Quarterly - VillageSoup

Delmarva
HISTORY LITERATURE ART MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHITECTURE NATURE THEATRE POETRY
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Winter 2007 • FREE
Nanticoke
Nanticoke River:
River: Tale
Tale of
of
Three
Three Cities
Cities
Christmas
Christmas in
in Odessa
Odessa Features
Features
Peter
Peter Rabbit
Rabbit
Was
Was Whaleyville
Whaleyville a
a Haven
Haven
for
for Regicides?
Regicides?
Architecture
Architecture Makes
Makes
Dover’s
Dover’s Green
Green a
a Special
Special Place
Place
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Quarterly
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Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 1
VOLUME 6 NO. 3 WINTER 2007
Contents
4 PUBLISHER’S LETTER and CONTRIBUTORS
6 PHOTOGRAPHY • RICHARD DORBIN • PLEIN AIR
8 REPORTS
Development tide rising in Crisfield - By Charles Petrocci
New contest announced for writers’ conference - By Ann E. Dorbin
Uninvited marine guest rates a B movie - By Mia Steinberg
New website offers free exposure for regional artists - Press release
15 RIVERS • THE NANTICOKE
This tale of three cities, and two creeks, shows a rich history along Delmarva’s
most pristine waterway. By Lynn L. Remly
20 HUMOR • CHRIS WILDT • LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
21 PARKS AND PRESERVES • TRAP POND STATE PARK
This first of Delaware’s state parks features the nation’s northernmost
natural stand of baldcypresses. By Lynn L. Remly
23 ART • PLEIN AIR EASTON
In its third year, this festival has grown by another 50 percent with
national prominence thickening. By Ann E. Dorbin
27 HOLIDAYS • CHRISTMAS IN ODESSA
Conservationist Beatrix Potter would approve completely of her stories
seen in the rooms of these historic homes. By Janel Atlas
28 PHOTOGRAPHY • WILDLIFE IN DELAWARE • KEVIN FLEMING
Concerned about the ongoing march of development, a native son turns
his lens toward recording the state’s current populations.
32 HISTORY • REGICIDES IN WHALEYSVILLE
Did two judges who signed the execution papers for England’s King Charles I
eventually hide out on Delmarva when tides turned? By Conor Smith Gaffney
36 AGRICULTURE • DELMARVELOUS CHESTNUTS
Cultivating and harvesting nuts from 1,600 trees has turned out to be
retirement on steroids for this Townsend, Del. couple. By Molly Albertson
38 REFLECTION • A SENSE OF PLACE
The insularity of a peninsula that is an island in strictest terms can create
a spiritual mystique of its own. By George Merrill
40 POETRY • A SAMPLING OF CURRENT WORKS
43 ARCHITECTURE • THE GREEN IN DOVER
This historic area fashioned after the public square design features
buildings of Federal, Greek Revival and Second Empire styles. By Harold Hurst
44 BOOKS • RICH READING FOR THE WINTER • MARAH COLEMAN
48 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS • MAJOR ROUTES AND PARKS OF DELMARVA
49 EVENTS • DECEMBER, JANUARY AND FEBRUARY ON DELMARVA
63 PLACE NAMES • THE NANTICOKE RIVER REGION • LYNN L. REMLY
64 STRICTLY DELMARVA • LONG ARM OF THE LAW • DAVE FREDERICK
2 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
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Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 3
Nature offers balance but can we embrace it?
T
he Delmarva Peninsula is a separate
place, a very special place, on this
amazing planet of ours. H.L. Mencken
spoke lovingly when he described the
Chesapeake Bay as an amazing “protein
factory.” The Delaware Bay and Atlantic
Ocean, which define the peninsula’s eastern boundaries, are amazing in their own
right. Delaware River, which feeds
Delaware Bay, is one of the longest
undammed rivers in the country. Its waters
are used for so many purposes – industrial,
residential and commercial – and yet,
through the will of people who recognize its
natural significance, the Delaware is one of
the nation’s great success stories when it
comes to a reversal of water quality degradation.
Between these great bays and ocean lies,
arguably, the nation’s greatest peninsula.
Its temperate climate and rich, primarily tillable, soil lend it an air of cornucopia. It
provides exceptional habitat for man and
beast and flower of amazing variety. Its
thousands of miles of waterfront property
make it a paradise for a nation moving
increasingly toward its coastal edges. Like
the gently humble but beautiful duck,
sought in the wild by turtles and snakes and foxes and falcons and
humans, everything and everybody wants a piece of Delmarva.
Because of that knowledge, it’s incumbent upon all of us who treasure this special, separate place to do all in our power to influence
the making of good decisions to preserve
what is so good here.
Each year brings us increasingly sophisticated tools to better understand and plan
for the peninsula’s healthy future. Our historic researchers continue to open more
windows onto the depth and richness of the
native American culture which seems to
have had a better knack of working harmoniously with the immense power of nature’s
propensity to provide than do current civilizations. Land use planners have at hand
amazing tools for analyzing the landscape
and helping direct development toward
areas best suited for it, and also allowing
that development to leverage the protection
of sensitive or noteworthy open spaces.
They have the tools now to assess carrying
capacities for regions and there’s no reason
why that thinking can’t be applied to this
entire and discrete peninsula.
And with the world’s increasing demand
for energy and the peninsula’s unique combination of tillable ground, rich stores of
groundwater fed by clockwork-like annual
rainfall and lots of sunshine, our agriculturKEVIN FLEMING PHOTOGRAPH
al community stands on the verge of an age
of prosperity based on demand for grains
for food and biomass for energy conversion.
Finding balance is the key to man’s successful interaction with
nature. Few places provide more opportunity for finding a productive balance than Delmarva. Dennis Forney, publisher
COVER PAINTING • LONELY NIGHTS • ACRYLIC • 38”
There was a time when wolves roamed the wilds of Delmarva along with
bears and other large mammals. Harbeson, Delaware artist Karin Snoots
painted this scene of her Damascus, Maryland back yard when she lived on
the Chesapeake Bay’s western shore. The moon was there but she added
the wolf because she likes wolves.
In This Issue
Molly Albertson, Chestnuts p. 36, writes
about food and wine from her home in Rehoboth
Beach, Del.
William Amelia, Classic Books p. 47, writes
from his home in Dagsboro, Del.
Janel C. Atlas, Odessa p. 27, is a freelance
writer in Newark, Del.
Marah Coleman, Books p. 44, is a writer and
book dealer in Delaware and Florida.
X
48” • KARIN SNOOTS
“The driving force of my work is to share with the viewer the inherent aesthetic beauty that all living things possess, be it raging surf or a tranquil
pond. I want to express my excitement over the incredible things I am so fortunate to encounter.” See more of Snoots’ work at www.natureartists.com/karin_snoots.asp
Ann E. Dorbin, Conference p. 9 and Plein Air
p. 23, is a freelance writer in Trappe, Md.
Kevin Fleming, Wildlife p. 28, photographs
the world and has a studio in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Dave Frederick, Enforcers p. 64, is a columnist and sports editor for the Cape Gazette in Lewes,
Del.
Conor Smith Gaffney, Whaleysville p. 33,
lives in Lewes, Del. and is a philosophy major at the
University of Chicago.
Harold Hurst, Dover Green p. 43, writes on
architecture from his home in Dover, Del.
George Merrill, Place p. 38, is an essayist and
photographer in St. Michaels, Md.
Charles Petrocci, Crisfield p. 8, writes on
Delmarva culture from his home in Pocomoke, Md.
Lynn L. Remly, Nanticoke River p. 15, Trap
Pond State Park p. 21 and Places p. 63, is a freelance writer who lives in Hudson, Ohio.
Mia Steinberg, Mitten crabs p. 11, is a graduate student at University of Delaware’s College of
Marine and Earth Studies in Lewes, Del.
Delmarva Quarterly is a publication of Cape Gazette Ltd., P.O. Box 213, Lewes, Delaware 19958. We can be reached by telephone at 302645-7700. Our web address is capegazette.com. Cape Gazette Ltd. also publishes Beach Paper and many other fine publications. To subscribe to Delmarva Quarterly, send your name and address and $12 - $18 for two years - to Delmarva Quarterly, P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE
19958. Submissions, letters and advertising welcome. We pay for all items published. Email: [email protected]
4 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
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Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 5
DELMARVA PHOTOGRAPHY
WINTER 2007
RICHARD DORBIN • PARAGON LIGHT STUDIO – This Talbot County, Md. photographer captured the essense
of plein air art during this year’s Plein Air Easton festival. See page 23 for more on the festival.
Snow Hill begins its Christmas celebration on November 30 with the Lighting of
the Town’s Christmas Tree in the Pocket Park on Green Street. After caroling and
complimentary refreshments, children can enjoy shopping in the Children’s
Christmas Shop, a store set up just for them at the Snow Hill Branch of the
Worcester County Library. Across the street a Christmas Train Garden will be
enchant children of all ages at the Pocomoke River Canoe Company. The
following day, December 1, will begin with Breakfast with Santa and will include
a Victorian Christmas at the Purnell Museum and a 19th Century Christmas
at Furnace Town. The Lion’s Club annual Christmas Parade travels down Market
Street on December 3 with a rain date of December 5. Be sure not to miss the
Holiday Tasting Tour on December 6 when the town will show off its beautifully decorated homes, churches and businesses with a walking tour. On the First
Friday, December 7, “Arts on the River” sponsors a Gallery Walk. Merchants keep
their shops open until 8:00 pm so visitors can stroll along the streets and enjoy the
craftsmanship and artwork of regional artists. The Festival of Trees Preview begins
Friday, December 7 and ends on Sunday afternoon with a reception and auction to
benefit Snow Hill youth. For further information, call Ann Gibb at 410-546-1978.
WWWSNOWHILLMDCOM
6 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
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Winter 2007 • 7
DELMARVA REPORTS
CRISFIELD
IN MOTION
The pull of development here
is as strong as the tide.
BY CHARLIE PETROCCI
O
ver 15 years ago I started an
Elderhostel program in Crisfield
and to this day it is going strong.
People from all over the country come to little Crisfield to learn about regional history
and heritage and the town’s close socioeconomic ties to Chesapeake Bay. But when
I first proposed the program in 1992 and
stated I planned on bringing people in for a
week at a time, many local folks exclaimed:
“No one has ever stayed in Crisfield for
more than a night! There’s nothing to do
here.”
Well, since that time the staff and speakers representing the Crisfield Heritage
WINTER 2007
Foundation, sponsors of the popular program, have proven that viewpoint wrong.
There is plenty to do and see in Maryland’s
most southern city - evidently enough to last
a lifetime for those who call it home.
Crisfield may not be a final destination
for many travelers, but it certainly has
become a target location for those who seek
to get off the beaten path. Long the gateway
to distant Smith and Tangier Islands,
Crisfield has always been a jumping off
point for those seeking to go somewhere
else. But hidden along its well worn streets,
among its resilient people and in historical
documentation, there is a story to tell. And
no one tells their own story like the people
of that town.
The people of Crisfield are proud of their
coastal community with its seafaring heritage. Tucked among marshes and tidal
creeks, this town has stood the test of time.
It has weathered the bust of an oyster boom,
the loss of a railroad, devastating fires and
now an undulating crab harvest, not to
mention a declining population over the last
50 years. And it now faces another chal-
lenge in unprecedented waterfront development. Crisfield seems to be caught betwixt
and between its need to morph into something more progressive, but not at the sacrifice of its local heritage and traditions.
If you were to look at an aerial photo of
Crisfield taken at the turn of the century, you
would see layers of various types of workboats, rafted up along a bustling working
waterfront. Skipjacks, bugeyes and
schooners grace the waterscape, all seemingly vying for position to reach the docks,
seafood packing houses and adjacent railroad.
But if you were to see a glimpse of
Crisfield from the air today, the most defining features besides its myriad of nearby
waterways, would be the beautiful Somers
Cove Marina and a sentinel of new condos
along the town’s waterfront. Long gone are
the railroad and the wood boats of yore,
with their cargos of oysters, fish oil and dry
goods, along with most of the seafood
packing houses and marine supply stores.
But Crisfield is still a seafood town and its
daily sunrise greets a long line of watermen
PHOTOGRAPH BY PATRICK J.HENDRICKSON / HIGHCAMERA.COM
Its unique setting on the eastern shore of the lower Chesapeake Bay, with its fine Somers Cove Marina and
departure points for Tangier and Smith islands, makes for a promsing future for Crisfield, Md.
8 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA REPORTS
in their deadrise boats who continue to ply
the Chesapeake for their livelihoods. The
huge crabs painted on the town’s water towers are testament to that trade.
Developers found Crisfield’s stagnant
working waterfront several years ago and
contractors raced to put up condos and
townhouses for a seemingly insatiable housing market. On a clear day you can see the
wall of condos from distant Smith island they dominate the landscape. For some
Crisfielders their emergence was to be the
saving endeavor that would resurrect the
local economy. Yet others state they have
now become an anchor chain which is
slowly consuming the local economy, culture
WINTER 2007
and political arena. Others are middle
ground and say maybe the right concept,
but wrong time. True, like much of the
nation’s housing market, many condo units
remain up for sale. But the fact remains they
are here. Now it seems the new quandary
is not a faltering oyster industry, but how to
finesse the elephant on the waterfront and
make it perform for the good of the town.
And to use lessons learned for future development planning.
Like other challenges that have faced this
town over the decades, when the smoke of
this recent boom has cleared, Crisfield will
have survived. Maybe not in the same form
it was a decade ago, but possibly focused
in a new direction and managing to hold
onto those traditions that make the town
unique. Change, especially in small towns
facing new development, usually comes at a
price. That old sage of Delmarva, Crisfield’s
own Scorchy Tawes, who took neither side
of the waterfront debate, once candidly
shared his view with me: “Change is
inevitable. If we didn’t have change, we’d
all still be living in the fort at Jamestown.”
Crisfield is far beyond Jamestown, but I’m
confident that it will also someday happily
celebrate its 400th anniversary with flags
flying from docks, storefronts, seafood
packing houses, condos and even boats in
the harbor. DQ
WRITERS
CONVERGING
Bay to Ocean Conference
announces new contest.
BY ANN E. DORBIN
N
ow entering its eleventh year, the
Bay to Ocean Writers Conference
(BTO), sponsored by the Friends of
the Talbot County Free Library, is the longest
continuously running writers conference on
Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Geared toward
beginning and intermediate writers, this
popular conference draws writers and
aspiring writers of fiction, nonfiction, and
poetry from a five-state region. The next
Bay to Ocean Writers Conference will be
held at Chesapeake College on Saturday,
February 23, 2008.
A new addition to the conference is the
1st Annual Bay to Ocean Writing Contest,
sponsored by the Bay to Ocean Writers
Conference in partnership with Delmarva
Quarterly magazine. Writers may submit
an unlimited number of unpublished works,
preferably with a “Delmarva” theme or flavor. Entries will be accepted in three categories: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Poems may be up to 40 lines in length; fiction and nonfiction entries should be no
longer than 2,000 words (short story, essay,
literary nonfiction, and biography are
examples).
JUDGES
• Fiction: Melanie Rigney, editor of
Writer’s Digest for five years, overseeing up
Delmarva Quarterly
ANN E. DORBIN PHOTOGRAPH
Melanie makes writing merry! Melanie Rigney will judge fiction submissions in the 1st Annual Bay to Ocean Writing Contest. Shown here at
last year’s conference, in 2008 Rigney will present “Developing
Character, Conflict & Story Construction” during the 11th Annual Bay to
Ocean Writers Conference on February 23, 2008.
to 22 special publications annually. In the
past three years, her business, Editor for
You, has provided content, copy editing,
and manuscript evaluation services to more
than 100 publishers, literary agents, and
authors.
• Nonfiction: Peter Howell is arts and
entertainment editor for the Star Democrat
newspaper, based in Easton, Md. He has
been a newspaperman for more than 20
years, writing and editing journalistic
pieces on a wide range of topics.
• Poetry: Sue Ellen Thompson is the
author of four collections of poetry, most
recently The Golden Hour, as well as editor
of the Autumn House Anthology of
Contemporary American Poetry. Her poetry
was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in
2002 and 2006. Her poems have been
read on National Public Radio and featured
in U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s syndicated newspaper column, “American Life in
Poetry,” and in Best American Poetry 2006.
GUIDELINES
• Cover Sheet: Type the entry title on a
separate cover sheet along with your name,
address, phone number and email address
(writer’s name should not appear on the
manuscript itself). Indicate whether the submission is FICTION or NONFICTION or
POETRY, word count, and date.
Winter 2007 • 9
DELMARVA REPORTS
• Unpublished Works Only: Submissions
must be original, unpublished, and not submitted elsewhere.
• Format: All entries must be typed, in
English, double spaced, using 12-point
Times Roman or similar font.
• Mailing: Entries will be accepted via
email sent to [email protected] or
postal mail sent to: Bay to Ocean Writers
Conference Writing Contest, PO Box 10,
Trappe MD 21601.
If sent by postal mail, submit two copies
of material on single-sided 8-1/2 x 11
white paper.
• Manuscript Return: Manuscript entries
will not be returned.
• Deadline: All Entries must be postmarked on or before December 15, 2007.
• Reading Fee: A $10 reading fee must
accompany each entry in the Fiction and
Nonfiction Categories. A $5 reading fee
must accompany each entry in the Poetry
Category. E-mailed submissions will be forwarded to the appropriate judge(s) upon
receipt of corresponding reading fee(s).
Please make checks payable to: Bay to
Ocean Writers Conference
• Bay to Ocean Writers Conference
reserves the right to disqualify any entry
that does not adhere to these Guidelines.
• Bay to Ocean Writers Conference is not
responsible for delays caused by electronic,
file format, or technical difficulties.
• Winners will be notified via email by
January 15, 2008. If you have not been
contacted by this date, you may assume that
your entry is not a finalist.
• First Place winners may be published in
Delmarva Quarterly magazine, at the publisher’s discretion.
• First Place winners will receive free registration to the 11th Annual Bay to Ocean
Writers Conference held at Chesapeake
College in Wye Mills, Md. on February 23,
2008.
• Winners may be invited to read their
work at the 2008 Bay to Ocean Writers
Conference, as well as other community
events.
For more information, visit www.baytoocean.com, email [email protected],
or contact Ann Dorbin at 410.820.7738.
Bay to Ocean Writers Conference
Saturday, February 23, 2008
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Chesapeake College, Kent Humanities
Building, U.S. Rt. 50 and Rt. 213, Wye Mills
Md.
10 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
CONFERENCE SPEAKER SCHEDULE
• Maryland Poet Laureate Michael S.
Glaser returns to the conference to present a
one-hour session on writing poetry. Glaser’s
presentations always receive high praise
from attendees. He will also make closing
remarks at the end of the day.
• “How to Write Dialog that Propels
Action, Clarifies Character & Keeps the
Reader Riveted to the Story” by nationallyknown author Austin Camacho
• “Developing Character, Conflict &
Story Construction” by Melanie Rigney, professional editor and past author of Writer’s
Digest
• “Mystery Writing” by award-winning
mystery writer Donna Andrews
• "Spinning Gold: Tales from the TV
Writing Room" by Emmy-award winning
screenwriter, director and producer Danny
Tepper
• “Creating the Personal Essay through
Awareness & Insight” by George Merrill.
Merrill’s essays have appeared in
Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Delmarva
Quarterly, Tidewater Times and Journeys.
• “Marketing Your Writing” by Shar
McBee, author of To Lead is to Serve - How
to Attract Volunteers & Keep Them and Joy
of Leadership - The Only Secret to Your
Success as a New Leader.
• “How to Get & Work With a Literary
Agent” by Gail Ross, Washington, DC literary agent
• “The Retailer’s Perspective in Getting
Books into the Hands of Readers” by
Hannah Miller from Barnes and Noble. She
will discuss what attracts buyers to bookstore shelves and how a book’s cover and
design can affect customers’ purchasing
choices.
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
• “Free Lance Writing: What You Need
to Know” by nonfiction writers Bill
Thompson and Gene Meyer. Thompson
brings more than 30 years of reporting and
editing experience to the panel discussion.
Meyer, an award-winning journalist and
author, writes about the history of the
Chesapeake Bay and Maryland.
• “Writing for Regional Magazines” will
be discussed by publishers/editors Dennis
Forney (Delmarva Quarterly), Tim Sayles
(Chesapeake Bay), and Lori Rossbach
(What’s Up? Eastern Shore).
• “Book Publishing Options & the
Author’s Best Path for Success in the Book
Business” by Gregg Wilhelm, President and
CEO of Baltimore’s CityLit Project and Jonna
Jones, managing editor for Cornell
Maritime Press/Tidewater Publishers.
Continental breakfast and networking
lunch with the presenters are included in the
program. Participants may purchase speakers’ books and have them signed by the
authors at the conference book store.
Manuscript review service is available for
an additional fee of $40. Professional
reviewers will conduct thirty minute, one-onone personal critiques of manuscripts submitted in advance. For manuscript guidelines and submission deadlines, visit the
website at www.baytoocean.com or contact
Judith Reveal at: [email protected], or call
410-482-6337.
Advance registration is recommended;
past conferences have sold out early.
Conference rates as well as speakers and
program topic information and a registration form are available on the conference
Web site at www.baytoocean.com.
Additional registration information is available from Carla Cronin at: [email protected]; phone: (410) 820-9159;
mail: 107 Goldsborough St., Easton, MD
21601. DQ
STRANGER IN
OUR MIDST
Invasion of furry crabs
rates a Grade B horror flick.
BY MIA STEINBERG
A
s I began preparing this article on
the Chinese mitten crab, I realized
that I was also beginning the storyboard for a great B-grade horror flick. For
starters, I envisioned the words “ALIEN”
and “INVASION” in bright yellow letters
that conveyed a sense of danger and panic.
Then I had some close-up shots of the creatures hauling themselves out of the ocean in
all their ten-limbed glory.
First, you see the dark brown, hair-covered claws that give the crab its name.
These would be followed by four pairs of
walking legs that are each twice as long as
the body. Beady black eyes peer mercilessly from above an array of mouthparts that
flap menacingly. I would call my movie
“Crabs on a Train” or perhaps “Pincers of
Pain.”
Despite this over-dramatization,
my potential blockbuster isn’t terribly far
from the truth, though with a body width of
Winter 2007
DELMARVA REPORTS
up to 4 inches I certainly can’t rely on their
siz e to inspire fear. These mitten crabs
(Eriocheir sinensis) are “alien” in the sense
that they aren’t native to these waters or
even to this continent. Originally from
China and Korea, the hairy crabs recently
found in the Hudson, Delaware, and
Chesapeake Bays were brought to this
region via human actions. In the United
States, invasive species may cost up to
$120 billion per year in environmental
damages and losses.
One common method of introducing an
alien or non-indigenous species to a new
location is by ballast water in shipping vessels. Water from a foreign port is pumped
into the ballast tanks of a ship, which then
crosses seas or oceans to dock in a new
port. Here, the ship discharges all that ballast water along with billions of tiny plankton and organisms from the original location. Some of these tiny animals can grow
up to be crabs, fish, shellfish, shrimp, or any
other number of other marine species.
Another potential introduction vector is
through live trade. Despite its unappetizing
appearance, mitten crabs are considered a
delicacy in many Asian countries. (Admit it;
you’ve eaten some ugly things before.) And
it’s probable that mitten crabs are being illegally imported into this country, and that
occasionally they escape or are released
into the wild.
As for the ominous word “invasion,”
Chinese mitten crabs are considered “invasive” because once introduced to a new
habitat, they may establish a breeding
population which is then nearly impossible
to remove. They affect the ecosystem on
many levels by competing with other species
for food and shelter, altering the food chain
by preying on different organisms and also
becoming prey for larger species.
These crabs first arrived in Europe in the
early 1910s and have since spread from
Scandinavia to the Atlantic coasts of
France, Portugal, and England. In many
areas, they burrow into levees and riverbanks and cause structural instability or
even collapse.
In the early 1990s, this species appeared
in San Francisco Bay and slowly and
steadily established a breeding population.
They have become a major problem for the
shrimping industry where up to 200 crabs
per tow can damage both the fishing net
and the targeted shrimp. These crabs also
create a nuisance to industry by clogging
pipes and pumps and blocking water
Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE PHOTOGRAPH
This photograph shows why the mitten crab is named as it is.
intake.
Now that I’ve introduced my alien
invaders, I should probably have a flashback that delves into the sordid history of
the beasts. Chinese mitten crabs have a
catadromous life cycle, meaning that the
adults live in fresh water and migrate to salt
water to spawn. The young then make their
way back upstream to begin the cycle anew.
Salmon do just the opposite. One might
then assume that these crabs suffer the same
problems as the beleaguered salmon, which
are often foiled by dams and other obstructions preventing migration.
Not so for mitten crabs, and this is where
I’ll get a lot of my action shots for the movie.
What’s a horror flick without action? Mitten
crabs have a huge advantage over salmon
in that they are capable of walking across
land to avoid barriers. There are reports of
mitten crabs that leave the water to bypass
an obstacle and wind up getting lost. Some
wander into swimming pools, some stroll
down the street, some meander onto airport
runways. For my movie, I think it would be
exciting to follow one of the crabs as it
creeps into someone’s backyard, does battle with the dog, scuttles into the kitchen,
and scares a housewife onto the counter. As
with the highest caliber of horror, I’ll let your
imagination finish the rest.
True to Hollywood form, I may even have
a few cameo appearances of other invasive
species. Twenty years ago, the Asian shore
crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus) first made
its appearance on the Atlantic Coast. This
crab is smaller than the mitten crab and
lives along the shore in the intertidal region
between high tide and low tide. In many
areas, such as Long Island Sound, it has
become the dominant species in this habitat. For my purposes, it could play the role
of either obstreperous neighborhood
teenager or quirky, comedic sidekick.
Another fellow invasive species, the
European green crab (Carcinus maenas),
has been living on this coast for over a century, and this species can proudly boast to
have decimated the soft-shell clam industry.
I envision the green crab acting as a wiseelder character to the mitten crab similar to
Yoda to Luke or Dumbledore to Harry.
(Invade or invade not. There is no try.)
After painting this dramatic and fanciful
picture, my audience will surely be wondering, “Okay, but how will these critters really
affect life in Delmarva?” The answer is - no
one is really sure yet. That’s the most frustrating aspect of studying invasive species;
it’s nearly impossible to predict the full
impact a new species will have on an
ecosystem. Also, our local estuaries are
already subjected to many environmental
stresses with environmentalists struggling to
improve conditions. One more straw won’t
help our proverbial camel.
I’ll answer this question about future
implications in a sequel. This one will be
called “Clash of the Claws” because it will
address everyone’s main concern - will the
Chinese mitten crab affect our beloved blue
crabs? The main region of possible contact
between the species will be in the salt water
portions of local estuaries where adult mitten crabs migrate to procreate. Juvenile
mitten crabs live upstream in fresh water
Winter 2007 • 11
DELMARVA REPORTS
where contact with blue crabs will be minimal.
In areas where adults of the two species
do overlap, there may be competition for
food and other resources, but direct interaction will probably be limited. Even if two
individuals from the respective species do
cross paths, blue crabs are notorious for
their aggressive attitude, so it’s likely any
negative impacts will be due to the way the
mitten crabs alter the habitat or change the
availability of food items.
In the initial battle sequence of the sequel,
the mitten crab will find itself woefully
underpowered against the formidable blue
crab. Undeterred, however, it will then seek
to destroy our blue hero by underhanded
means. For instance, seagrass is very
important to juvenile blue crabs, and any
alterations to the already-struggling seagrass beds could be detrimental. I’m sure
people will be moved to tears during the
scene where a horde of mitten crabs starts
burrowing into the mud, and stalks of seagrass with baby blue crabs clinging desperately to the blades are dislodged and float
away on the tidal current.
At the opening night gala, reporters will
shout questions at me as I stroll through the
blinding lights and towering posters with
“Alien” and “Invasion” written in fearsome
yellow letters. “Is the situation really this
serious?!” they will shout. “How many have
been found so far?!”
I will coolly reply that the situation has the
potential to become very serious, and that
we should begin to take action now while
there is a chance to prevent the Chinese
mitten crab from establishing itself here. Just
this summer, two mature females were
found in the upper Chesapeake and
Delaware bays, and both of these females
showed evidence of mating. I won’t elaborate on this since my movie is PG-13.
The ten individuals recorded so far were
caught by local fishermen who found the
foreign species in their crab pots. Other
sightings have been reported, but no photograph or other identification was taken. As
people become more and more aware of
the problem at hand, I suspect sightings that
would otherwise be forgotten over a couple
beers after work will be brought to our
attention.
Since the latest marketing strategy (for
everything) is to get the audience involved
with your story, this is where I make a sincere and heartfelt plea to the public. If you
find a crab with fuzzy patches on its claws,
the best thing you can do is try to catch it or
12 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
even photograph it. Also please note your
location and contact the Mitten Crab hotline
established
by
the
Smithsonian
Environmental Research Center: (443) 4822222 or [email protected]. I doubt
this phone call will result in figures dressed
in SWAT black rappelling from helicopters
above your house, but at the very least you
will be doing your environment a great
service.
And now, you must excuse me, as I have
a screenplay to write. DQ
REGIONAL ART
ON THE WEB
ed. It is not a membership organization.
There are no by-laws, no officers, and nothing for people to disagree on. There are no
dues for those artists who wish to display
their art. There is a one-time setup fee of
$25, and that includes keeping your art up
on the website for the first year. After the
first year, there is a $10 a year renewal fee.
This website was created by Brendan
Buschi. Brendan is a giclée printer who
does fine art prints for many local and
regional artists. He is also a website designer. Brendan came up with the idea for this
website because he wanted artists to have
an easy, affordable way to display their art
on the internet. He can be reached at (302)
697-3264 or [email protected]. He shares
a website with his wife, Kathy, who is a folk
artist. There are no paid advertisements on
the EastCoastArtistsOnLine.com website.
All of the links you will see on the Friendly
Links page are there because the people
behind them are truly friendly to artists and
the arts. DQ
New site aims to showcase
East Coast artists and art.
EastCoastArtistsOnLine.com is a new
website designed especially for artists and
those interested in art. The website is a virtual art show and artists directory. Each
artist has her/his own page which has a
picture of the artist, a short bio, and several examples of the artist’s work. Contact
information is provided for each artist as
well. There is a monthly show schedule
page so that you can keep track of where
the artists will be displaying their art.
Finally, there is also a Friendly Links page,
which has links to those organizations that
are artist and artist patron friendly.
EastCoastArtistsOnLine.com is unaffiliat-
WATERCOLORS • QUEENFISHER • IN THE MARSH • ELLEN LAWLER –
This Salisbury artist submitted these two works for publication. They
depict birds commonly found on the Delmarva Peninsula: at left, a
female belted kingfisher and at right, a snowy egret.
Winter 2007
DOVER POST
FULL PAGE AD
GOES HERE
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 13
These post cards courtesy of Seaford Historical Society provide a sense of the commerce and industry on the
Nanticoke River in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The incredible bounty of the Delmarva Peninsula
was processed in Seaford and shipped out on barges, schooners and steamers that took advantage of the
river’s good channels.
14 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA RIVERS
WINTER 2007
THE NANTICOKE: A TALE OF THREE CITIES
Among some 50 tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, this river is the most
unspoiled, with 38 percent of its watershed still forested.
BY LYNN L. REMLY
A
venue or obstacle? Like other great
rivers, the Nanticoke was both to
early inhabitants of the Delmarva
peninsula. On the one hand, the river, flowing from central Delaware southwest
through Maryland’s Eastern Shore to the
Chesapeake Bay, provided easy access
from the interior to the outside world and
back again. Its enormous size could divide
as well as unite, however, and along with its
tributaries - Broad Creek in Delaware and
Marshyhope Creek in Maryland - the
Nanticoke was often a barrier to communication. Using or overcoming the river to
establish connections gave rise to settlement
along its banks and ushered in the present
day.
The ubiquitous Captain John Smith and
his crew explored the river in 1608, sailing
up a tidal estuary from the Chesapeake Bay
in a quest for a passage to the Far East.
From June 8 -10, the explorers edged
northwards, where they encountered a tribe
of Native Americans calling themselves the
Nantaquak, after whom Smith named the
river. But his onward explorations showed
that the Nanticoke River was not the connection to the riches of the Orient but a
dead end.
His loss was the future’s gain, however,
and the triplet towns of Laurel, Seaford and
Federalsburg formed along the river and its
two main branches, linked by geography
and history as they moved onward.
Beginning as river towns, with economies
dependent on the water, they later developed along separate paths, though the river
ties were never lost.
Laurel began as “The Wading Place,”
according to Kendal Jones, past president
of the Laurel Historical Society, because the
Nanticoke Indians could ford Broad Creek
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LAUREL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Broad Creek, a tributary of the Nanticoke, long defined the commerce of Laurel, Del. Rams, like the Virginia,
and schooners like the Louise brought raw ingredients to Valliant Fertilizer for processing and distribution
throughout the middle of Delmarva. This photograph, made about 1930, is from the Waller collection .
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 15
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LAUREL HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Thousands of produce baskets, manufactured by the Marvil Package Co., dry in the sun in downtown Laurel
in the early 20th century.
there at low tide. This convenience and the
easy connection to the Chesapeake by way
of the Nanticoke River led to the establishment of a colonial town, and in 1802,
Barkley Townsend, a wealthy Maryland
landowner, platted the area and began selling lots.
Soon, the town was thriving. “The
Indians had done little clearing,” Jones
notes, “but white settlers felled trees and
created the town’s first big export, lumber.”
Sent down Broad Creek to the Nanticoke
and the bay, timber jump-started Laurel’s
economy, soon followed by the agriculture
that thrived on the rich land along the river.
Water-powered grist and saw mills
popped up, and dredging of the creek in
1850 - supported by a state lottery - further
increased its utility. “By 1850, over 50
water-powered mills were operating within
an eight-mile radius of Laurel,” Jones notes,
and products ranging from fertilizer to shirts
were sent by water to market. In turn, river
traffic brought back trends from outside,
and by the mid-1800s, more than 40 businesses lined Broad Creek. Among the most
16 • Delmarva Quarterly
famous was the Marvil Package Company,
which used scrap lumber to make crates,
baskets, and other packaging for shipment
of the area’s produce, Jones says.
In 1859, the Delaware Railroad arrived,
allowing Laurel to connect further to northern markets like Wilmington and
Philadelphia, sidestepping river transport.
When it was incorporated as a town on
April 13, 1883, Laurel was considered one
of the wealthiest in the state, with 2,500 residents, and its prominence was underscored
by its contribution to public life: five men
from the area served as governors of the
state between 1805 and 1965, including
William Henry Harrison Ross (1851-1855).
Similarly, the town of Seaford grew to
prosperity, thanks to its water connections
by the Nanticoke River, according to
Shalana Edgell, executive director of the
Seaford Historical Society. Like Laurel,
Seaford’s beginnings are early and vague,
but Edgell notes that Thomas Hooper actually founded the town in 1726 on his large
land grant along the banks of the
Nanticoke. “The settlement was first called
Hooper’s Landing, and members of the
Hooper family are buried in the cemetery of
our Mt. Olivet Methodist Church.”
As Broad Creek was to Laurel, so the
Nanticoke was to Seaford. When the town
was incorporated in 1865, it was an agricultural center, using the river for transport.
Industry thrived as well; the nearby areas of
Middleford and Concord were known for
their bog iron industry, Edgell says; watermen unloaded their Chesapeake Bay oyster
catch at Seaford; and the Hearns and
Rawlins Mills produced Dove brand flour,
pancake mix and meal. In addition, shipbuilding was a natural business, and the
Seaford Marine Railway, built around
1900, allowed craft to be shipped to
launching points along the Nanticoke River.
Rivers are also obstacles, however, and
as early as 1671, a ferry existed to connect
Laurel and Seaford. In the 1740s, James
Cannon established the Woodland Ferry
downriver from Seaford, later operated by
his son Jacob, and still later, his widow
Betty. The Cannon family managed the
enterprise until 1883, when the county took
Winter 2007
over.
“Woodland was always a focal point for
transport,” according to Jack Knowles,
director of the Days Gone By Museum in
Woodland. “The ferry connected Seaford
with Laurel and with Federalsburg and other
towns in Maryland.”
In 1935, the
Delaware Department of Transportation
assumed responsibility for its operation,
and Knowles emphasizes that the four-car
ferry is still very much in use, carrying
mainly commuters to Laurel, Federalsburg,
Salisbury and Cambridge.
The march of time also brought the
Delaware Railroad to Seaford in 1856, says
Edgell, thanks to Governor Ross, who was
born in Laurel. “He was a successful and
innovative farmer and Thoroughbred
breeder, and he needed the train to get his
crops and horses north. But the coming of
the railroad meant a great boost for the
entire town.” Still, the mighty Nanticoke
had its way: the train stopped at the barrier
of the river, and the steam engines needed
its water for power, Edgell notes.
Like Broad Creek, the headwaters of
Marshyhope Creek, known in earlier days
as the Northwest Fork (of the Nanticoke
River), could be forded, giving rise to early
settlement. “John Smith’s map of the region
shows a dotted line up the northwest fork of
the Nanticoke, matching the site of
Federalsburg today,” according to Joe
Gline, president of the Federalsburg
Historical Society. Smith gave hostages to
the Nanticoke Indians to visit their villages,
and they brought him to a very large settlement, possibly 200 families. “We think that
that sight made him tuck his tail feathers
and head back down to Vienna.”
Later, two of William Penn’s colonists,
James and William Wright, spotted the possibilities offered by the ford and settled on
the creek in 1682. “This is as far downriver as you can wade across and as far up as
you can float a boat,” says Gline. “This
unique geographical location accounts for
the very early settlement of the area of
Northwest Fork by Native Americans and
by Europeans.”
In 1789, a store was built and a village
grew around it, becoming Northwest Fork
Ford. Though there was never a ferry
across the creek, a connecting bridge was
built at the crossing in the early 1790s,
requiring a name change, to Northwest
Fork Bridge, or simply The Bridge. Still later,
politics caused it to become Federalsburg.
As in Seaford and Laurel, water meant
power, and in the 18th century
Federalsburg grew around a host of waterpowered industries, including iron furnaces,
flour mills, sawmills, and the Idlewild woolcarding mills. “The water created the first
electric power in Federalsburg,” Gline
notes. The nearby Douglass iron furnace,
dating to about 1772, supplied important
materials for George Washington’s embattled army, and local sawmills provided the
wood needed to rebuild the U.S. Capitol
and White House after they were burned in
the War of 1812, he adds.
Like Seaford, Federalsburg’s waterfront
location and the surrounding white oak
forests made it into a shipbuilding center.
“The trees growing out of the creek’s banks
went out horizontally and then straight up,”
Gline notes; “This is the perfect shape for a
boat’s bow.” Though the creek was too shallow to launch ships, the hulls were poled
downriver on scows to Brown’s Wharf and
across the creek to Shipyard Place, Gline
says, to be finished and launched.
As with Laurel and Seaford, the fortunes
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF FEDERALSBURG HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Marshyhope Creek, one of the two main branches off the Nanticoke River, flows through the center of downtown Federalsburg. This photograph shows the Nanticoke Bakery alongside the East Central Avenue Bridge.
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 17
of Federalsburg improved when a spur from
the rail line arrived in 1868, allowing perishable farm produce to be transported to
northern markets with the new refrigerated
railroad cars. At the same time, the internal
combustion engine put cars and trucks in
the lives of ordinary citizens, and Ford,
Chevrolet, and Plymouth dealerships joined
other businesses on Main Street, Gline says.
“Federalsburg became very affluent
between about 1910 and the Second World
War, and trucking became so predominant
that the town was known as the Hub of the
Delmarva Peninsula, the center from which
everything radiated.” Transport slowly
turned away from the river, to rail and road.
Starting from similar beginnings, the
three towns’ fortunes gradually divided,
however, especially Laurel and Seaford.
While Federalsburg slipped into “a sleepy
backwater,” according to Gline, great
things were proposed for Laurel as the
DuPont Company planned construction of
its new nylon plant. “The wife of DuPont’s
president, Walter Carpenter, was a Laurel
girl,” Kendal Jones relates. “Mary Wootten
Carpenter heard about the town’s need for
jobs and convinced her husband to build
the plant in Laurel, which had both water
and rail. But because of pressure brought
by the Marvil Company, which didn’t want
its low-wage workers to go off to new jobs
with DuPont, the town fathers weren’t receptive, and Carpenter went elsewhere.” In
1939, better living through chemistry went
to Seaford, just eight miles away, and Laurel
became a bedroom community for the
DuPont workers.
Seaford became the Nylon Capital of the
World, thanks in part to its site on the
Nanticoke. “The company needed water
access to the manufacturing plant for its
coal barges, and the Nanticoke did just as
well as Broad Creek,” says Rudy Wilson,
vice president of the Seaford Historical
Society. The plant employed over 4,600
employees at its peak in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, and as a result, Seaford
emerged from the Great Depression in fine
style. “The DuPont facility promoted commerce generally, and the benefits trickled
down to everyone,” Wilson says. “For
example, new housing developments and
even a country club were built to accommodate employees.”
Though not at the center of things, “Laurel
also benefited enormously from the plant,”
Kendal Jones feels. “People here had jobs
and spent money. Even today, I talk to
DuPont retirees who are grateful to have
had the opportunity for good jobs.” He
notes that in 1951, Walter Carpenter and
Delmarva Quarterly
his son donated the Laurel Public Library to
the town in memory of Mary Wootten
Carpenter.
Today, all three towns have adjusted to
the modern world and depend on the
Nanticoke and its branches mainly for
recreational uses. Laurel set about reinventing itself as a modern town on an unspoiled
waterway, after Marvil Package went out of
business - probably an instance of divine
revenge. The new Laurel Redevelopment
Corp. has created Market Street Square
park area and, in partnership with the
town, a park on the south bank of Broad
Creek. “We love Broad Creek today for its
sheer beauty,” Jones feels. “It looks today
as it probably did hundreds of years ago.”
Similarly, the DuPont Company employs
only about 700 today as Invista, but
Seaford had prepared for the change by
turning to health care as the coming industry. In 1952 Seaford’s Nanticoke Memorial
Hospital was built overlooking the river, the
first public hospital in western Sussex
County, and it marked more than 90,000
emergency room and outpatient visits last
year. Indeed, the medical sector, including
a $5 million-dollar women’s health center, a
cancer center, and a nursing home, have
provided a solid base to the town’s economy.
Two new projects allow townspeople and
visitors to enjoy the river. The 400-foot
Riverwalk, a lighted, landscaped sidewalk,
is perfect for quiet walks along the river,
and the Canoe Launch permits enthusiasts
to slide right into Delmarva’s most nearly
pristine river.
Federalsburg has exploded as an industrial center, with the largest economy of any
small town on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland.
Three industrial parks house
companies that produce three billion items
in everyone’s lives, including General Mills,
Jack & Jill Ice Cream, Solo Cup Co., and
Val-Pac Inc. Like Broad Creek and the
Nanticoke, however, the Marshyhope
draws people outdoors: the Federalsburg
Recreation Park and Marina offers two boat
ramps, boat slips, and the Marshyhope
Greenway nature trail, where visitors can
spot waterfowl and animals in their natural
setting.
Things come full circle, and Congress in
2006 designated the Nanticoke as part of
the Captain John Smith Chesapeake
National Historic Trail, the nation’s first allwater National Historic Trail. By irony of
fate, the railroad and trucking that replaced
water transport helped restore the three
waterways to their earlier, unspoiled state,
possibly close to what Smith saw. In fact,
among some 50 tributaries of the
Chesapeake Bay, the Nanticoke is the most
unspoiled, with 38 percent of its watershed
still forested. Whatever the future, the
Nanticoke and its tributaries gave a start to
human effort on the Delmarva. From the
early Native Americans to modern manufacturing, health care, and recreation,
Edgell summarizes: “The Nanticoke is the
reason we’re here.” DQ
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SEAFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The steamer Avalon sits along the wharf at the canning factory in the
Nanticoke River at Seaford.
Winter 2007 • 18
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Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 19
DELMARVA HUMOR • CHRIS WILDT
WINTER 2007
LOCATION! LOCATION!
LOCATION!
THIS PROPERTY WILL
BE WORTH
A FORTUNE
TO OUR
GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN.!
WE’RE NOT SELLING!!!
HOW SO?
IF
GREENLAND
GLAD
YOU ASKED!
CONTINUES TO MELT, SEA
LEVEL RISES 21 FEET
AND WE’RE
OCEAN-FRONT
PROPERTY!
IN ABOUT 80 YEARS
MELTING ICE MASSES MAY RAISE
SEA LEVEL ABOUT 2 FEET. THAT
WOULD GIVE US
OCEAN-VIEW PROPERTY.
IF
WEST ANTARCTIC
CONTINUES TO MELT,
SEA LEVEL RISES 49 FEET
AND WE’VE
MAYBE YOU
WORRY JUST A
LITTLE TOO MUCH.
MAYBE WE
SHOULD BUY A
HOUSEBOAT.
LOST OUR INVESTMENT!
20 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA PARKS
WINTER 2007
TRAP POND STATE PARK - LAUREL, DELAWARE
The state’s first park is home to the nation’s northernmost
natural stand of baldcypress trees and a great bicycle trail.
BY LYNN L. REMLY
D
elaware prides itself on being the First
State, but Trap Pond State Park lays
claim to being its first state park.
“The area was actually owned by the federal government until 1951,” explains Park
Naturalist Will Koth. “The Civilian
Conservation Corps reconstructed the old
mill dam and built picnic areas, trails, and
even today’s Park Ranger Pavilion in the
1930s.” The park’s priority is clear: “Fort
Delaware and Trap Pond were acquired by
the state in 1951, but Trap Pond actually
welcomed visitors first, making it the state’s
first park.”
Freshwater wetlands once accounted for
a large portion of southwestern Sussex
County, and Trap Pond features the northernmost natural stand of baldcypress trees
in the United States, Koth notes. “In the late
1700s, hundreds of thousands of acres
from Laurel to Selbyville to the Maryland
border were baldcypress swamp, and there
was a big demand for the trees for building,
especially shingles. The wood is water-,
insect-, and decay-resistant — it’s like pressure-treated lumber. In fact, our pavilions
are constructed of baldcypress.” Because
there are no open bodies of water nearby,
Trap Pond was built to power a sawmill to
process the area’s trees. Over time, logging
ceased and agriculture increased, and grist
mills replaced the sawmill, but the pond
made it all work.
Today, visitors enjoy exploring the natural
beauty of the wetland forest. “We have 18
miles of trails, including a 5-mile hiking and
biking path and horse trails,” Koth says. In
fact, the Friends of Trap Pond have made
available two dozen bikes for free use during the summer season. The Baldcypress
Nature Center, open Wednesday through
Sunday in summer, features a variety of displays and programs, including live and
mounted animal displays and educational
outreach.
But the essence of the area is water,
water, water. The park rents canoes,
kayaks, rowboats and paddleboats to allow
a close-up appreciation of the surroundings, especially the baldcypress stand,
which can also be seen from nearby
Trussum Pond, likewise administered by the
Trap Pond State Park. Guided pontoon
tours on summer weekends and holidays,
from Memorial Day weekend through Labor
Day, permit viewing of various plant and
animal species, including beaver, otter, bald
eagles, waterfowl and the Prothonatary
warbler. “Because Trap Pond is in a rural
area, people don’t think it’s wild, but it is,”
Koth assures.
Further, Trap Pond has recently joined the
Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, which
is developed and run by the National Park
Service. The Gateways program is a network of state parks, recreation areas, and
educational facilities like the Ward Museum
of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, Md. - all connected with the Chesapeake Bay. “The bay
system is extensive,” Koth says. “When
water leaves Trap Pond, for example, it runs
to James Branch, then six or seven miles to
Records Pond, on to Broad Creek, into the
Nanticoke River, and finally into the
Chesapeake.” To help appreciate the extent
of the bay watershed, the park conducts
canoe and kayak tours of James Branch in
summer, when the water is still high enough
to float light craft.
All in all, visiting Trap Pond is a way to
appreciate unique aspects of Mother
Nature’s work in Delaware. Not only was it
first, but it’s one of the best. DQ
IF YOU GO
Trap Pond State Park is located five miles east of
Laurel, one mile off Delaware Route 24 on Trap Pond
Road. Park is open year-round, 8 a.m. to sunset; visitor
center on weekends and holidays, from Memorial Day
weekend through Labor Day. An entrance fee is
charged from May 1 to Oct. 31: Delaware vehicles $3,
out-of-state vehicles $6. Annual passes valid for all state
parks are also available: Delaware vehicles $27, out-ofstate $54. For further information, call the park at (302)
875-5153 or the Baldcypress Nature Center at (302)
875-5163. Campground: (302) 875-2392. See the
website at www.destateparks.com.
WALT BRYAN PHOTOGRAPH
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 21
RICHARD DORBIN PHOTOGRAPH/PARAGON LIGHT STUDIO
Mark Boedges from South Burlington, Vt., depicted plein air painters working along Dogwood Harbor on
Tilghman Island. During Plein Air-Easton! artists paint within Easton and Talbot County.
22 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA ART
WINTER 2007
PLEIN AIR EASTON MAKES ANOTHER LEAP
This year’s festival grew by 50 percent: 771 paintings exhibited, 172 sold
grossing $158,305 and national prominence thickening.
BY ANN E. DORBIN
T
he 3rd Annual Plein Air-Easton!
Competition & Arts Festival, held last
July, clearly attested that good art is
good business. In just three years, Plein AirEaston! has experienced phenomenal
growth. Many say it has catapulted to the
leading plein air festival in the country.
Some have even called it the “New
Carmel,” referring to Carmel, California,
which has been a plein air hot spot for
decades. Others say it rivals the Laguna
Beach Plein Air Invitational, which also
exhibits at an accredited museum.
“Delmarva and plein air are made for each
other,” says artist Nancy Tankersley, owner
of South Street Art Gallery and a founder of
the event.
In each of the first three years, the excitement and cachet of the festival has snowballed as Easton buzzed with an undeniable energy and uplifting sense of pride that
filled the town as only plein air can. Artists
call the event a painter’s paradise. Number
crunchers watched stats go off the charts.
Local businesses reported increased traffic
as town and village streets filled with plein
air fans. Social butterflies were in hang-out
heaven as they mingled among artists from
across the country.
New and emerging artists jumped at the
chance to showcase their talents in the
Quick Draw, which, uniquely, is open to any
artist. And art collectors and enthusiasts
found nirvana at this weeklong artfest,
where they attended an extensive itinerary
of lectures and workshops, served as host
families for visiting artists, or viewed and
purchased an amazing abundance of fine
art from museum exhibits, collectors’ parties, art galleries, and various paint-outs.
Noted plein air artist and scholar Ross
Merrill, Chief of Conservation at the
National Gallery of Art, has competed in all
three years of Plein Air-Easton! During last
year’s festival, Merrill presented “En Plein
Air: American Open Air Painting,” a lecture
on American plein air painting, as previously given at the National Gallery of Art.
Merrill observed that a successful plein air
event is built on several components. These
include substantial cash prizes, sought-after
Delmarva Quarterly
artists from across the country, exhibit space
in an accredited museum, a backbone of
local art galleries, and strong community
support. “Plein Air-Easton! has all of these,”
he said, “which has contributed to the
event’s great success.”
A significant factor in the event’s growth
has been the high standard of the artwork.
Expanded museum space allowed each
artist to provide up to eight replacement
paintings, enabling sold paintings to be
replaced by other works. A total inventory
of 771 paintings was exhibited during the
festival.
Across the board, this year’s numbers
were about 50 percent higher than the two
previous years. A total of 172 paintings
sold, grossing $158,305, almost $64,000
more than last year’s total of $94,387. The
175 ticket holders at the sold-out Collector’s
Preview Party purchased 59 paintings,
grossing close to $69,000, and ranging in
price from $350 to $3,500, with an average price of $1,063.
During the festival weekend, the exhibit of
national competition artists continued as the
Academy Art Museum bulged with a steady
crowd. Saturday morning after the
Collector’s Party, a line formed before the
museum opened and by the end of the
exhibit, the Academy’s walls were bare as
55 additional paintings sold, totaling more
than $50,000, the highest, by Stephen J.
Griffin, going for $4,000.
Hundreds of people jammed Harrison
Street for the Quick Draw, resulting in sales
of 44 paintings, ranging between $20 and
$1,400, with an average price of $428,
totaling almost $19,000. Close to half of the
136 Quick Draw artists came from out of
the area, some from as far away as
California and Chicago.
Fourteen more paintings sold at a live
auction during the (also sold out) Sunday
“Meet the Artists” Brunch, priced as high as
$4,000, for a total of $20,400.
Robert Barber of State College, Pa. won
the $5,000 Grand Prize “Timothy E. Dills
Memorial Award” in the National
Competition. Scott Tallman Powers of
Chicago sold the highest total dollar amount
($13,550) and Carol Lee Thompson of
Phoenix Md. sold the largest number of
paintings (10).
Several artists won multiple awards.
Powers won Third Place in the National
Competition with “Taking Care of
Rosalind,” First Place in the Quick Draw
with “Sweet Gloria,” and his “End of the
Road” brought the highest bid ($4,000) at
the Sunday “Meet the Artists” Brunch PaintOut. Stephen J. Griffin of Easton won Best
Marine in the National Competition with
“Crabbers,” Second Place in the Quick
Draw
with
“Academy,”
and
his
“Hemmersley Farm” brought the second
highest bid ($3,400) at the Brunch PaintOut. Tracey Frugoli, also from Chicago,
won Honorable Mention in the National
Competition with “Scossa,” the Academy
Art Museum Purchase Award at the Brunch
for “Sunday Brunch,” and her “Oxford
Nocturne” was among the works selected
for inclusion in the Academy’s permanent
collection entitled “Our Landscape:
Celebrating the Beauty of Maryland’s
Eastern Shore.” Tim Bell from Edgewater,
Md. (last year’s Grand Prize winner) was a
double winner. His “Tuesday Evening
Dogwood” won the Ultrech Art Supplies
Award for Best Use of Light and the People’s
Choice Award in the National Competition.
Local artists also fared well. The First
Invitational “Local Color” show, sponsored
by the Working Artist Forum, exhibited
original works of 31 artists living on the
Delmarva Peninsula. Traffic and interest
were brisk, resulting in almost $11,000 in
sales, with an average sales price of about
$325. The show was judged by Tim Bell,
winner of the 2006 Grand Prize.
Al Bond, Easton’s Economic Development
director, says, “The sheer magnitude of people who attended the event was a major
factor in its success. The high quality of the
paintings was definitely a factor. The impact
of having gallery space at the Academy Art
Museum was huge. Artwork was beautifully
exhibited and artists were able to rotate and
sell replacement paintings, which really
increased sales. Several artists sold every
painting they had available.
n
h
o
i
a
D
b
b
w
i
l
M
T
T
J
a
p
Winter 2007 • 23
e
“The most consistent message from the
artists was that we are now operating the
best plein air competition in the country-that
we have the best organization and marketing, the best Web site, one of the only museum-quality gallery spaces, the best sales
and inventory systems, and the best parties.
The West Coast artists were amazed to see
the number of spectators and painters in our
Quick Draw. Apparently there is no equivalent to this anywhere. Ditto the brunch.”
The ripple effect of Plein Air-Easton! on
the local economy brought full restaurants
and the best foot traffic of any summer
weekend.
Word has it that the event brought with it
a few new residents, including several competition artists who have moved or are looking to move to Easton.
The 2007 Plein Air-Easton! festival was
sponsored by Easton Main Street, the
Avalon Foundation, Academy Art Museum,
TalbotTown in Memory of Timothy E. Dills,
Talbot Bank, and the Talbot County Arts
Council.
The 4th Annual Plein Air-Easton! takes
place July 21-27, 2008. Join the excitement, mark your calendar now. DQ
IMPORTANT DATES
December
1,
2007:
2008
Competition Prospectus released to artists
and general public
March 3, 2008: Submissions deadline
for entry in national competition
March 24, 2008: Announcements of
Competition Artists
July 21-27, 2008: Competition &
Arts Festival
For more information, call 410-8227297 or visit www.pleinair-easton.com.
RICHARD DORBIN PHOTOGRAPH/PARAGON LIGHT STUDIO
Plein Air Easton artists take advantage of warm, summer night light in downtown Easton.
24 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
s
’
A
R
A
T
Studio Art Gallery
LEWES
302-644-7111
1600 Hwy. One,
Lewes, DE 19958
Dolles - Rehoboth
749 S. Coastal Hwy., Rt. 1
(Next to Happy Harry’s)
Bethany Beach, DE 19930
(302) 537-9116
MILFORD
SEAFORD
302-622-9110
302-629-0100
140 Aerenson Dr.,
1941 Bridgeville Hwy. Milford, DE 19963
PO Box 1800,
Seaford, DE 19973
NOW OPEN:
MILLSBORO • 302-933-0901
216 West Street, Millsboro, DE 19966
“People Helping People”
Se Habla Espanol
Call ahead for seasonal hours.
www.tarasstudio.com
___________
tara @ tarasstudio.com
Membership is offered to those persons who live, work, worship or
belong to an organization in Sussex County
.
Membership is also extended to those who live within the city limits of Milford.
LIFESTYLE ESSENTIALS
Richardson Gallery
BLUE CROW
ANTIQUE MALL
Largest & Newest Antique Mall
on Virginia’s Eastern Shore
35,000 Square Feet
fresh off the easel…
still lifes and landscapes
24 King Street
Onancock, Virginia
757-789-3151
visit our new website at
www.jackrichardsongallery.com
Delmarva Quarterly
Antiques • Collectibles • Vintage Items
Decorative Arts • Climate Controlled
Home of the Eastern Shore Art League
Christmas Open House Sat., Dec. 1
Open 7 Days Mon. - Sat. 10-5 Sun. 12-5
(757) 442-4150 • [email protected] • bluecrowantiques.com
32124 Lankford Hwy. Rt. 13 Keller, VA 23401
Winter 2007 • 25
T
e
f
r
f
I
“
N
o
f
g
c
w
t
b
f
t
a
w
t
v
m
p
C
t
Garlands and some of the more than 4,000 objects and furnishings owned by the Historic Odessa
Foundation decorate the Wilson-Warner House.
26 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA HOLIDAYS
WINTER 2007
AN HISTORIC CHRISTMAS IN ODESSA
Conservationist Beatrix Potter would approve completely
of her stories seen in the rooms of these historic homes.
BY JANEL ATLAS
“Now, my dears,” said old Mrs. Rabbit
one morning, “you may go into the fields or
down the lane, but don’t go into Mr.
McGregor’s garden: your Father had an
accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs.
McGregor.” - from The Tale of Peter
Rabbit
the holiday season,” says Debbie Buckson,
executive director of the Historic Odessa
Foundation. “We hope that we can inspire
children to take away a life-long love of
reading.”
The Brick Hotel, across the street from the
Wilson-Warner House, will boast a display
of Christmas trees decorated by families
and community groups showcasing their
he world of beloved children’s literature
favorite books and works of children’s literauthor Beatrix Potter (1868-1943) will
ature.
be brought to life in historic Odessa.
Families will be able to make and decoEach year, the Historic Odessa Foundation
rate their own Christmas tree
(HOF) decorates several historic
ornaments in the style of the
homes for holiday tours. The
Tales of Beatrix Potter, and
2007 Christmas Holiday Tours
everyone will delight in the tiny
will run from November 23
details of the Wollerton
through December 31.
Dollhouse Collection. The dollEach year the beautiful
houses, which date from 1910
Wilson-Warner House (c. 1769)
to 1980, are on display in the
is transformed with interpretaCorbit-Sharp House (1700),
tions of children’s literature.
and are fitted with dozens of
Years past have highlighted
pieces of reproduction period
“Alice in Wonderland,” by Lewis
furniture along with some
Carroll, and “A Christmas
miniature metalwork pieces.
Carol,” by Charles Dickens.
Johnnye Baker, the curator of
This year’s selection of the
education, says Odessa is a
tales of Beatrix Potter is especial“backyard
treasure
in
ly in keeping with the HOF’s purDelaware.” Baker, who develpose of preserving some of
oped the educational programs
Delaware’s historic homes.
The Wilson-Warner House will be decorated
for school-aged children,
Potter was a passionate consershares that some people have
vationist herself. After her suc- throughout with Beatrix Potter-themed displays.
said Odessa is better than visitcess in publishing “The Tale of
ing Williamsburg.
Peter Rabbit” (1902), “The Tailor of over by Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca.
A visit to Odessa during the Christmas
The table will be laid and the atmosphere
Gloucester” (1903), and “The Tale of Two
Bad Mice” (1904), Potter had the income at pleasant in the parlor, where a traditional season is sure to offer a unique look at both
her disposal to purchase properties in the Christmas dinner will be set for Potter’s a beloved children’s author and Delaware’s
Lake District, England. When she died, she characters. Odessa area residents have historic homes.
“It’s not just for children, by any means,”
left almost all of her properties to the loaned Beatrix Potter characters and figsays Miller.
National Trust, including 4,000 acres of urines to decorate the room.
“This allows visitors to see the houses and
In the kitchen, the story of the “Tailor of
land, cottages, and 15 farms.
“This year’s theme was inspired by her Gloucester” is interpreted. In it, a poor tai- collection in a whole new way.” DQ
classic children’s tales, but also ties in with lor shows kindness to mice in his shop and,
her conservancy efforts,” shares Brian in return, they save the day by completing a
IF YOU GO
Miller, assistant curator and art educator at waistcoat for the Mayor of Gloucester. Look
Historic Houses of Odessa, 109 Main Street, Odessa,
for beautiful clothing on loan from the DE 19730. Just off U.S. Route 13. Tours begin Friday,
Middletown High School.
November 23 through Monday, December 31, 2007.
“We selected the stories in mid-spring, Dover English country dancers.
“We’re delighted to be able to offer the Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
and I’ve been collecting objects all over the
Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 24 and 25. Tickets
summer,” says Miller. “We start setting up community an opportunity to experience are $10 for adults; $8 for groups, seniors and students;
the exhibits about two weeks before the and participate in Delaware’s history $3 for children five to 11 and children under 5 are free.
exhibit. It takes late nights and long week- through celebrating children’s literature and 302-378-4119, or www.historicodessa.org.
T
Delmarva Quarterly
ends, and it’s lots of fun.”
One room in the Wilson-Warner House
will represent Ms. Potter’s studio, filled with
Victorian items, including objects on loan
from other museums. In the hall, the “Tale of
Peter Rabbit” comes to life with touches like
tools for gardening, a period wheelbarrow,
and a little blue jacket like Peter’s.
The “Tale of Two Bad Mice” will take over
another room of the Wilson-Warner House,
and will include a Georgian-style dollhouse.
This pristine one, however, won’t be taken
Winter 2007 • 27
Eyes, ears and nose on alert - a doe in the Gordons Pond area of Delaware’s Cape Henlopen State Park.
28 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA PHOTOGRAPHY
WINTER 2007
WILDLIFE IN DELAWARE
Concerned about the continuing march of development, a native Delaware
photographer heads into the state’s wilds to create a lasting record.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEVIN FLEMING
“People tell me all the time I must be really lucky to see the things I do. That’s true
enough but to be in the right place at the
right time takes more than luck. Still, when it
all comes together and I catch a red fox with
just the first rays of sunrise light on his face
I feel very, very lucky!”
With passion and skill, Delaware photographer Kevin Fleming began work this past
summer on chronicling the wildlife and
nature of his native state. He plans to
assemble his best work into a book to be
published in 2008. In the meantime, those
interested in Fleming’s work can follow his
efforts by dialing into www.wilddelaware.com where they will find archives
of the work as it is unfolding through the
seasons. Along with many samples of what
the photographer is shooting and selecting,
readers can also enjoy Fleming’s comments
about what he is seeing and how he goes
about his work.
For many decades, Fleming has photographed his native state and watched
development encroach into the woods and
farm fields that have been home to so much
wildlife. Part of the reason for this project,
he said, is to capture with images what
Delaware enjoys in terms of wildlife at the
beginning of the 21st century.
For us looking through Fleming’s lens, it’s
another way to watch the seasons change.
The October colors of a red fox glow in a Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge sunrise.
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 29
ABOVE: A single maple leaf caught in a meadow of dew-soaked foxtails is a reminder that winter is ahead.
BELOW: A doe and two fawns make their way across a shallow pond in the saltmarshes of the coast.
30 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
A heron stretches its wings toward its reflection in a Sussex County, Delaware salt pond.
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 31
This is a page from the Lake, Griffing and Stevenson Atlas of 1877 showing Whaleyville residences.
32 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA HISTORY
WINTER 2007
WHALEYVILLE, MD. - HIDEOUT OF REGICIDES?
Local legends, incidental evidence and a host of uncanny coincidences suggest
signers of Charles I’s death warrants may have settled on the Delmarva Peninsula.
BY CONOR SMITH
I
n July 1660, Edward Whalley arrived in
Boston harbor with his son-in-law,
William Goffe. The two, who 11 years
earlier, during the English Civil War, had
signed the death warrant of King Charles I,
were fleeing the son of the beheaded
monarch, Charles II. In the civil war
between the Parliamentarians and the
Royalists, Edward Whalley had distinguished himself on what was ultimately the
losing side. Now the Major-General and
cousin to Parliamentarian leader Oliver
Cromwell turned to the colonies to flee
charges of regicide and treason.
Whalley and Goffe were initially received
with open arms by the Puritan governors
and ministers of the colonies, who were
sympathetic to the Parliamentarian cause in
England. The two fugitive judges moved
about Boston publicly, with ease and little
fear. However, upon the arrival of two
bounty hunters carrying an order from King
Charles II for their arrest, the regicides withdrew to New Haven, and ultimately Hadley,
Massachusetts. New England was not safe
for the wanted men. Though Whalley and
Goffe could often safely stay with Puritan
ministers or sympathetic officials, at times
they found themselves alone and friendless.
One time, the regicides were walking into
New Haven, coming from a cave just west
of town where they stayed for some months,
when the marshall overtook them with a
warrant for their arrest. “But the judges
stood upon their defence,” wrote Ezra
Stiles, president of Yale in the late 1700s,
“and being expert at fencing, defended
themselves with their cudgels, and repelled
the officer who went back to town to command help, and returned with aid, but
found the Judges [Whalley and Goffe] had
escaped”.
Edward Whalley and his son-in-law
remained fugitives in the colonies; the last
record of them is a letter from Goffe, at
Hadley, to his wife dated April 2, 1679.
After that, historians are lost. Most presume
that Whalley had died by that point and
Goffe would soon after him; people speculate that the bones found in the walls of
Minister Russell of Hadley, Massachusetts,
Delmarva Quarterly
GAFFNEY
belonged to the two fugitive regicides.
However, local legend, incidental evidence,
and a host of uncanny coincidences suggest
that Edward Whalley fled south from New
England and settled on the Delmarva
Peninsula.
“No written record of the founding of
Whaleyville has been discovered and probably none ever existed,” wrote Arthur
Cozzens, a resident of the small Maryland
town, just nine miles south of the Delaware
line. “Its inhabitants were obviously seeking
CONOR SMITH GAFFNEY PHOTOGRAPH
Cypress shingles, from trees harvested in surrounding swamps, clad
the 17th century Mitchell’s Store, long the heart of Whaleyville.
Winter 2007 • 33
to avoid notice.” The first records that suggest a settlement in what is today
Whaleyville appear around 1670. Land
patents referred to a building called
“Mitchell’s Store” (which today stands on
the main road in Whaleyville) as point of
reference in delineating parcels of land. The
store and the settlement which sprung up
around it were several miles south of a
major Indian trade route, called the East
West trail. The East West trail was essentially a long sand berm which spanned the vast
cypress swamps that filled most of Old
Somerset County, a huge county that took in
much of Delaware’s Sussex county and
Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore. The heartwood of the cypress tree, soaked with its
own natural preservative, cypressene, could
withstand rot almost indefinitely and was a
valuable building material. In the 1670s,
Randall Smulling operated a saw mill east
of colonial settlement at Whaleyville and
provided the cut wood for many of the
buildings of the town that was then called
“Mitchell’s Store”.
Despite the abundance of cypress and
fertile ground several miles east of Mitchell’s
Store, the settlement remained obscure for
almost two hundred years. In 1720 it was
known as the Turn in the Road, and not until
1850 was the town named Whaleyville,
when Captain Peter Whaley moved from his
estate at South Point in the Sinepuxent Bay
to the tiny settlement in the heart of the
peninsula in order to open a prosperous
saw mill. Before 1850, maps of the area did
not mention Turn in the Road, and the town
hid in obscurity. The settlement was founded
in a particularly inaccessible location; miles
within the thick and inhospitable swamp,
the original settlers forwent fertile land to
the east and north. Following the creation of
Somerset County in 1666, when land
patenting was common and widespread
throughout the peninsula, the residents of
Mitchell’s Store were hesitant to patent their
land and so put their names on any sort of
official English record. But when the land
was finally patented, the owners gave their
tracts names like “World’s End Swamp,”
“Fat Arse Quarter,” “Whaley’s Neglect,”
and “Security Enlarged.”
There are few records on who the original settlers of Whaleyville were. A George
Wale, ancestor of Peter Whaley for whom
the town was named, patented a large
amount of land in the area in 1665, but
promptly sold it and moved to South Point.
Other records give little detail. But Arthur
Cozzens, in his singular history of the town
titled Whaleyville, says, “In the extreme
southern part of the settlement adjoining
34 • Delmarva Quarterly
what is now MD Route 346 and Jumping
Creek lived a mystery man whose cabin
was isolated from the others and was hidden from view by the two east west strips of
creek margin cypress swamp . . . . No
street or road led to his dwelling, not even a
good path. To reach it one had to either
wade through the swamps, possibly waist
deep, or to detour to the west around the
cypress strips . . . . We cannot definitely
identify this man, but we may be certain he
was a Whalley.” In 1745, records show that
Nathaniel Whaley, descendent of the
Whaleys of South Point, lived in this cabin.
Cozzens notes that it was the custom for
family to occupy the same house for generations.
In is indeterminable from genealogical
and other records whether the Whaleys of
South Point, who came originally from
Accomack, Virginia, and returned publicly
to Whaleyville after many generations, are
related to Edward Whalley, the regicide. It
is known that the regicide did bring his
young son, also name Edward, with him to
the colonies in 1660. After their arrival, no
mention of his son can be found. However,
Thomas Robins, a descendent of the
Whaleys of South Point, notes a series of
suggestive coincidences: Records show that
one of the regicides left New England in
1680, either Goffe or Edward. A year later
a man named Edward Middleton appears
in Accomack, Middleton being the last
name of the Edward Whalley’s wife.
Finding Virginia “too publick” he settled in
Maryland.
At about the same time a man named
Theophilus Whale settled on Boston Neck at
Narragansett, in Rhode Island. He said he
came from Virginia, but was very mysterious about his past. When asked if he was
related to Edward Whalley, the regicide,
Theophilus would give oblique and ambiguous answers. Whenever he would hear
mention that Edward Whalley had died in
Massachusetts, Theophilus would deny it
and say that “one indeed of the Judges
[Goffe and Whalley] had died at Hadley,
but the other went off westward and secreted himself awhile in Virginia.” Theophilus
Whale was married to an Elizabeth Mills, a
last name which appears on some maps of
Whaleyville from the 1800s.
The appearance of Edward Middleton in
Maryland in 1680, the Whaley’s mystery
cabin in the swamp south of the settlement,
and the bizarre statements of Theophilus
Whale of Narragansett, all revivify the
claim that one of Whaleyville’s original settlers was Edward Whalley, the regicide.
However, the historical records offer little
but beguiling coincidences and suggestive
mysteries.
Just as one man who encountered the
regicide on the streets of New Haven, and
confounded at Whalley’s mysterious
answers as to his identity, exclaimed “But
who on earth could you be?! You must be
either Goffe, Whalley, or the Devil!”, so in
the same manner does the identity of
Whaleyville’s original settlers elude those
who search through the records of history.
Today the town of Whaleyville appears
suddenly amid the vast stretches of soy
beans and corn. The old cedar-shingled
buildings and narrow roads strike one as
unique among the peninsula’s familiar landscape of half-century old farmhouses and
wide new roads leading to the ocean
resorts. The properties are in all shapes and
sizes and haphazardly arranged, some
long and narrow, others reaching back with
stretches of swamp, or opening onto acres
of scrub forest or farmland. Whaleyville’s
appearance insists that the ground lies rich
with history, though the town is reluctant to
tell it. As Jumi Mohammadioun, a resident
and the grandson of historian Arthur
Cozzens, said, “the history is here, but it is
invisible to you unless you’re interested in
it”. DQ
Winter 2007
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shopping. You can also stay up to date with local news and events, through
special Cape Gazette publications such as Delmarva Quarterly, Beach Paper,
Beach Weddings, Spring and Fall Home Improvements, Cape Henlopen High
School Graduation, and ‘Tis the Season.
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Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 35
DELMARVA AGRICULTURE
WINTER 2007
‘TIS THE SEASON FOR NUTRITIOUS CHESTNUTS
Delmarvelous Farms in Townsend, Delaware, with its 1,600 nut trees,
has created retirement on steroids for the Petitts.
BY MOLLY ALBERTSON
T
he dark brown, smooth-skinned nuts
help to set the scene for a warm holiday gathering: chestnuts roasting over
an open fire. The sweet meat tucked inside
a hard skin brings to mind celebrations
from bygone eras. But Jack Frost doesn’t
need to be nipping at noses to enjoy the
iconic nuts that are in season
from October to January.
For centuries, people all
over the world have relied on
chestnuts for tasty, healthy
food. Ancient Greeks and
Romans wrote of the health
benefits
of
chestnuts.
Portuguese merchants grew
rich from bringing the nuts to
Great Britain and the
Netherlands
during
the
Renaissance, and Native
Americans feasted on them in
America
long
before
European settlers arrived,
according to the Cambridge
World History of Food.
Chestnuts are grown in
every country in the world as
a food staple. They play a
large role in the cuisine of
Asia, throughout Europe and
all over the world. The trees
grow well in most temperate
climates and the fruit is easy
to harvest. And Delmarva cooks need not
stray far to find the nuts grown as a rare
treat to use in both savory and sweet
recipes.
Delmarvelous Farms, in Townsend, Del.,
is a 30-acre farm that grows 1,600 trees.
The farm usually sells out of chestnuts each
year, but this year owner Nancy Petitt hopes
to supply the area with a large harvest.
“This year we’re holding our own. There
were not tropical storms and it’s been a
good season,” she said.
Petitt encourages everyone to incorporate
chestnuts into daily meals, and not reserve
them for Christmas or Thanksgiving feasts.
Instead, she recommends using chestnut
flour as a base for rich soups, or to mix into
pancakes for a hearty breakfast. “The flour
36 • Delmarva Quarterly
does not have any gluten, so it’s nice for
people who are allergic to flour. It allows
them to have something they ordinarily
can’t have,” she said.
There is of course the roasted chestnut,
easy to peel and delightful steaming fresh
from a hot pan, and most cooks have a
chestnut stuffing in their holiday meal repertoire.
But holiday revelers often overlook the
benefits of the nut as a healthful snack.
They are very low in fat and their nutritional content is similar to brown rice. They are
packed with potassium, folate and vitamins
B6 and C. The nuts are considered a carbohydrate that includes protein, which
makes it popular among many nations.
To peel chestnuts, use a sturdy knife and
slice them on the flat side. Most aficionados
recommend piercing the skin, cooking the
nut, and then peeling it. Petitt says the best
way to cook them for recipes is to first cut a
slit in the flat side of the nut and then
microwave or roast it. After it’s cooked, the
nut will fall away from the skin more easily.
But Petitt warns not to roast or microwave
a nut with its skin in tact. “It’ll explode
because of all the starch and sugars in it,”
she said with a telltale laugh of experience
from cleaning up sticky explosions.
The Delmarvelous farms website features
dozens of recipes using the nut. “Before we
put a recipe online, I have a
sous chef test it,” she said.
Petitt said she loves the process
of trying new uses for chestnuts, but she’s not the person to
develop new recipes. She
seeks simple, straightforward
recipes so everyone can enjoy
them. “I try to find something
people can follow because if I
can make it, anyone can,” she
said with a laugh. She loves
chestnut soup or simple
braised chestnuts.
Beyond enjoying the food
made with chestnuts, Petitt said
she likes meeting her customers. Growing chestnuts
has enriched the Petitts’ lives,
and it continues to bring true
friends and new acquaintances to their farm. Petitt tells stories about the characters who
come to the farm to see the
trees. “Sometimes they just
weep. Chestnuts are so special to so many people,” she said.
One man, she says, visited the farm and
felt so nostalgic he told a story of growing
up in Italy during World War II. His small
village relied upon chestnuts for nutrition
during the fall, but they were freezing during the winter. “The village called a meeting to decide if they should cut down the
trees to stay warm and then starve in the
next fall,” she said. The trees remained in
the village because no one had the heart to
cut them down.
A story closer to home: another man visited the grove and told about his mother’s
Delaware farm during the 1930s. “He said
his mom would have lost the farm if it wasn’t for the chestnuts trees. The bank would
have foreclosed if not for the income they
Winter 2007
go
th
ne
ec
of
a
ar
th
fr
le
en
op
sa
got from selling chestnuts,” she said. As a
boy, the customer picked up chestnuts, crated them, and shipped them to trains in
Harrington. The nuts were sent to the city
where they were roasted and sold on street
corners. “They were able to make just
enough money to keep the farm,” she said.
The couple started the farm as a retirement project. “But we didn’t know it would
become a retirement project on steroids,”
she laughed. Chestnuts are native to
Delaware, but most of the trees have died
out because of a disease that spread in the
early 1900s, Petitt said. “In 1905, somebody brought in trees from China with a
fungus and 90 percent died within 50
years,” she said. Scientists are trying to
introduce native trees that are resistant to
the widespread fungus, but they are struggling. Instead, the Petitts grow a hybrid
form of trees that have been bred from the
Chinese and European trees. As a result,
the trees are blight resistant and their fruit is
easier to peel than most nuts.
Petitt loves growing the trees and meeting
the people who share a love for chestnuts.
But it’s also a challenge to supply everyone
with chestnuts for recipes year-round. The
growing season begins in September and
ends in October, but requests for the nuts
are most common in November and
December.
“It is a small farm operation, and it’s hard
to have people picking, shipping and
answering phones all at the same time,” she
said.
SUBMITTED PHOTOGRAPHS
Gary and Nancy Petitt with their dogs Fred and Max on their
Delmarvelous chestnut farm.
Crisfield Area Chamber
of Commerce
P.O. Box 292,
Crisfield, MD 21817
1-800-782-3913
410-968-2500
410-968-0524 (fax)
www.crisfieldchamber.com
[email protected]
But even if cooks have to stray to chestnuts grown elsewhere, chestnuts are worth
roasting on a regular basis. For more information on the local farm, go to www.buychestnuts.com. DQ
Patrick J. Hendrickson
Aerial Photographer
CRISFIELD
Commercial & Residential
HISTORICAL MUSEUM
3 Ninth Street
Somers Cove Marina
Crisfield, Maryland 21817
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Christmas Parade
6 pm
Main Street
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
Soft Shell Spring Fair
Noon - 5 pm
City Dock - Free Admission
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Clam Bake
All You Can Eat - $35
August 29th - 31st, 2008
61st Annual
Hard Crab Derby
Delmarva Quarterly
Visit our Gift Shop for
Regional Books and Gifts
Call 703.581.9393
Annual Christmas Ornament
Available
highcamera.com
Museum Open Daily
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Saturday
(410) 968-2501
or visit
email
[email protected]
10464 Green Drive
Mason Neck, VA 22079
Winter 2007 • 37
DELMARVA REFLECTION
WINTER 2007
A SENSE OF PLACE
The insularity of a peninsula that is an island in strictest terms
can create a spiritual mystique of its own.
ESSAY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGE MERRILL
W
ith the opening of the C&D Canal in 1829, the Delmarva Goethals Bridge, the car began its ascent over to New Jersey. At the
Peninsula by definition became an island, surrounded on bridge’s zenith the great marsh meadows bordering the river, the
all sides by water. In historic memory at least, Staten Kill Van Kull, came into view. I could see for miles, half the Island
Island has always been an island. I was born and lived on Staten it seemed. The rich golden marsh grasses undulating in the breeze,
Island for 18 years - the “ Island” as natives know it - the same illuminated by the late afternoon sun, shimmered like manes of racamount of time I’ve lived on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, referred to ing lions. The panorama imprinted itself indelibly in my mind’s eye.
as “the Shore” by locals.
For a short moment, rising a
Insularity creates a spiritual
little above my usual circummystique of its own.
stances, my world grew bigThe geography of our
ger. It’s a similar sensation I
youth instills in the psyche an
have crossing the Delaware
almost genetic sense of
Memorial Bridge.
place, the way bees always
In the year 1524, Giovanni
know their hive from afar.
da Verrazano, familiar with
After absences of many
Delmarva, also anchored
years and returning home
near the Narrows off Staten
people experience that priIsland. He was looking for
mal sense of place. A neighwater. Verrazano, with his eye
borhood may have become
for beauty, notably the native
unrecognizable over time
women of Delmarva, comand yet despite that, a cluster
mented that he reluctantly left
of houses here, a certain hill
the Island which he found “so
or a tree there, evokes a
delightful and commodious.”
strong feeling of recognition,
The double spans of Chesapeake Bay’s upper crossing. Only an impending storm
that unique sense of place. I
caused his departure.
feel the same familiarity with the Shore as I once felt as a child on
Even before the Verrazano Bridge spanned the Narrows, my high
the Island.
school buddy Jay and I bobbed around in Lower Bay, becalmed at
Islands shape the subliminal images its inhabitants have of the Narrows, roughly in the same place as Verrazano had once
place. It’s because of our departures and homecomings: we rise anchored some 428 years before. We weren’t there for water since
above an island by spanning its bridges or gain distance from it we’d brought beer. The only impending storm awaited us at home.
traveling by boat. Human beings are also islands of sorts. We We’d hooked school that day, took Jay’s brother’s Star boat, planspend a significant portion of life trying to rise above our temporal ning to return home before school ended. Becalmed and with no
circumstances or gaining distance from them. We do this in search motor there was no way we’d make it on time. We returned well
of the bigger picture, to gain a deeper sense of the place we belong after dark. I remember two things about the misadventure: my mothSeeing the Chesapeake from the Bay Bridge is breathtaking. er’s fury and the stunning way that the north end of the Island rose
Where I live, however, I know the Chesapeake only tangentially, by majestically from the Narrows like pictures I’d seen of Gibraltar jutthe small slivers of the Chesapeake’s tributaries, the creeks and ting up from the sea. What I saw that day is what Verrazano saw.
rivers that course like capillaries throughout the Shore.
I never knew my home looked so grand. Even for all the wrong reaAs a child on the Island, my world consisted of a small grid of five sons, a little distance from its familiar surroundings and we see
streets, located well inland. There was a candy store, a butcher, a home differently.
pharmacist, a delicatessen, a park, my school and the church, all
Few understand this better than astronauts. Sky high above the
within a short walk. The tiny network where I spent my childhood earth, distant from their familiar landscape, observing the planet on
was part of a more complex landscape I didn’t comprehend. One which they’ve lived since birth, they see it for the first time without
day my uncle John revealed it to me.
the coordinates we’ve contrived, unmarred by the national borders
Uncle John’s 1941 Chrysler Windsor was the pride of his life. by which man has drawn his line in the sand and barricaded himBlack and spotless, the interior was burgundy and luxuriously self off from his neighbor. Like a blue marble set in space, they can
upholstered. It had a radio, a novelty then. Occasionally he’d take see our island home embraced by the universe the way an island is
my brother, sister and me to Chatham in New Jersey to have dinner caressed by water. I know the sight brought several astronauts to
at a country inn. It was the only time I ate turkey other than at tears. It’s no wonder: there’s nothing like sensing for the first time
Thanksgiving.
where we have always belonged. We spend most of our lives lookUncle John drove slowly, as if to miss nothing. Reaching the ing for it. DQ
38 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
Celebrate life on the Delmarva Peninsula!
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Send to:
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Lewes, DE 19958
Send us your submissions!
For more information: (302) 645-7700
Short Stories • Poems • Cartoons Essays • Artworks
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Submit photocopies or prints. No originals, please.
Written submissions can be emailed to:
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The Delmarva Quarterly is also available at book stores,
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Delmarva Peninsula from Wilmington, DE to Cape Charles, VA.
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 39
DELMARVA POETRY
WINTER 2007
BEECH TREES IN WINTER WOODS
BY MABEL MARTIN
I see you there, shy nymph with golden hair
Hiding under leafless trees.
Your amber garlands
Please the winter weary eye.
Now when boles are wet and dark
You glow a candle spark
To keep the gloom away,
defiant of the day and all its sullen sky.
Through storms you cling
Brave promise of the spring.
A tryst with hope to keep
While giants round you sleep
And barren branches sigh . . .
Mabel Martin writes from her
home in Belle Haven, Virginia where
she has lived all 93 years of her life.
STARLINGS
BY WENDY ELIZABETH INGERSOLL
“I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak
nothing but Mortimer.”
I study the captions, absorb the whole story:
three score of their kind were conveyed here from Europe,
released in New York as part of a plan
to transport to this country each one of the birds
that Shakespeare refers to in each of his plays.
The Museum of Natural History building
had eaves with the proper milieu for their nests.
The rest of the tale is just natural history.
Starlings abounded, moved in and pushed out.
European Americans know all about this,
we did it ourselves – continental expansion.
One starts a new life, one looks all around,
one gathers some twigs and constructs a new nest,
overlooking the fact that one built on the branches
of some other bird.
So before one determines to start smashing eggs,
consider one may not have seen the whole picture.
We kill over one million starlings each year.
So who is the bully and who is the victim
and which of us owes to the other amends?
Even in Rome where the birds are annoying –
they poop on the cars, they trash up the domes –
the fact is they used to live far to the south
and migrated to Rome to escape global warming.
And now, just like us, they’re just trying to start over,
find a good neighborhood, steer clear of falcons.
So maybe my brother and I should amend
our approach and construct some alternative housing.
The author writes from her home
in Newark, Delaware.
(from Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part I:
Hotspur, scapegoating a bird)
European starlings have captured our martin house.
Action is called for, my brother announces:
we’ll rig up a pulley attached to the birdhouse
up high on its pole – when a starling is spotted
we’ll lower the house and dispose of the nest.
Not only do starlings dislodge purple martins,
my brother insists, but they eat too much grain
and their flocks are so dense they can bring down small aircraft.
No protest from me – I’m all for protecting
the meek little martins from neighborhood bullies.
I won’t be a part, though, of smashing the eggs.
And where will the starlings, now homeless, abide?
It’s not a concern, my brother replies,
they can fend for themselves. There’s two hundred million
that clutter our continent, not one a native
American bird.
The very next day I open the paper
to photos of starlings in flocks over Rome –
they forage the farmland around it all day,
eat all the olives, then fly back at dusk
in immense murmurations, banking in unison
over the domes, skywriting patterns
as old as the gods, divining perhaps
divine will with their spirals, their pointillist etching,
their curls and curves – these kin of the very same
birds he reviles.
40 • Delmarva Quarterly
AUTUMNAL EQUINOX
BY ARTHUR BOUNDS
Another summer is gone.
Another season stands at the threshold.
A hint of autumn stirs rusting leaves,
chilling dawn’s early hour
with misty breath.
One by one, flowers bow their heads
in abject acknowledgment.
Even the robin senses nature’s subtle sign
and one morning she too is gone.
Man may have his devices,
his calendar, his clock;
but it is Dame Nature who insists
on her own definite timing.
For autumn must come
like the perpetual dawn.
Another summer is gone.
The author writes from his home
in Henderson, Md.
Winter 2007
DELMARVA POETRY
WINTER 2007
BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
BY DR. HARVEY W. ROUSE
SPELLBOUND
BY HEATHER POULTNEY
A singular trim-bodied Mourning Dove sits transfixed on a sagging tension line witnessing a unique, rare and primordial phenomenon in nature.
Hear the words that flow through me,
Carried on the blessed dancing wind
That spirals around my head whispering
Your name. Breath escapes me as your
Lips move, quietly I watch forgetting my
Own need for air. Your voice is a charmed
Silver athame that encircles me with reverence.
Struck with a longing to be the sweet wet water
That quenches and cools your body as you
Are rebirthed in the river under a new moon.
Fire burns in my heart from your nearness,
While it burns like mad to not see your face.
Madness that poisons the very soul that claims
To love the divine nature of love itself – and you.
Mixing love and madness in the heart’s cauldron
Seasons the soul for a destiny of trouble – charmed
Or not. Rhythm drums out my heartbeat as you
Dance erotically around the fire, stomping the earth
Into obedience, perfect alignment with my heart.
Seasons change, your double-edged athame closes
Upon me, the spell dies. I awaken to the sound of
The wind dying in my lonely, broken heart.
I pray for your love, and that all may see
Your divine beauty, so mote it be.
Against a backdrop of oaks, maples, willows and Black Walnut
trees and a scarlet-colored sky, God’s animated and diminutive
helicopters, with four phosphorescent wings, swirl and zig-zag
unprecedented over a corn field ravaged by drought. The individual stalks retarded by thirst, have yielded distorted, dry, dehydrated, malnourished and limited kernels for harvest.
Nearby the blades of a gas-driven mower dissect the chlorophyllfilled grass and release the aroma into the air where it mixes with
a multitude of irritating pollens. Simultaneously, thousands of small
insects rise hurriedly on uplifting thermal currents. Dragonfly
squadrons, with rotating blades, fill the sky. They patrol, hover
and dart in ever-increasing and widening non-geometric patterns
hungrily pursuing and consuming the apparently mindless prey in
flight.
Time passes, the chase continues and the battle proliferates until
the sun descends and moisture collects on the wings of both consumers and the prey negating further maneuvers. Annihilation is
postponed. The edge of darkness approaches and produces a
promise of temporary compromise and a delay of further death
until tomorrow.
*athame – ceremonial knife
The author writes from her
home in Millsboro, Del.
Inn of Silent Music
The dove, a mourner, in amazement, creates a lamenting murmur
and flutters away as his death song reverberates in silence.
Tylerton - Smith Island, Maryland
The author writes from his home in Smyrna, Del.
Surrounded on three sides by water, The Inn of Silent
Music offers stunning views, charming rooms and
wonderful food.
The ambiance is relaxed, quiet, and nature-friendly,
but the quality of guests often occasions vibrant
conversation, particularly over meals.
Have your artwork showcased all over the
peninsula on the cover of the Delmarva Quarterly!
Submit artwork samples for consideration.
NO ORIGINALS, PLEASE.
Preference will be given to items grounded in aspects of the
peninsula experience, and related to the Spring season.
Upon selection, final artwork must be available
in high resolution digital file or high quality slide.
Delmarva Quarterly
SPRING
Send samples &
contact information to:
Dennis Forney, publisher
Delmarva Quarterly
P.O. Box 213,
Lewes, DE 19958
or [email protected]
And why Inn of "Silent Music?" The term hints of
harmony, serenity and yes, silence.
Gift Certificates Available
2955 Tylerton Road
Tylerton - Smith Island, Maryland 21866
(410) 425-3541
www.innofsilentmusic.com
email: [email protected]
Rob & Linda Kellogg, Innkeepers
Winter 2007 • 41
Constructed circa 1854, the former First Baptist Church features a Palladan window and columned facade.
42 • Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007
DELMARVA ARCHITECTURE
WINTER 2007
THE GREEN IN DOVER
This historic area fashioned after the public square design features buildings of
Federal, Greek Revival, Victorian and Second Empire styles.
BY HAROLD HURST
M
any small towns in early America I. DuPont. Henry practiced law, presided Senator Joseph P. Comegys. The Comegys
were centered about a public over the Farmers Bank and raised peaches family owned over 2,000 acres of land in
square. In county seats, the square at the family estate near Dover, designated the Dover area in the Civil War era. Around
the corner, on the southwest side, is a
was often surrounded by the court house, as Eden Hill.
Directly next door to the Ridgely house is Second Empire mansion erected by Captain
jail and other public buildings. The focalpoint of other activities, these areas also a three-story red brick structure built in the James Wild in the1870s.
At the corner of Bank Street and the
served as drilling fields, market places, and 1850s by Henry Todd, a wealthy farmer
fair grounds and were often the location of and real estate developer. Todd put up a Green on the west side lies the former home
the leading churches and the mansions of smaller edifice adjoining his home which of the Farmers Bank, a red brick structure
during the Civil War era was occupied by whose roof is underpinned by bracketed
prominent families.
the Delawarean, a pro-Southern newspaper cornices. The Farmers Bank was founded in
In Dover, the capital of Delaware,
1807 but this building was erected
the central square, known as the
after the Civil War. The bank later
Green, became the site of the State
moved to new quarters on
House. Located on the east side of
Loockerman Street. The officers and
the Green, this building for many
directors of the Farmers Bank came
years served as both the Delaware
from distinguished families such as
capitol residence and the county
the Claytons, Comegys, Manloves,
court house. Erected in 1792, the
Pennewells and Ridgelys demonstrattwo story brick edifice with a slanted
ing the importance of this state-wide
roof and belltower lent grace and
institution.
style to the town Green. During the
A number of historic buildings are
1870s, the Federal style structure
located on the northwest side of the
was remodeled along Victorian lines.
Green. Several are of the Federal
During the 20th century further
style while others feature characterisreconstruction took place in an effort
tics of the Victorian era. Nineteenth
to restore the Georgian mode of the
century maps indicate that some of
original edifice. In the 1930s the legCapt. James Wild’s Second Empire mansion. these majestic houses were owned by
islature was moved to a new building
women from prominent families. The
on the capitol square east of the old
Green. Today this landmark is a state muse- which denounced Lincoln as a “black American Legion occupied the house at the
corner of State Street and the northwest corAbolitionist.”
um.
A walk to the southeast side of the square ner of the square during the post-World
Dover’s Green is the nucleus of a picturesque and historic neighborhood contain- comes to a brick building erected in 1812 War I era.
During the 1850s, Dover enjoyed
ing public buildings, offices, and private by Dr. James Sykes, a noted surgeon. A
residences of varied architectural styles later occupant enlarged the structure con- increased prosperity due largely to the
including the Federal, Greek Revival, verting the former row house into a two arrival of the Delaware Railroad and the
story Federal style building. The state gov- introduction of new industries like the
Victorian and Second Empire.
The most famous private residence on the ernment has occupied this historic building Richardson and Robbins canning factory.
New residences, including several large
Green is the Ridgely mansion located on the since the 1950s.
The western side of the Green contains a mansions, were constructed north of
northeastern side. Erected about 1728 it
has remained in family hands until the pres- number of interesting landmarks of differing Loockerman Street in an area which
ent day. The Ridgely house, a two story and architectural styles. The former First Baptist became known as “Bradford City.” A new
attic brick structure, has been enlarged and Church, erected about 1854, features a neighborhood with fashionable residences
remodeled several times in its history. The Palladan window and columned facade, and up-to-date businesses now challenged
east and west walls have been covered with exhibiting Greek Revival characteristics. The the ascendancy of the old Green. Also, the
building is now the home of the Century 20th century witnessed the erection of new
stucco.
government buildings on a mall located to
The Ridgely family has long exercised Club, a local woman’s organization.
Around the corner from the Century Club the east of the old public square.
political, social and economic power in
Old Dover Green, however, remains an
Dover and Delaware. One of the mansion’s is a three-story brick mansion with an Lmost notable occupants was Henry Ridgely wing which for many years in the 19th cen- historic neighborhood unmatched any(1817-1904) whose sister married Charles tury was occupied by the United States where else in Delaware. DQ
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 43
DELMARVA BOOKS
GOING INTO
CHRISTMAS
WITH GREAT
RANGE OF NEW
WORKS
Memoirs, novels, oral
histories and a novel
as sweet as candy cane
BY MARAH COLEMAN
W
ith such an abundance of outstanding books this quarter, it’s
hard to know where to begin.
There’s an astonishing range in subject matter, and the highest standards of scholarship
prevail. Also prevalent is human memory memoir as novel, straight memoir, and oral
history transcribed. Thanks to a quite prolific regional writer previously known for his
character studies and ghost yarns, we have
a Christmas novel as enticing, pure and
sweet as a candy cane.
When dealing with memories and oral
history, it is not the size of the locale that
matters, but the depth of human experience.
Martha A. Burns and Linda S. Hartsock
ably demonstrate this literary tenet in
Voices
of
the Chincoteague:
WINTER 2007
Memories of Greenbackville and
Franklin City (Arcadia $21.99 trade pb).
These are two isolated Delmarva hamlets
the authors describe as being “on the
Chincoteague Bay but not very near anywhere else.” Some newcomers to the peninsula may know the place-names mentioned
in the title by their proximity to the upscale
development Captain’s Cove.
Although Greenbackville was established
in 1867, the sign announcing that point of
pride was donated by a local individual, as
the authors explain:
Having no incorporation, no town council, no mayor, and importantly, no budget,
there are few ways of getting public works
done. Generally, when something happens
for the good of the community it is because
of individual initiative and largesse.
Newcomers to the community, authors
Burns and Hartsock spent four years
researching their book, and their dedication
comes through loud and clear.
Even a reader who has never been near
Greenbackville (or heard the name, for that
matter) can relate to the need for a firehouse and the fundraising effort required to
build and equip it. Womanless beauty pageants were a big crowd-pleaser and ticketseller in the innocent times of the mid-20thcentury, and this book has photos to prove
it.
We love the way the book is organized:
author text and quotes from people interviewed are seamlessly integrated into paragraph form, with italic print indicating a
direct quote. The speaker may not be
named, a tactic the authors used to encourage locals to speak freely. The reader will
learn here exactly how it was working in a
tomato canning factory, women getting
haircuts at the barber shop, people rescuing
their neighbors from floodwaters; and
develop a yen for the local delicacy, homemade pineapple ice cream. Just the idea of
the latter makes us want to attend the next
firehouse fundraiser.
Much broader in theme, but scarcely
deeper in investigative incision is
Maryland Voices of the Civil War
edited by Charles C. Mitchell (Johns
Hopkins University Press $35 hardcover in
dust jacket). The central drama is of course
Maryland’s ambivalence about the national
conflict and the extraordinary measures that
were taken by the Union to keep Maryland
in line. Mitchell draws upon primary
sources like letters, diaries and period
newspapers to show how the war affected
44 • Delmarva Quarterly
Marylanders of all races and walks of life.
In comparison with the first book
reviewed, we were at first a bit put off by
format. This author uses the standard academic method of separating direct quotes
from his text by spacing and indentation.
But the story Mitchell tells is so compelling,
the reader soon adapts to these breaks.
Maryland Voices is organized into three
parts: Indecision, “Occupation,” and
Liberation. We are somewhat puzzled that
the author chose to put the title of the central and most dramatic section of his book
in quotes, as if it were merely a manner of
speaking and not entirely accurate. He uses
the term political prisoner quite freely to
describe the fate of Maryland citizens cruelly detained, often on grounds no more substantial than suspicion.
Judge Richard Carmichael of Queen
County’s Circuit was arrested in Easton
while sitting on the bench. According to
Eastonian W. W. Glenn, Union “soldiers
entered the court while it was in session,
knocked him over the head with the butt of
a pistol and dragged him bleeding and
senseless out of the room.” Women arrested
were generally banished to the South,
rather than imprisoned. Readers will no
doubt find timely these discussions about
suspension of habeas corpus but be reconciled, as Marylanders were, at the war”s
end. Perhaps nowhere was the fall of
Richmond celebrated so grandly as in
Baltimore, where the hardships of war had
been so harshly imposed.
The inestimable Delaware Heritage
Commission has issued a new book in its
Winter 2007
waterman led him to take up pig farming in
his teens. A respected older cousin pointed
out, “they’ll make more money than crabbing, and not just in summer. Farming is a
good way of life and you’re not likely to
drown.”
One time while out hunting squirrels with
his Chesapeake retriever Cindy, the boy
accidentally shot his pup, and there was no
veterinarian available to attend her,
although Terry’s father was willing to pay.
She recovered, thanks to scrapple and
prayer. This trauma taught the author never
to pull the trigger without first determining
where his dog was standing. “Some rabbits
got away because of my hesitation but that
didn’t matter.” It may also have led to his
future career in veterinary medicine, but he
does not belabor the point.
First ventures with girls, proms, highschool hi-jinks, and corporal discipline in
school are all recalled with loving detail, but
the emphasis is always on responsibility
and hard work at an early age.
To the country at large, Delaware may
not come to mind as one of America’s great
maritime states. But along comes journalist,
editor and author Judith Roales with
Delaware Lighthouses and Range
Lights (Arcadia $19.99 trade pb) to elucidate the state’s contribution to maritime
safety. Roales has been an active volunteer
for the Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse
Foundation since its early days and now
serves as the organization’s president. As a
young reporter for the Wilmington Morning
News, she was assigned several stories
about lighthouses, one of which had her on
a Greek freighter sailing down the
Delaware in the dead of night with only
range lights for guidance.
Lighthouses are still American icons, even
in the 21st century, but fewer readers will be
Oral History Series: Pierrre S. Du Pont
IV: Governor of Delaware 19771985 by Larry Nagengast ($17 hardcover/$11 pb). It does not seem so long ago
that Pete du Pont became the first member
of his influential clan to be elected to executive office in Delaware. The book at hand
effortlessly takes the reader back to the era
when the Diamond State’s financial status
was calamitous and its politics even more
Byzantine than today. Nagengast spent 30
years as reporter for the Wilmington NewsJournal, covering the belated desegregation
of Wilmington schools, which was a central
drama of the du Pont administration.
While state government is the primary
focus of Nagengast’s book, he does not
neglect the human dimension. Du Pont’s
wife Elise had her own political career, and
used the same thrift in managing the
Governor’s mansion as her husband did in
bringing fiscal restraint to Delaware.
Starting at Sea Level: A Memoir
(Foggy River Books $24.95) by Terry Noble
is a coming-of-age piece by a doctor of veterinary medicine now living in Montana.
Noble may reside on the other side of the
continent, but his roots are in a 1950s
Chesapeake Bay fishing village and his
memories of years five to eighteen tell of life
on boats - crabbing, oystering and struggling along the waterfront.
The boy’s father was a marine policeman
wounded and partially disabled in the
Oyster Wars between Maryland and
Virginia, which still flared up in the 1950s.
Terry’s determination to escape the financial
uncertainty associated with the life of a
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 45
familiar with range lights. Roales calls these
“leading lights,” which led ships safely
through channels of deep water, “the ordinary workhorses of the lighthouse service in
Delaware.” Range lights are not as aesthetically appealing as lighthouses, but plain
structures like towers from a giant erector
set or even radio towers. Channel lights
were first tried with success in Delaware,
and served as early inspiration for the offshore oil drilling rigs throughout the world.
Like all Arcadia publications, Delaware
Lighthouses is replete with photographs and
illustrations that evoke nostalgia in the reader, a nostalgia that is informed by Roales’
command of her subject matter.
Another new release from the Delaware
Heritage
Commission
is
African
American Education in Delaware: A
History
Through
Photographs
1865-1930 by Bradley Skelcher, Ph.D
($6 soft cover).The 2007 edition is actually
the second printing of this charming book,
with new material added to the 1999 first
edition. The author is Professor of History
and Acting Dean of the College of
Humanities and Sciences at Delaware State
University. He has a special interest in architectural history, and the archive of photographs at Hagley Museum provides a natural organizing framework for his narrative.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Quakers
and Methodists, with the support of the
Freedmen’s Bureau, organized as the
Delaware Association for the Moral
Improvement and Education of Colored
People to begin planning an educational
system for the sizeable minority population
in Delaware.
In retrospect, it is remarkable that there
were as many of these small community
schools as there were, even in places like
Viola and Buttonwood, which are barely
specks on the map. By the end of the 19th
century, there were over 80 Delaware
schools for young black scholars. Although
a former slave state, Delaware had an
established industrial system with a trained
work force; the emphasis here was not on
the Booker T. Washington “bootstrap”
model, but on a classical liberal-arts education along the lines of that practiced in New
England. The minority communities were
insistent, however, on instruction regarding
abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.
The adventures of an adolescent male are
told with a considerably less earnest and
more sardonic tone in College Days:
Tales of the Jazz Age (Talbot County
Free Library Association $17.95) by Gilbert
46 • Delmarva Quarterly
Byron. This is the third volume in the
author’s “Noah Marlin Trilogy,” a work of
thoroughly delightful fiction based on
Byron’s early experiences. Here we find
Noah a freshman at Washington College in
Chestertown where he grew up. Noah’s a
slightly built but scrappy youngster by comparison with his mates “Hungry” Marlin,
“Bull” Coble, and “Gravy” Munson. The
boys are always smoking imported Murad
cigarettes, jamming on tunes like
“Mademoiselle from Armentiers” and
“Darktown Strutters Ball”, climbing the firetower, and poaching baked goods at midnight from the display at the county fair.
A trip across the bay to shoot hoops
against the Middies of the U.S. Naval
Academy at Annapolis is a highlight of the
book, especially since the Eastern Shore
team was victorious. Things really get interesting when our hero develops a budding
relationship with Adeline Lewis, the frisky
daughter of a Methodist minister who is the
first girl in town to wear blue jeans. Soon
after that, he meets and becomes enchanted
with Natasha, a Russian immigrant who has
come to town with her Bohemian mother.
But the girls seem to prefer each other’s intimate companionship - what’s a boy to do?
Like every college freshman, Noah learns
most of his lessons outside the classroom.
toric fantasy after the manner of Jean Auel,
and another is set in the Middle East. But
Delmarva is the default background, a land
where mules and motorcycles (not to mention cone bras) are commonplace. We
especially liked the contribution from Andy
Nuñez, with whose non-fiction work we are
familiar.
Mules, Motorcycles, and Memories: Stories, Poetry and Art from
the Eastern Shore (Cambridge Books
$18) is an anthology organized by The
Writers Bloc, with a distinguished Delmarva
membership. One of the stories is a pre-his-
In the spirit of the Christmas season, Ed
Okonowicz has come forth with a novel that
is highly original, well-crafted and memorable. Ed is known for his interest in the
spooky supernatural, but in Gold,
Frankincense & Myrrh: A Tale of
Winter 2007
Love, Magic and a Miracle or Two
($11.95 trade pb), he delves into the sacred
supernatural. The book is published under
Ed’s own imprint, Myst & Lace Publishing;
the plot revolves around unlikely hero Joey
Novak, a blue-collar fireman with family in
Philly. Joey’s life is miraculously changed
when he discovers an old suitcase containing the gold coins presented by the Three
Kings to the Christ Child. The reader eagerly tags along with Joey, meeting the colorful
characters Joey encounters as he tries to
solve the mystery of the sacred treasure.
From historic Jewelers’ Row and corporate
boardrooms to the family saloon, the
Welcome Inn, Joey somehow manages to
live up to the challenge of his new role as
Keeper of the Coins and find personal
redemption along the way.
Each of these books is the best kind of
gift— a labor of love; thanks, writers! DQ
CONTACT THEM
www.arcadiapublishing.com
www.press.jhu.edu
http://heritage.delaware.gov
www.foggyriverbooks.com
www.tcfl.org
www.cambridgebooks.us
www.mystandlace.com
DELMARVA
CLASSICS
Gilbert Byron:
Thoreau of the Chesapeake
BY WILLIAM AMELIA
A
s readers of this space know, “classics” of Delmarva literature have
been the exclusive subjects of this
column. For our purposes, a “classic” is
defined as an enduring literary masterpiece
of the region that has entertained and
enlightened readers.
This column, however, features the writer
and his writings. The writer is Gilbert Byron,
(1903-1991), a native of the Eastern Shore
who has been called the “Chesapeake
Thoreau.” The distinction has been wellearned. His body of work is unparalleled
and historians credit Byron with having
authored the largest single collection of
works about the bay region.
A waterman’s son, Gilbert Byron grew up
in Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern
Shore. A graduate of Washington College,
(1923, B.A. History), he taught school in
Delmarva Quarterly
Maryland and Delaware for 28 years. Like
Thoreau he lived in a cabin, a rustic structure that he built himself and added on to
over the years. It was built on property
which he purchased - three lots (what
remarkable foresight) - at Old House Cove,
on San Domingo Creek, near St. Michael’s.
Now established and settled, he left teaching and began writing full time in 1957. His
literary production - released over decades
by small regional presses as well as the
familiar national publishers - was high in
quality and volume. My personal and unofficial count of Byron’s bibliography numbers
17 books with countless articles, essays,
poems and criticism appearing in regional
and national periodicals.
As writers are often advised, he wrote
about what he knew, the people, places and
rituals of the region.
In his youth, he often worked long, hard
days with his waterman father. Breaking
from their labors, they would pause for a
“gam” - a chat on the Shore - with oystermen and crabbers and captains of the white
schooners that sailed between the Chester
River and Baltimore. The rich vernacular of
these Chesapeake men was retrieved years
later by Byron. These memories, augmented
by his imagination, would become scenes in
his books.
A good list of Byron’s full body of work is
included in his “Chesapeake Seasons,”
though the interested reader can start with
any title and be rewarded. Following are
some selections which in my opinion are
representative, have broad appeal and
reflect Byron’s love and knowledge of the
Eastern Shore region.
“The Lord’s Oysters” - In an interview about the book, Byron recalled:
“Before I learned to read, my mother would
read to me after Dad had come home from
the river and would stretch out on the couch
to listen.” In Byron’s retrieved memories,
there is something of Twain and Tarlington
that comes through in this nationally
acclaimed classic of life on the shore. The
Saturday Review wrote, “Literally a wonderful book.”
“Done Crabbin’: Noah Leaves
The River “ - A long-awaited sequel to
the above classic, “The Lord’s Oysters.”
“The Sight of a Marsh Hawk” Byron employs the poetic form of Japanese
haiku to present a seasonal view of his little
world of San Domingo Creek and Old
House Cove. Includes Byron’s memorial
poem, “Once Upon an Anniversary,” for the
350th birthday celebration of Lewes,
Delaware, where the author taught high
school as a young man.
“Early Explorations of the
Chesapeake Bay” — “Nowhere else,”
a reviewer wrote, “will be found as concise
a statement of the thrilling age of coastal
exploration in our area.” This account was
suggested by Byron out of his knowledge of
the needs in high schools, though it is also
written for the general public.
“Sunbathing
With
The
Professors” - Poems of the Eastern
Shore. Nation Magazine wrote, “A humane
and captivating view of the fishermen and
townspeople of Byron’s Eastern Shore.” This
collection shows the importance of small
regional publishers in bringing out the fine
work which major publishers often ignore.
“Chesapeake Duke” - This was
Byron’s first book for young people. The
theme is a boy and his dog - a subject of
universal appeal. It covers the first year in
the life of Duke, a loyal Chesapeake Bay
Retriever who saves the life of his young
master.
“St. Michaels: The Town That
Fooled The British” - A complete
account of the British attacks on St. Michaels
during the War of 1812.
Remembering and honoring the author’s
work is the objective of The Gilbert Byron
Society, founded in 1991. In the Society’s
words, its aim is to cultivate an awareness
and appreciation of literature and the environment through perpetuating the author’s
life, work and legacy.
The Society is a subcommitee of the
board of trustees of the Pickering Creek
Audubon Center, where Byron’s cabin has
been relocated and is being restored.
Early this year, the tenth annual “Bay to
Ocean Writers’ Conference,” held at
Chesapeake College, dedicated the event to
Byron Gilbert. Chesapeake College also
houses the Byron Collection, a valuable
archive of his works. DQ
Winter 2007 • 47
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Winter 2007
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~ DECEMBER ~
ARDEN
December 5: Folk dancing with Donna Abed. 7:309:30 p.m. Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 302478-7257.
December 7: Contra Dance with David Knight (fiddle), Dave Wiesler (piano), with Tori Barone calling. 811 p.m. Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 302478-7257.
December 9: Israeli dancing with Sharon Kleban. 79 p.m. Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 302-4787257.
December 12: Dave Brown (SQ caller) & Liz
Dubravcic (folk dance leader) 7:30-9:30 p.m. Arden
Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 302-478-7257.
ARDENTOWN
December 31: New Year’s Eve Gala. What are you
doing New Year’s Eve...Too early to think about the holidays? Pshaw! New Year’s Eve at The New Candlelight
Theatre is an event that is not to be missed. Last year it
impressed the most seasoned of “first-nighters” and
raised the bar for the NCT staff to ring in 2008 louder
and classier than year’s past. With an evening of
scrumptious fare, show stopping entertainment starring
Candlelight favorites, champagne toasts and lively entertainment with special guest, radio personality Dana
McDonald from the WSTW morning show, New Year’s
Eve will impress and astonish you and your guests for
years to come! The New Candlelight Theatre, 2208
Millers Road. 302-475-2313.
BERLIN
December 1: Bell Choir Performance. Enjoy the
sounds of the bells as they fill the streets with holiday
music. 1-2 p.m. Atlantic Hotel. 410-641-4775.
December 1-31: Exhibit. Gloria Young Smith.
Pastels & Watercolors. Reception, December 8, 6-8
p.m. Waters Edge Gallery. 410-629-1784.
December 2: Holiday House Tour. Tour some of
Berlin’s finest homes decorated for the holidays and stroll
the streets of this charming historic town. 12:30-5 p.m.
410-641-0629.
December 3: Classical Christmas Dinner & Concert.
A candlelit evening of classical music at the Taylor House
Museum followed by a gourmet dinner at Berlin’s newest
restaurant, Solstice. Dinner seatings at 6 & 8 p.m. 410641-1019.
December 7, 14, 21 & 28: Berlin Farmers Market.
Local farmers. Fresh produce, seafood, bedding plants,
herbs, eggs, flowers. 12-6 p.m. Corner of West and
Main Streets. 410-641-4775.
December 8-29: Victorian Christmas in Berlin. Life
size animated story book window displays, Horse and
Carriage rides, breakfast with Santa, concerts,
Christmas Parade, house tours, Victorian Fashion show
and Victorian teas. Visit Santa on the weekends at the
Atlantic Hotel. 410-641-4775.
BETHANY BEACH
December 1: Quiet Resorts Charitable Foundation
Caribbean Christmas. Put on your favorite “island casual” clothes and come out for a great night while sup-
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porting local charities. Enjoy delicious food and drinks
from local restaurants, live music, dancing, silent auctions and loads of fun! Proceeds will benefit Habitat for
Humanity, Interfaith Mission of Sussex County, the Ryan
Scott Kappes Foundation, the Justin W. Jennings
Foundation, the William O. Murray Scholarship Fund,
and the Quiet Resorts Charitable Foundation. 7-11 p.m.
Mango’s on the boardwalk at Garfield Parkway. 302539-2100.
BOZMAN
December 5: Tiny Tots Program. Participate with
your 2-5 year old in Audubon Maryland-DC’s Tiny Tot
programs and experience nature through hands-on
activities, stories, crafts, mini-hikes, and much more.
Mammal Tracking. Whose footprints are those? Let’s
explore the woods and look for paw prints on the
ground! Many animals are active during the winter.
Let’s learn who is awake and who is hibernating! 10-11
a.m. Jean Ellen duPont Shehan Audubon Sanctuary.
410-745-9283.
December 13: Winter Waterfowl. Join expert bird
watcher Les Roslund of the Talbot Bird Club as he leads
an informative bird walk along the shorelines of the
Sanctuary. Early morning is the prime time for hearing
and spotting many species of migrating waterfowl.
Bring a pair of binoculars or borrow a pair of ours.
7:30-11:30 a.m. Jean Ellen duPont Shehan Audubon
Sanctuary. 410-745-9283.
CAMBRIDGE
December 1: Cambridge-Dorchester Christmas
Parade. One of Maryland’s largest Christmas parades.
Historic Downtown. 410-228-3092.
December 1: Christmas Open House. Book signings,
demonstrations, children’s programs, story telling,
refreshments, and Eagle’s Nest Book sales. 8 a.m.
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. 410-228-2677.
December 1-6:
Annual Festival of Wreaths.
Featuring a display of handmade seasonal and decorative wreaths for sale to the public. Pleasant Day Medical
Adult Day Care. 410-228-0190.
December 1, 9 & 16: Bird Walk. Come out to
Blackwater NWR for a guided bird watching trip around
the refuge led by an experienced birder. All bird walks
begin at 8 a.m. at the Blackwater Visitor Center. Bring
field guides and binoculars, and dress appropriately.
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge.
December 1-30: Christmas Garden of Trains.
Annual holiday-themed train garden display.
Cambridge Rescue Fire Company. 410-228-4313.
December 2: Church Creek Breakfast. Breakfast at
the Church Creek Fire Hall-all you can eat. 7:30-11:30
a.m. Church Creek Fire Department. 410-228-1000.
December 5: Food Lore: Folklore’s Fascinating Role
in Regional Cuisine. Foodways, the cultural traditions
wrapped up in our eating habits, are a widely overlooked, but key ingredient of folklore. With his colorful
and entertaining stories, Ed Okonowicz captures the
appeal of well-known Maryland delicacies and dining
customs to illustrate the influence of the region on foodways - and foodways on their region. With audience
participation, Okonowicz will explore how the selection,
handling, presentation, and consumption of food reveal
its importance in our family, cultural, and religious traditions. The audience will be asked to describe their own
family holiday foodway traditions. Ed Okonowicz teaches folklore, journalism, and communication courses at
the University of Delaware . He is the author of 23 books
and also a well known storyteller of folk tales, legends,
myths and contemporary stories. The audience is
encouraged to bring a favorite holiday recipe and a
story about a family food tradition. 7 p.m. South
Dorchester Folk Museum & Robbins Heritage Center
Dorchester County Historical Society, 902 LaGrange
Ave. 410-228-7953.
December 8: Second Saturday. Downtown merchants
stay open later, offering themed evenings of fun for all
ages. Buying local helps keep our economy strong.
Downtown Cambridge offers clothes, shoes, home
accessories, chocolate, wines, fresh produce, jewelry,
and more! Please support our local merchants and enjoy
a night of shopping and dining in historic Downtown
Cambridge. 5 p.m. 410-228-1000.
December 9: Annual Holiday Candlelight Tour.
Features decorated homes in various communities such
as Cambridge, Church Creek, Woolford and Taylor’s
Island. 410-221-7868.
December 23-24: Bonnie Brook Luminary Display.
110 homes illuminated throughout the Bonnie Brook
community for the Christmas holiday. 410-376-3563.
CAPE CHARLES
December 1-31: Holiday Show. Fine Arts & Unique
Gifts. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Stage Door Gallery, 303 Mason
Ave. 757-331-3669.
December 8-9: Rebecca’s Grotto, A Christmas Play
by Sheila Cardano. Sat. 8 p.m. Sun. 3 p.m. Arts Enter
Cape Charles/Historic Palace Theatre. 757-331-2787.
December 19: Holiday Concert. David Leonhardt
Jazz Group with the Shelley Oliver Tap Dancers. 7:30
p.m. Arts Enter Cape Charles/Historic Palace Theatre.
757-331-2787.
CECILTON
December 8: Holiday Open House. Crafts, refreshments, poinsettias & houseplants all in time for Christmas
decorating. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Priapi Gardens; 5996
Augustine Herman Hwy. 410-275-9438.
CENTREVILLE (DE)
December 7-31: - Tim Simboli & The Art of GiftGiving. Tim’s pastel originals do not last long on our
walls, getting quickly scooped up by local collectors. The
soft light and luminous atmosphere draw the viewer into
his wooded pathways or Italian vistas. A Philadelphia
regional artist, Tim Simboli is a fourth generation
painter, born into a family immersed in the arts. His
great-grandfather, Pietro, studied fine arts in Rome and
worked as a muralist, painter and sculptor in the United
States . Pietro’s son, Ray, was a painting professor at
Carnegie-Mellon University . Tim’s father, Joseph
Simboli, was one of three grandchildren who became
professional artists. He and his wife, Gerry, graduated
from the University of the Arts and established Simboli
Design. Tim’s sister, Sara, is a professional artist based
in New York City . Raised in a creative atmosphere, Tim
began to draw at an early age. He became interested in
landscape painting while studying with the master
painter, Tom Bostelle. He graduated with a degree in
Fine Arts from Temple University ‘s Tyler School of Art.
Following in the footsteps of his great grandfather, Tim
spent time abroad studying painting in Rome , where he
worked extensively in landscape. This work appeared in
several shows in Rome and in a one-man show in the
United States upon his return. Tim has worked in a variety of mediums, but is attracted to pastel, which lends
itself to the richness of color he uses to depict light and
shadow. Along with a number of private art collections,
Tim has been commissioned to paint landscapes for a
show at Longwood Gardens and has contributed to the
Ecumenical World Conference. In 2002, Tim was
inducted into the Creative Artists Network of
Winter 2007 • 49
DELMARVA EVENTS
Philadelphia. His work has been exhibited at the
Creative Artists Network Gallery, as well as in additional shows in Philadelphia , in Bryn Mawr and at the
Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore . Tim Simboli was
invited to be a member of the Philadelphia Watercolor
Society and was elected to the Board of Directors in the
fall of 2003. This show will have something for everyone in the spirit of the “gift-giving” season. Plan on
including Hardcastle Gallery is your holiday shopping
and join us to meet the artist on Friday, December 7th
from 5:30 -8:30 pm. Hardcastle Gallery, 5714 Kennett
Pike. 302-655-5230.
CENTREVILLE (MD)
December 2: Queen Anne Chorale - Christmas concert. Enjoy a double concert entitled “Double Your
Pleasure: in collaboration with the Central Maryland
Chorale, directed by Monica Otal. Celebrating its 20th
anniversary season, the Queen Anne’s Chorale (55voice community chorus), is noted for its excellent musicianship and innovative concerts and has performed in
Queen Anne’s, Talbot, Kent and Anne Arundel counties.
Directed by Robert Huntington. 4 p.m. Queen Anne’s
County High School.
December 7: Centreville Christmas Parade. This is an
annual event that ushers in the holiday season with
bright lights, marching bands, floats, horses, walking
groups and an abundance of fire and rescue vehicles.
6:30 p.m. Commerce Street. 410-758-1180.
December 8: Heck! With the Malls Call for Artists
Centreville, Md., A fun-filled alternative to Holiday
Shopping. In its eleventh year, this annual event is a day
that features hand-crafted and fine art items by area
artists, and allows shoppers to enjoy hassle-free shopping. Past years have included items such as jewelry,
hand-made clothing and accessories, watercolors, soaps
and lotions, prints, oil paintings, painted glassware,
dried flowers and wreaths, swags, ceramics, munchies,
holiday decorations, post cards, note cards, and much
more. The event continues to include table space at St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church on Liberty Street. Downtown
businesses will be participating too by providing Heck!
customers with discounts, treats and other activities
throughout the day. Babies in Bloom & Blooming Deals,
An Optical Galleria, An Eastridge Garden, Mercantile
Eastern Shore Bank, Delmarva Financial Group,
Edwards Pharmacy, Western Auto, and LaBelle Maison
are some of the downtown businesses joining in the fun.
9 a.m.-2 p.m. QAC Arts Council Centre for the Arts &
St. Pauls Church. 410-758-2520.
December 8: Yuletide Walking Tour of Historic
Centreville. Walking Tour of more than a dozen private
homes & historic sites in National Register Historic
District. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 410-758-3010.
December 15: “A Holiday Celebration” Dance Party
featuring ballroom dancing and a student showcase with
Amanda Showell. 7-11 p.m. The Centre for the Arts.
410-758-2520.
CHESAPEAKE CITY
December 8: Sinking Springs Festive Christmas Tea
with Lunch. Catch the Christmas Spirit in a 250-yearold farm house full of tradition. Two sittings: 11-12:30
and 12:30-2 p.m. 410-398-5566.
December 8: Candlelight House Tour. Enjoy a 19th
Century Christmas in this beautiful village. This walking
tour will feature private homes, churches, and bed and
breakfast. Special feature will be The Hersch Iron
Museum. Victorian carolers and carriage rides will also
put you in the holiday mood. Supporting “TOYS FOR
TOTS 2007.” Toy or cash donation accepted and greatly appreciated. 6-9 p.m. 443-553-0071 or 410-8852781.
December 8: Almost History Annual Open House
and Holiday Shopping. Hors D’oeuvres, Crab Dip,
Holiday Cookies, Vegetables & Fruits with Dip, Mulling
50 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
Spices and much more! 1-10 p.m. 222 Bohemia Ave.
CHESTERTOWN
December 1: Holiday Show and Sale. A potpourri of
original work for sale at reasonable prices. Artworks,
306 Park Row. 410-778-6300.
December 6: Tree of Lights Ceremony. 5:30 p.m.
Chester River Hospital Center. 410-778-7668.
December 7: Home For The Holidays. Two Friday
nights set aside to give you extra holiday shopping time.
Downtown Chestertown shops extend their hours to
make shopping locally more convenient. And, it’s just
more fun shopping under the sparkling lights of downtown.
December 7: Editor Jaques Baker. Gilbert Byron’s
last book has just been published and the editor, Jacques
Baker, will be at Bookplate to discuss its long road to
publication. Titled Tales of the Jazz Age, the last book of
his fictional trilogy that started with The Lord’s Oysters
and continued with Done Crabbin’, Byron writes about
his life in Chestertown while attending Washington
College during the period of World War I. Baker, a long
time friend and caregiver to Byron, knows his subject
intimately. He will give a short presentation and answer
any questions you may have regarding Gilbert Byron
and Chestertown life during this era in American history. 6 p.m. Bookplate Book Store.
December 7: Found Object Jewelry Trunk Show.
Jewelry artist Anne Quinlan offers a trunk show of her
one-of-a-kind jewelry - bracelets, necklaces, earrings designed in precious metals and semi-precious stones
intermixed with antique and vintage found objects - buttons, pottery shards, paper fragments, charms, carved
pieces. Each an exquisite creation. Antiques on
Cannon. 410-778-1138.
December 7: 1st Friday Luminaria. 1st Friday holiday luminaria will be decorated by local school children.
Come out to see their fine artwork! Dusk-8 p.m. 410778-5513.
December 7-29: Chestertown Arts League Still Lifes.
Works will highlight strong composition and values
through the arrangement of inanimate objects.
Chestertown Arts League, 312 Cannon St. 410-7785789.
December 8: Holiday House Tour of Chestertown and
Kent County. The 24th annual tour of 18th, 19th and
20th century homes and public buildings, decorated for
the holidays. 1-5 p.m. 410-778-6890.
December 8: The Rock Creek Chamber Players
2007-2008 Chamber Music Series. Cong Fan, piano
and Michael Strauss, viola. St. Paul’s Parish Hall.
December 14 & 16: A Family Holiday Musical
Celebration. A family holiday musical celebration with
Joe Holt and Friends. A new holiday concert based on
Joe’s new collection of holiday albums beginning with
his 2006 release “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Fri. 8
p.m. Sun. 3 p.m. The Prince Theatre, 210 High St.
410-810-2060.
December 15: Most Creative Gingerbread Cookie
Contest. Bring a decorated gingerbread cookie or cut
and decorate a cookie you have made from paper or fun
foam or color one of our cookies the day of the contest.
All children will be recognized for their achievement. 11
a.m.-12 p.m. Fountain Park/ Near Santa’s House.
December 16: Free Holiday Concert: Eastern Shore
Wind Ensemble. The all-ages community concert band
based in Chestertown (with members from a wider area)
will present a free-admission concert of holiday-season
music. The ESWE is directed by Dr. Keith Wharton and
welcomes new members at any time. 4 p.m. Emmanuel
Church, Cross & High St. 410-778-2829 or 410-8101834.
CHINCOTEAGUE
December 1:
Chincoteague Old-Fashioned
Christmas Parade. Floats, marching bands, Fire
Companies from all around the Eastern Shore, and spe-
cial visit from Santa. 757-336-6161.
December 8:
“Art Stroll” on Chincoteague.
Participating galleries and shops throw open their doors
for an island-wide open house for arts and crafts lovers.
Demonstrations, exhibits, readings, book signings, live
music, wine tasting, and more swirl around you in a lively street scene that will capture your senses and stimulate
your creativity. 6-10 p.m. 757-336-5636.
CRISFIELD
December 8: Crisfield Christmas Parade. 6 p.m.
Main St. 410-968-2500.
December 8: McTavish’s “Olde Town Market” 10
a.m.-2 p.m. 907 W. Main St. 410-968-2968 or 443735-2567.
DAGSBORO
December 6: Longaberger Basket Bingo to benefit the
Delaware Chapter of the March of Dimes. Doors open
at 5:30 p.m. Games begin at 7 p.m. Dagsboro Fire
Hall, 31818 Waples St. 302-934-6777.
DOVER
December 1: Victorian Christmas Arts & Crafts. 1-4
p.m. The Delaware Agricultural Museum, 866 N.
DuPont Highway. 302-734-1618.
December 1: Biggs Kids. Linoleum Block Printing in
conjunction with our new Greetings From Delaware
exhibition. Each child will make their own holiday greeting card to decorate a tree in the Museum, as well as
one to take home for their own trees. A free program
for children ages 5-10. This program is designed to
enrich children’s understanding of art in the world
around them. 2-3:30 p.m. Biggs Museum of American
Art, 406 Federal St. 302-674-2111.
December 1: Artist Workshop/ Relief Printing 121:30 p.m. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal
St. 302-674-2111.
December 1-2: Through a Child’s Eyes. “She Loves
Me”. Christmas musical. Dig into history at the
Delaware Archeology Museum. Visit Harrington for the
annual Christmas Parade, then skate on ice at the Centre
at Harrington: simulate piloting at the Air Mobility
Command Museum and then discover “who dun it” at
the Delaware State Police Museum. 302-734-1736.
December 1-31: Barrel Gallery Exhibit. “Eye to the
Sky: Climate and Crops” Discover how farmers, past
and present, anticipate changing weather.
The
Delaware Agricultural Museum, 866 N. DuPont
Highway. 302-734-1618.
December 1-31:
“My Favorite Christmas
Remembered”. Personal stories of a singular time. The
Delaware Agricultural Museum, 866 N. DuPont
Highway. 302-734-1618.
December 1-31: From Four Studios: First State
Modernism Exhibition. This exhibition features a longawaited glimpse into the fine art collections of the State
of Delaware, and celebrates and highlights gifts to the
State from the private studios of four major Delaware
artists. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St.
302-674-2111.
December 1-31: Greetings from Delaware: The Jann
Haynes Gilmore and Joyce B. Puckett Collection of Artist
Greeting Cards. Exhibition and launch of exhibition catalog. This exhibition features hand-made greeting cards
by some of the most important Delaware and American
artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Children
and family activities will be offered with this exhibition.
Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St. 302674-2111.
December 1-31:
‘Celebrate the Season’ in
Delaware’s Capital Region. Visit Delaware’s Capital
Region to “Celebrate the Season.” You’ll experience the
holiday season in the Capital of the First State including
live performances, Chocolate festival, Wine and Music
Festival, Delaware Book Festival, fresh cut Christmas
trees and tax free shopping. Special lodging packages
Winter 2007
DELMARVA EVENTS
available. 800-233-5368.
December 4-31: “Make ‘Home Place’ Your Place for
the Holidays:” John Dickinson Plantation’s Holiday
Display. Holiday display featuring decorative re-creations of traditional 18th Century foods including syllabub, moon and stars in jelly, ham pie, and hen’s nest.
John Dickinson Plantation, 340 Kitts Hummock Road.
December 7: Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas.
Tomaseen Foley, storyteller, recreates the joy and innocence of a night before Christmas in a remote farmhouse
set in Western Ireland. There, neighbors gather around
the fire to grace the long wintry night with the laughter
of their stories, the joy of their music and dances they
always said they were much too old for. Return to the
days before the motor car, television and telephone and
spend an evening with Tomaseen Foley. Schwartz
Center for the Arts, 226 South State Street. 302-6785152.
December 7-8: A Farmer’s Christmas. Great Family
Fun. Take part in a Victorian Christmas, activities, music,
demonstrations in a Lantern Lit Village. Fri. 6-9 p.m.
Sat. 3-9 p.m. The Delaware Agricultural Museum, 866
N. DuPont Highway. 302-734-1618.
December 7-9: Seasons Greetings Weekend.
Chocolate lovers will get their fix at the annual Chocolate
Festival; Holiday Walking Tour; “A Farmer’s Christmas”
at the Delaware Agricultural Museum; holiday open
house at the Governor’s Mansion; fresh cut trees from 12
local Christmas tree farms; tax-free holiday shopping;
art film at the Schwartz Center and visit art galleries
downtown Dover. 302-734-1736.
December 13-14: SCROOGE! A musical adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, is a
true family event in the theatre. The timeless story, with
script and lyrics by Ken Skrzesz and music by Doug
Yetter, takes the audience through the streets of 1850
London where Ebenezer Scrooge learns lessons of generosity through his interactions with ghosts, relatives and
a young boy with a crutch, Tiny Tim Cratchit.
SCROOGE! is an annual event that you won’t want to
miss. Schwartz Center for the Arts, 226 South State
Street. 302-678-5152.
EASTON
December 1: “Handmade from the Heart” holiday art
and gift sale featuring over twenty exhibitors, 10 a.m.-3
p.m. Evergreen Cove, 770 Port St, Easton. 410-8193395.
December 1: Olde Tyme Holiday Parade. See all of
your parade favorites; fire trucks, local celebrities, children of all ages and costumed characters march all
around Downtown Easton. 6:30-7:30 p.m.
December 1,2,6,7, 8: Arthouse Live. “Brooklyn
Boy” - One of theater’s strongest current writers, Donald
Marguiles has won a number of awards for his plays
over the years, including a Pulitzer for Dinner With
Friends. Brooklyn Boy is his most current text and perhaps his most touching. “The rewards of success and
fame are weighed with poignant complexity in Donald
Margulies’ midlife reflection, which traces a suddenly
celebrated writer’s unwitting struggle to reconnect with
his past.” Brooklyn Boy is illuminated by sensitivity and
humor, by sparkling naturalistic dialogue and by the
grace with which it extends a deeply personal story into
a universal realm.” -Variety. Historical Society of Talbot
County Auditorium.
December 1-5: Tim Bell. New work by the Grand
Prize Winner of Plein Air-Easton! 2006; and People’s
Choice and Utrecht Award winner of Plein Air-Easton!
2007. South Street Art Gallery, 5 South St. 410-7708350.
December 1-31: Troika’s 10th Anniversary Show.
Featuring new work from its 34 regional, national and
international artists. Troika Gallery, 9 S. Harrison St.
410-770-9190.
December 6-31: Diane DuBois Mullaly. Twenty
miniature oil paintings, fresh from Diane’s studio, creat-
Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
ed especially for our gallery! And Ed Cooper, Bethanne
Kinsella Cople, Sara Linda Poly and Nancy Tankersley
Works from the September 2007 French Workshop.
Opening Reception, December 7, 5-9 p.m. South Street
Art Gallery, 5 South St. 410-770-8350.
December 7: First Friday Gallery Walk. Enjoy the
exhibits at galleries, shops and restaurants in downtown
Easton during the evening event. Refreshments and discussion are available at several galleries and many
stores stay open late, so plan to make an evening of it!
5-9 p.m. Easton Town Center. 410-820-8822.
December 7: Moonlight Madness. Celebrate
December’s First Friday Gallery Walk with special discounts and holiday merchandise, music and holiday
cheer at the downtown shops and galleries. As you shop
in Downtown Easton and earn chances to win $1,000 in
spending cash or other great prizes. Drawing will be
held in the Avalon Theatre at 10 p.m. Holiday music
and fun will be provided. Avalon Theatre. 9-10:30
p.m. 410-822-7299.
December 7-31: The Artist Revealed. Artist Portraits
and Self-Portraits (In Partnership with Syracuse
University). An artist’s portrait, like all good portraits,
offers the viewer more than physical features. One sees
the characteristics of the sitter that make that person a
unique individual. All artists are involved with, or have a
heightened interest in, creative pursuits which makes
them interesting candidates for portrait subjects. On the
other hand, a self-portrait is an artist’s opportunity to
make a statement. Traditional portraiture, especially
commissioned ones, often came with expectations that
the image be a favorable likeness of the sitter. Self-portraiture removed those restrictions enabling artists to be
more experimental. This exhibition brings together fifty
works in a variety of media that examine self-portraits
and portraits of other artists. Included in the show are
works by Milton Avery, Chuck Close, Leonard Baskin,
Edward Steichen, Norman Rockwell and Anders Zorn.
Sitters include James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Eakins,
Charlie Chaplin, C.S. Lewis and Pablo Casals.
Academy Art Museum, 106 South St. 410-822-ARTS.
December 8: Arts in Easton Banner Auction. The
beautiful banners, produced by local artists that have
been decorating the streets of Easton since July, go up
for silent and live auctions for one night only. Enjoy
drinks, goodies and the company of friends while bidding on these one-of-a-kind works of art. 7-9 p.m.
Academy Art Museum, 106 South St. 410-822-2787.
December 8: “Holiday Open-Mike Readings” of
Eastern Shore writers and poets. The Eastern Shore
Writers’ Association welcomes all writers to its winter
meetings. Programs are free and open to the public. An
optional lunch follows, allowing guests to mingle with
other writers and the speaker. 11 a.m. Waterview Grill
Restaurant at Easton Club, 28449 Clubhouse Dr. 410745-6938.
December 8-9: Easton Choral Arts Society. Sat. 8
p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410924-8710.
December 8 & 15: Photos with Santa. Tell Santa
Claus all of your holiday wishes and get your picture
taken too. 2-4 p.m. Tidewater Inn Lobby.
December 14: Best of Broadway. Andrew Lloyd
Weber Tribute. 8 p.m. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St.
410-822-7299.
December 15: Maggie Sansone’s Celtic Sounds of the
Season. 8 p.m. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410822-7299.
December 16: Holiday Movies on the “Big Screen”.
Drop off your kids (and finish up your holiday shopping), or join them to enjoy holiday classics like “Frosty
the Snowman”, “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town”,
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, and “Little Drummer
Boy” (children under 5 must be accompanied by an
adult). 3-5 p.m. Historical Society Auditorium.
December 20: Men’s Shopping Night. Stores will be
open late with women’s wish lists on hand, advice for the
lost and plenty of holiday “cheer” on hand to help men
find the perfect gift this holiday season. Downtown
Easton. 5-8:30 p.m.
December 22: Caroling at The Avalon. Avalon
Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410-822-7299.
December 31: First Night Talbot. 6 p.m.-Midnight.
Various locations throughout Town Center including the
Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410-820-8822.
ELKTON
December 7:
Remembrance Tree Ceremony.
Individuals and families can write the name of a loved
one on a bow and place it on an evergreen tree that will
be on the porch of the Foundation office. Refreshments
will be served. 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. At 12:45 p.m. there
will be a brief ceremony. Northern Chesapeake Hospice
Foundation, 229 E. Main. 410-392-0254.
December 7: Old Fashioned Christmas with “The
Hollingsworths”. Victorian Christmas complete with decorations, refreshments, caroling; & “T’was the Night
Before Christmas” read by Zebulon Hollingsworth to his
children. Historic Elk Landing. 410-620-6400.
December 7-8: Young People’s Theatre Program Curtain Call. 7:30 p.m. Elkton Station, 107 Railroad
Ave. Performing Arts Hall. 410-392-3366.
December 8: Third Annual Old Fashioned Christmas
with the Hollingsworths open house and tour. See and
hear about how the Hollingsworths celebrated the
Christmas holidays in the 18th and 19th centuries. The
first floor will be decorated in a colonial American style
and the second floor will be decorated in a Victorian
style. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Historic Elkton Landing. 410620-6400.
December 8: Festive Christmas Lunch. 130-acre historic farm near Chesapeake City; guided tour of farmhouse, Colonial decorations; buffet lunch. 11 a.m.-2
p.m. Sinking Springs Herb Farm, 843 Elk Forest Rd,
Elkton. 410-398-5566.
December 9-10, 16-17 & 22-23: Santa and
Mrs. Claus. Bring your letter to Santa, sit on his lap and
have a picture taken by Mrs. Claus. 1495 Appleton Rd.
11 a.m.-3 p.m. 410-398-1349.
December 12-14: “8th Annual Photography Show”.
Photography exhibition sponsored by the Cecil County
Arts Council, 135 E. Main Street. Gallery Hours: MonFri. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. & Tues Evening 6-8 p.m. 410-3925740.
December 13: Eat Your Arts! (Student performers).
12-1 p.m. Elkton Station, 107 Railroad Ave. 410-3923366.
December 14-15: Young People’s Theatre Program Places Everyone. 7:30 p.m. Elkton Station, 107
Railroad Ave. Performing Arts Hall. 410-392-3366.
GALENA
December 2: Galena Christmas Tree Lighting. Tree
lighting, Christmas Carols, Kent County Band performs
at Galena Town Hall, while children visit with Santa. 7
p.m. Galena Town Hall. 410-648-5151.
December 9: Galena Vol. Fire Co. All-You-Can-Eat
Breakfast Buffet. Breakfast With Santa. 7:30 -11 a.m.
Galena Fire Hall.
GEORGETOWN (DE)
December 1-2: Delaware Hospice Festival of Trees
2007 Gala and Auction. Usher in the holiday season
with this annual fundraising event for Delaware’s largest
and only nonprofit community-based hospice. Features
live entertainment, an International Buffet, and live and
silent auctions of beautifully decorated trees, wreaths,
and holiday décor. A magnificent display of beautifully
decorated trees and wreaths, a public auction, raffles,
Sweet Shoppe, Gift Shoppe and Craft Elves. “Lunch with
Santa”.
“Delaware Hospice Holiday & Collectibles
Auction”. Memorial Service for the families of recent
Delaware Hospice patients to remember their loved
ones. Delaware Technical and Community College,
Winter 2007 • 51
DELMARVA EVENTS
Carter Partnership Center, Georgetown. 302-8567177.
December 1-2 & 7-9: Holiday Musical. The 1954
Christmas Special and old-time radio version of The
Miracle on 34th Street. Make plans now to welcome in
the Holidays with the Possum Point Players! Possum
Point Players, 441 Old Laurel Rd. 302-856-4560.
GRASONVILLE
December 1: Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center
- Where’s Rudolph? Creepy Crawlers. Do reindeer live
at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center? At the
Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center children ages 2
to 5 find out where these mammals are and what they
do in the winter. 10-11 a.m. Chesapeake Bay
Environmental Center. 410-827-6694.
December 1: Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center.
Marsh Muckers. The Buck Stops Here. Come find out
how these mammals survive the cold winter months. At
Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center children ages 7
to 10 expand their knowledge about deer. 10 to 11:30
a.m. Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center. 410-8276694.
December 8: Tis the Season. Great Horned Owls.
People are fascinated with owls because they are
believed to be mysterious and elusive birds. During this
time of year, Great Horned Owls are active with courting behaviors, and we will search for signs and sightings
of the hoot owl. Open to beginner and experienced
birders of all ages! Bring binoculars and bird books.
Dress for the weather and approximately two miles of
hiking. 8 a.m. Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center.
410-827-6694.
GREENVILLE
December 1-29: Exhibition: Greg Mort: Destiny:
This exhibition will feature the imaginative paintings by
nationally recognized realist painter, Greg Mort. Mort’s
work depicts the wonders of Earth and the universe
beyond by juxtaposing ordinary objects with extraordinary visions and interpretations of the cosmos. This show
will be held in conjunction with the release of the artist’s
new book, “Voyages - Exploring the Art of Greg Mort.”
Somerville Manning Gallery, Brecks Mill, 2nd Floor, 101
Stone Block Row. 302-652-0271.
December 7-22: “ Art Works for the Holiday”. An
eclectic mix of work by Gallery Artists which is perfect
for the gift giving season. Large collection of paintings,
ceramics, jewelry, hand made ornaments, framed
antique prints and more.
Opening Reception.
December, 5-8 p.m. The Station Gallery, 3922 Kennett
Pike. 302-654-8638.
HURLOCK
December 15: Hurlock Christmas Parade. Features
local celebrities and dignitaries, marching bands, floats,
other attractions and surprises. Christmas Bazaar at the
Hurlock Legion.
