10,000 visitors each year who come to the Museum to learn about maritime history, to participate in one of our many public programs or field trips, or to embark on an expedition on Lake Champlain.
But as the days get shorter and autumnal weather sets in, the Museum transforms into its winter self. While some of the exhibit buildings are winterized, others are not, and Museum staff need to make sure that artifacts like paintings are safely stored in temperature-controlled buildings. Once the artifacts have been moved into winter storage, we clean and close the exhibit buildings so they are ready to go next spring. On the waterfront, our ramps and docks are pulled out of the water along with the Split Rock dinghies, Champlain longboats, and the powerboats used to tow and chase during races. Throughout the winter, a team of volunteers repair and restore the wooden boats to prepare them for next year’s fun.
Staff and volunteers restore boats and oars, and set the molds for the new Champlain longboat.
And that’s not where volunteering in the boat shop ends. Students from Middlebury Union High School and the Long Trail Program have begun building the next Champlain Longboat to join the fleet. With students onsite five days a week, and volunteers and staff mentoring students through the boat building puzzle, life in the boat shop is anything but quiet. Volunteers have also been keeping the collections staff company this fall. Current projects such as library organization and artifact documentation will help future researchers in their search for information regarding our region’s past. If you are interested in volunteering in the boat shop or collections department, please contact oliviao@lcmm.org.
To bring the Museum to local students over the winter, our education staff brings the Giant Lake Champlain Map to schools across the Champlain Valley. The Giant Map is worked into school curriculum to support a huge range of topics, including lake ecology, local history, archaeology, or geography lessons. And public programs aren’t over just yet! We hosted two blacksmithing workshops in early November where students made hooks and bracelets. In March and April we will host more classes – keep a look out for the email notification.
In February we will host the fourth annual Virtual Archaeology Conference, featuring talks from our own nautical archaeologists as well as guests from other prestigious archaeological institutions. This year’s theme will be BLANK. The conference is free and open to the public. Look out for emails with links to register in January.
Finally, this winter we are launching a new traveling book club, partnering with our local history organizations throughout Addison County. Each month from January through April, we will travel to a different historical institution in Addison County to discuss a book selected by each respective institution. We will start at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum to discuss “Benedict Arnold’s Navy” by James Nelson. Next, we will convene at the Rokeby Museum. Follow along our trail and join at any time! Participation is available in-person and virtually.
For the rest of the Museum team, the winter is a time of planning for the next open season. In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War we are currently renovating our Key to Liberty exhibit which will open this summer. The exhibit will feature the personal stories of those involved with and affected by the Revolutionary War in the Champlain Valley. Staff are busy with research, exhibit design, and program planning to run alongside the exhibit opening.
So, even though our doors are closed, we are still here at the Museum, working away and preparing for another fantastic summer. Our team is busy building boats, teaching with the Giant Map, organizing artifacts, developing public programs, and finishing our new exhibit. We are always just an email or call away! Reach us at info@lcmm.org or 802-475-2022.
