Bay History & Culture

The Chesapeake Bay is more than a body of water. The backdrop for key moments in our nation's history, including the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the Bay and its rivers are tightly woven into the fabric of America's collective past. The Bay's geography underlies its historical influence. An estuary that opens to the sea, it has served as a major highway between the old world and the new. Today it offers a large protected waterway for swimmers, boaters, and skiers, and a rich fishing ground for sport anglers and commercial watermen.

For those who live in the region, the Bay provides a powerful sense of local identity. To help explore the resonant dimensions of the Chesapeake Bay as a place, and to help articulate its importance in our lives, the Maryland Sea Grant College has supported a number of studies that examine "sense of place" and other issues rooted in the Bay's ecological richness and social traditions.

Sense of Place

Power of Place Following Those Who Follow the Water Chesapeake Quarterly, Volume 2, Number 3, 2003 Ecological Restoration and the Concept of Place Maryland Marine Research, 1994-1997 Living in Bay Country: The Places We Call Home Maryland Marine Notes, July-August 1996 Are There Better Ways to Grow? Maryland Marine Notes, July-August 1996

Culture & Resource Management

Culture and Resource Management on the Chesapeake Bay Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland History

Bay Plain and Piedmont A landscape history of Chesapeake Bay heartland from 1.3 billion years ago to 2000 written by the National Park Service. Environmental Protection and Watermen Communities: Assessing the Effects of New Initiatives on Old Ways of Life Maryland Marine Research, 1998-1999 Menhaden Chanteys: An African American Maritime Legacy Maryland Marine Notes, January-February 2000 Black Men, Blue Waters: African Americans on the Bay Maryland Marine Notes, March-April 1998 Slavery, Freedom and the Chesapeake Maryland Marine Notes, March-April 1998 Ships and Maritime History Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks Maryland Bay Pilots Schooner Pride of Baltimore Steam Tug Baltimore The Mariner's Museum

Working the Chesapeake: Watermen on the Bay

Mark E. Jacoby Illustrations by Neil Harpe UM-SG-BK-91-01 156 pp., $14.95

Video and Book Store

For generations, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay have provided a home for independent fisherman. Watermen often work alone or in small groups, spending hours, days, or years on the open water, far from the comforts of office or home. To learn firsthand, Mark Jacoby went out with them in all seasons and in all weathers. Whatever the future holds for Bay watermen, this book captures a moment in their history.

Issues for the Chesapeake

Jack Greer UM-SG-ES-91-01 24 pp. $2.00

Video and Book Store

This two-color, magazine-style booklet is primarily aimed at high school students. It contains sections on the geological, biological and social history of the Chesapeake Bay and its major commercial species. Two sections address the question "What Is Environmental Health?" and "The Future of the Chesapeake Bay." Each section contains thought-provoking questions, as well as timelines, sidebars, and illustrative photographs.

History of the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay Program

Literature

Selected Bibliography of Bay Literature

Of Words and Water: Literature and the Bay

Maryland Marine Notes, July-August 1998

Selected Bibliography: Chesapeake Bay Literature

Maryland Marine Notes, July-August 1998

Literature and the Role of Words

Maryland Marine Notes, July-August 1998

Chesapeake Museums

Chesapeake Maritime Museum

Calvert Marine Museum

Historic St. Mary's City

Patterson Farm Park

Reedville Fishermen's Museum

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Science and Values

Nonpoint-Source Pollution and Land Use
in the Patuxent Watershed

Maryland Marine Research, 1996-1999

Science and the Bay

Maryland Marine Notes, November-December 1998

Affecting Public Attitudes about the Environment

Maryland Marine Notes, November-December 1998

Saving the Seas: Values, Scientists
and International Governance

L. Anthea Brooks and Stacy D. Van Deveer, editors UM-SG-CEPP-97-01 480 pp., $30.00

Video and Book Store

This book is a collection of eighteen essays by leading thinkers in the area of marine and environmental management. The focus falls on the world's coastal seas, where stakeholders compete for intensely sought-after resources - not only fisheries, harbors, shipping and defense infrastructure, but also culturally important places and traditional ways of life.