LEWES
December 1: The Christmas Tour of Lewes is part of
a festive holiday weekend in Lewes. The tour gives the
society a chance to show off its historic houses decorated for the season. In addition, several private homes are
selected each year to bring even more Yuletide cheer to
our quaint town on the bay. Celebrating 32 years in
2005, the tour is the highlight of a weekend that includes
numerous art shows, parades, dinners and Christmas
tree lightings in Lewes and the surrounding area. 10
a.m. - 4 p.m. The Lewes Historical Society, 110
Shipcarpenter Street. 302-645-7670.
December 1-2: HO! HO! HO! It’s almost time for
Christmas Weekend in Historic Lewes! Come spend a
fun weekend in Lewes participating in all the seasonal
activities that await you. House tours, holiday decorations, music, art shows, and hospitality galore are just a
few of the special things you’ll enjoy. 302-645-8073 or
52 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
877-465-3937.
December 1-2: Children’s Beach House Benefit Art
Show. Children’s Beach House. 877-465-3937.
December 1-30: 4th Annual Small Jewels Exhibit. A
multiple artist show with all images 8x10 or smaller and
all priced for the gift giving season. Peninsula Gallery,
520 Savannah Rd. 302-645-0551.
December 1-31: Holiday Madness. Selection of
large and small oils and watercolors by gallery artists,
British China & Chinese Brushes, Pennsylvania
Woodshop Cherry Furniture, Antiques, Lamps &
Jewelry. Josephine Keir, Ltd./The Petite Gallery, 102
Savannah Road. 302-645-9047.
December 1-31: First Town in the First State.
Utilizing an historic timeline, the exhibit presents over
11,000 years of Lewes culture beginning with the original Native American residents, through the period of
European colonization, the American Revolutionary
War, the birth of the United States as a nation, and the
War of 1812. Zwaanendael Museum, 102 Kings
Highway. 302-645-1148.
December 1-31: “Rediscovery Through Recovery”.
Featuring a selection of artifacts recovered from the
Severn, a British commercial ship that sank off Lewes’
Roosevelt Inlet in the late 18th century, the exhibit showcases the shipwreck and its cargo, while at the same
time, explaining the multi-faceted processes utilized in
archaeological and historical research. The Severn is the
oldest-known shipwreck discovered in Delaware waters.
Zwaanendael Museum, 102 Kings Hwy. 302-6451148.
December 6-9: “SCROOGE”. A seaside holiday tradition for the whole family! Cape Henlopen High’s Little
Theater. 302-644-3810.
MASSEY
December 2: Open Hanger Party. Come help us celebrate the progress being made at The Massey
Aerodrome, a museum airport dedicated to grass roots
aviation. Bring an hors’ d’oeuvre’ to share with others if
you wish. 1-5 p.m. Massey Aerodrome, 33541
Maryland Line Rd. 410-928-5270.
MILFORD
December 1-2: She Loves Me. Christmas Musical by
Bock and Harnick. 2nd Street Players. 302-422-0220.
December 1-31: The Milford Museum’s permanent
exhibits tell the story of the city from its earliest beginnings on the Mispillion River. Exhibits include model
ships representing Milford’s maritime past and a 300piece silver collection of coins, spoons, and novelties.
Milford Museum, 121 S. Walnut St. 302-424-1080 or
422-2187.
MILLINGTON
December 9: Maryland’s Herb Basket Christmas
Open House. Country Christmas open house. Wassail
and cookies. Free gift wrapping. 1-5 p.m. 399 Hazel
Lane. 410-928-3301.
MILLSBORO
December 1: 2007 Millsboro “Holiday Greetings”
Christmas Parade. The Greater Millsboro Chamber of
Commerce invites you to attend and/or participate in its
annual Christmas Parade. The parade will proceed
down Mitchell St., past the Millsboro Civic Center. It will
move along the railroad tracks, turning right onto Main
Street. In downtown Millsboro it will turn right again on
State Street and disband at the Sussex Central Middle
School. 10 a.m. 302-934-6777.
December 1: Christmas Santa Shop at Millsboro
Civic Center. The Santa’s Shopping Spree will be held in
conjunction with the annual Christmas Parade entitled
“Holiday Greetings”. The Shopping spree is a wonderful opportunity for families and friends to visit vendors
with affordable crafts, gift items and holiday baked
goods. Youngsters can talk to and be photographed with
Santa after the Parade. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Millsboro Civic
Center, Mitchell St. and Wilson Hwy. 302-934-6777.
MILTON
December 1, 2, 14, 15, 16: “Nuncrackers”.
Looking for the perfect way to welcome in the Holiday
with laughter? See this Christmas musical by Dan
Goggin for an uproarious, irreverent evening of song
and comedy. Fri. and Sat. shows at 7 p.m.; Sunday
matinees at 2 p.m. 302-684-3400.
December 7-9: “9th Annual John Milton Celebration
of Poets & Poetry.” Poetry readings, creative writing
workshops and poetry prizes. Milton Theatre on Union
Street. 302-684-3514.
December 8: Holly Festival. It wouldn’t be Christmas
in Milton without the Annual Holly Festival. Over 50 holiday crafters and specialty vendors. Admission is free
and food will be available. The Holly Festival has always
been the perfect stop-off for the holiday shopper looking
for that special gift, or the collector seeking that one-ofa-kind find. Spun glass ornaments, quilts, holiday
wreaths, collectible toys, and hand-woven baskets are
just some of the treasures to be sold. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Fire
Hall. 302-684-3400.
December 8: “Holiday House Tour ‘07”. Tour historic
homes in Milton beautifully decorated for the holidays!
302-684-3400. Sale of bundles of greens and
Williamsburg-style wreaths at the Milton Fire Company
on Front Street. 3-7 p.m. 302-684-3400.
December 8: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra
Performance, “Handel’s Messiah.” The MSO will be collaborating with the Southern Delaware Choral Society in
a unique performance with vocalists Meghan McCall,
Jessica Renfro, Alvaro Rodriquez and Matthew Osifchin.
Noon. Eagles Nest Fellowship Church. 888-846-8600.
NEW CASTLE
December 1: Buena Vista Holiday Open House.
One-day-only open house featuring one of Delaware’s
most historic homes decorated for the holidays. Buena
Vista Conference and Reception Center, 661 S. Dupont
Highway. 302-323-4430.
December 1-31: Every Friday, Saturday and
Sunday, more than 60 indoor merchants sell everything
from fresh produce, meats and fish to Pennsylvania
Dutch items, furniture, jewelry, clothing, linens, electronics, musical instruments and CDs. Outside, over 160
flea market vendors gather to offer an eclectic assortment of bargains ranging from yard sale items to fine
antiques. Friday, Saturday & Sunday. New CastleHare’s Corner. 302-328-4102.
December 1-31: Flight to Freedom. Exhibit documents the escape of a fugitive slave family from
Maryland on the Underground Railroad and the assistance they received from abolitionists Thomas Garrett
and John Hun. New Castle Court House Museum. 302323-4453.
December 1-31: We the People...The Right of Trial
By Jury. Interactive exhibit chronicles the history of jury
trial in Delaware. New Castle Court House Museum.
302-323-4453.
December 1-31: Emeline Hawkins: Her Journey from
Slavery to Freedom on the Underground Railroad. The
exhibit chronicles the compelling story of Emeline
Hawkins and her family, and their 1845 odyssey on the
Underground Railroad from slavery in Maryland,
through Delaware, to freedom in Pennsylvania. New
Castle Court House Museum, 211 Delaware St. 302323-4453.
December 1-31: Archaeology of the New Castle
Court House. The exhibit highlights the many phases of
archaeological investigations at the New Castle Court
House. Exhibited artifacts, representing over 300 years
of continuous use of the court house, illustrate the building’s diverse functions including service as the center of
the colonial and state government, location of the county seat and courts, uses by private businesses including
Winter 2007
DELMARVA EVENTS
WINTER 2007
a tea room, and finally, use as a public museum. New
Castle Court House Museum, 211 Delaware St. 302323-4453.
December 8: The Spirit of Christmas. This special
town-wide event invites visitors to share in tours of historic homes and churches, seasonal music, and shopping the charming boutiques along Delaware Street.
Take a break from the holiday hustle and bustle and
enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas! Downtown Historic
New Castle. 302-328-3279.
NEWARK
December 14-16: Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
Written by Barbara Robinson, Directed by Sue Devito
the Bradley Family had to take over their church’s annual Christmas pageant after the original play director
broke her leg. The horrible Herdman kids infiltrate the
church and the pageant. This can mean only one thing trouble. Chapel Street Players, 27 N. Chapel St. 302368-2248
NORTH EAST
December 1: Cecil County Christmas Parade. Bands,
floats, Santa, antique vehicles, and more. Noon. Main
Street. 410-287-5801.
December 1-24: Santa House. Visit with Santa, pictures permitted. Fri 6-7:30 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m.-Noon. &
1-3 p.m. Sun. 1-3 p.m. 122 S. Main St. 410-2875801.
December 8-9: “The Nutcracker”. Cecil Dance presents this traditional family presentation. Sat. 2 p.m. & 7
p.m. Sun. 2 p.m. CCC Cultural Center, Seahawk Drive.
410-287-3546.
December 14-15: A Christmas Carol. Box of Light
Theatre productions integrate computer projections and
animation with live performers. 7-9 p.m. The Milburn
Stone Theatre, 1 Seahawk Drive. 410-287-1037.
December 15: Hart’s Church Annual Christmas Live
Nativity Scene, Hot Drinks & Cookies. 6 & 7 p.m. Hart’s
UM Church; 3203 Turkey Point Rd. 410-287-2650.
December 16: A Christmas Carol. Box of Light
Theatre productions integrate computer projections and
animation with live performers. 3-5 p.m. The Milburn
Stone Theatre, 1 Seahawk Drive. 410-287-1037.
December 16: Live Nativity. 6 & 7 p.m. Hart’s
Amphitheater.
December 23: Live Nativity. Reading of the
Christmas Story, in the stable with music and animals.
6-8 p.m. Tailwinds Farm, Route 272. 410-658-8187.
OCEAN CITY
December 1:
Ocean City Christmas Parade.
Professionally judged parade with bands, floats, marching units, antique cars & more. 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. 125th
St. to 115th St. Coastal Hwy. 410-524-9000.
December 1-20: Holiday Show.
Entrants are
allowed free range for submissions. They can submit
oils, water color, photo, sculpture, and textile - whatever
medium they choose. It is a judged show. Monetary
prizes are awarded for first, second and third place. 11
a.m.-4 p.m. Tues.-Thurs. 1-4 p.m. Fri-Sun. Art League
of Ocean City, 502 94th St. 410-524-9433.
December 1-31: Winterfest of Lights. Dazzling
lights on cold winter nights put everyone in a holiday
mood. Ocean City’s award-winning light displays begin
with the tunnel of lights at the Inlet where you find the
beach filled with lights boasting a nautical theme. Travel
the avenues of Ocean City to see the old-fashioned lighted wreaths, then it’s on to Northside Park to see hundreds of animated lighted displays. Browse Yukon
Cornelius’ gift shop for a special gift, have a photo taken
with Santa and enjoy hot chocolate in the heated, decorated tent while you wait to board the Winterfest Express
to tour the lights. 5:30-9:30 p.m. Townwide, Inlet Lot &
Northside Park, 127th St. 1-800-OC-OCEAN.
December 2: Holiday Open House. Enjoy this historic Ocean City site, see the displays and do all your
Delmarva Quarterly
For a few weeks, the homes in historic Odessa, Del. are transformed
into scenes of an old fashioned Christmas.
shopping in the unique gift shop. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. OC
Life Saving Station Museum, South End of Boardwalk at
Inlet. 410-289-4991.
December 10-12: Watercolors for Beginners and
Beyond. Instructor, Barbara Doyle Schmid. Students will
learn about basic watercolor principles. 9:30 a.m.-2:30
p.m. Art League of Ocean City, 502 94th St. 410-5249433.
p.m.). Eastern Shore of VA Historical Society’s Kerr
Place will be open with special events from 4 - 6 p.m.
Christmas ornament featuring the School is available for
sale day of tour. 757-787-7600 or 757-302-0388.
December 13: International Film. 8 p.m. Roseland
Theater, Market Street. 757-787-8805.
December 15: Onancock’s Christmas Parade on
Market Street. 757-787-3363.
OCEAN PINES
December 1: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
7:30 p.m. Community Church, Rt. 589. 888-8468600.
OXFORD
December 1-2: “Christmas on the Creek”. A weekend of seasonal activities in Oxford.
410-226-5904.
December 2: Oxford Holiday House Tour. Ten historic homes dressed in seasonal splendor! 11:30 a.m.4:30 p.m. 410-226-5904.
OCEAN VIEW
December 2: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra
Performance. “Holiday Joy”. Mariner’s Bethel Church.
888-846-8600.
ODESSA
December 1: “Christmas in Odessa”. The first
“Christmas in Odessa” was born 43 years ago as a
fundraiser for the Women’s Club of Odessa. Our purpose was to fund college scholarships for local high
school seniors. With the help and cooperation of Odessa
homeowners, we have provided scholarships to more
than 100 students. In addition, we have been able to
contribute to many worthwhile community groups and
projects. We are proud to make these contributions to
our community, and we are fortunate to have the support
of the many fine people who have encouraged us
through the years. 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Historic Odessa.
302-378-4119.
December 1-31: Christmas Holiday Tours. This
year’s theme is from the classic children’s literature the
Tales of Beatrix Potter. The Tailor of Gloucester, Peter
Rabbit, and the two bad mice Tom Thumb and Hunca
Munca will take up residence this holiday season in the
Historic Houses of Odessa. 302-378-4119.
ONANCOCK
December 7: First Friday. Visit shops and galleries;
featured artists, demonstrations, entertainment. Dine at
fine restaurants. 5-8 p.m. 757-789-3151.
December 8: 8th Annual Christmas Homes Tour (2 6 p.m.) and Music Festival at Cokesbury Church (4 - 8
PERRYVILLE
December 1: Christmas In Perryville. Caroling,
refreshments and Santa Claus. 4:30 p.m. Rodgers
Tavern. 410-642-6066.
December 1: Holly Tree Lighting Ceremony. B&O
Railroad’s Travelers Christmas Tree. 4-6 p.m. Holly Tree
Park, off Jackson Station Rd. 410-392-4537 or 410658-3000.
POCOMOKE
December 1: Christmas Dance Fundraiser. The
Velvetones will play big band and swing music to benefit the Marva Theater. 8-11 p.m. Elks Lodge. 410-9573041.
December 9: Christmas Open House. Sturgis OneRoom School Museum. 410-957-1913
PORT DEPOSIT
December 1: 22nd Annual Candlelight Tour. Annual
event allowing visitors to see inside many of our historic
homes and buildings. Noon-6 p.m. Historic Port
Deposit. 410-378-4480.
PRINCESS ANNE
December 1: Christmas in Princess Anne. Parade,
breakfast & pictures with Santa, arts & crafts, farmer’s
market, pony rides, kids’ activities. 410-651-0422.
December 1: Christmas Candlelight Tour. Tour of private homes in historic district followed by holiday recep-
Winter 2007 • 53
DELMARVA EVENTS
tion. 6-10 p.m. Teackle Mansion. Somerset County
Historical Society. 410-651-2238.
REHOBOTH BEACH
December 1-31: Boardwalk Lights Up for the
Holidays and Santa’s House.
December 2: Rehoboth Beach Community Unity
Dinner. Spaghetti Dinner at the Convention Center.
Entertainment by the Tim Laushey Trio & Singing Santa.
302-227-2772.
December 3: Rehoboth Beach Hometown Christmas
Parade. A local tradition, the parade will feature more
music, more costumes and more fun than ever, with volunteers from the Fire Department, Police, Public Works
and community organizations. Dozens of local groups,
bands and participants have already signed up. Line-up
starts at 4 p.m. The parade begins at State Road, travels
East to the Boardwalk and the turns West and goes back
up to the Convention Center. Parade entrants are
judged, with prizes awarded at the Christmas Party
immediately following the parade at Convention Hall.
Youngsters can chat with Santa and light refreshments
will be served. 6:30 p.m. Rehoboth Avenue. 302-4418615.
December 6: Downtown Rehoboth Hospitality Night.
Shops open late with special sales, serving treats. Horse
& Buggy Rides available. 302-227-2772.
December 7: Comedy Dinner Theater: Delaware
Comedy Theater Holiday Dinner Show. Atlantic
Seafood Grille. 302-227-2093.
December 15:
Christmas with Mary Anne
Barcellona. A concert of seasonal music performed by
renowned soprano Mary Anne Barcellona. 7 p.m.
Epworth United Methodist Church, 20 Baltimore Ave.
302-841-4293.
RISING SUN
December 4: Community Carol Sing. Annual carol
sing with Santa and refreshments. 7 p.m. Center
Square. 410-658-5353.
ROCK HALL
December 1: Boat Parade and Santa’s Arrival. Join
Santa as he arrives at the bulkhead in the company of
bands and lighted boats. Rock Hall Bulkhead. 410639-7611.
December 1: Maryland Boys Choir. Listen to sounds
of the season (part of the Jesse Downey Concert Series).
Refreshments will be served. 7:30 p.m. Rock Hall Fire
House, 21500 Rock Hall Ave. 410-639-7636.
December 1: Wesley Chapel Christmas Bazaar.
Lunch, silent auction, crafts, face painting, a “Shop for
Children to Shop in”, bake table and pictures with
Santa. 9 a.m .- 2:30 p.m. Wesley Chapel United
Methodist Church, Rt. 20. 410-639-7805.
December 2: Jonathan Edwards. Legendary
folk/rocker Jonathan Edwards, whose 1971 million-selling song “Sunshine” (“go away today...”) brought him
instant fame, is still writing and still touring. In a 36-year
career including theater, commercials, record production, and two movie soundtracks, he has recorded 15
albums and collaborated with artists like Emmylou Harris
and Jimmy Buffett. His 1987 album, “Little Hands”, was
selected by the National Library Association as a
“Notable Children’s Recording.” “Sunshine” can be
heard in the 2004 movie, “Anchorman” and in the new
Jeep Heritage commercial. A longtime sailor, he narrated and performed a PBS-TV series, “Cruising America’s
Waterways”. 4 p.m. The Mainstay, 5753 Main St.
410-639-9133.
December 9: BED. BED, a jazz group with an
appealingly classic jazz sound, is made up of four close
friends brought together by a love of swing. Vocalist
Rebecca “Becky” Kilgore, guitarist/banjoist/vocalist
“Fast Eddie” Erickson, trombonist Dan Barrett and
bassist Joel Forbes have worked in many different
groups over the years, both on stage and in recording
54 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
studios. All four are well known to international jazz
audiences through their jazz party and festival appearances, and many recordings for the Concord, Arbors,
Nagel-Heyer, and Jump labels. Audiences quickly fall in
love with this group, not only for their musical talent, but
also for their ability to connect with an audience through
their personal warmth, sharp wit and delightful sense of
humor. 4 p.m. The Mainstay, 5753 Main St. 410-6399133.
December 23: Nowell Sing We Clear: A Pageant of
Midwinter Music and Dance. English folksingers Tony
Barrand and John Roberts along with New England
dance musicians Fred Breunig and Andy Davis have
toured for more than three decades presenting the traditional music of the Christmas story as preserved in
English folksong, and midwinter customs such as wassailing and mummer’s plays. Nowell Sing We Clear celebrates Christmas as it was known for centuries in Britain
and North America and as it continues in many places
to the present day. Some of the singing is four-part a
capella harmonies while the rest is accompanied by the
energetic sounds of fiddle, button accordion, piano,
drums and concertina. There are lots of opportunities for
audience participation, and its lively and varied nature
make the concert especially well-suited for families.
Nowell Sing We Clear is a joyous holiday event not to
be missed. 4 p.m. The Mainstay, 5753 Main St. 410639-9133.
December 31: Rock Hall Crawl Chasin’ th’ Blues To
2008. Bring in the new year...Eastern Shore (Mardis
Gras) Style. Parade of crazy hats — behind Banjo
Dusters. Cash Prize Hat Contest. Music throughout the
night at several venues. Countdown the New Year, with
the famous Rockfish Drop and fireworks, at midnight at
Rock Hall Harbor Bulkhead.
6:30 p.m. 410-6397611.
SALISBURY
December 1-2: Ward Museum-Adult Carving Class.
The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Salisbury University,
hosts local carver Noel Justice. . Learn the art of carving by making a ‘Whimsical Santa Figurine’ using hand
tools and finish with paint. Leave with a seasonal keepsake or gift. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Ward Museum of
Wildfowl Art. 410-742-4988.
December 1-2: The Nutcracker. Eastern Shore Ballet
Theater’s Annual performance. Sat. 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Sun 2 p.m. Wicomico High School. 410-742-2858.
December 1-8: Portrait Painting from Photographs.
Students will work in oil or acrylic on canvas to create a
portrait from their own photo using a mapping technique. Instructor: Jess Cross. 1-4 p.m. Art Institute &
Gallery. 410-546-4748.
December 1-22: Saturday Sessions with Jess Cross.
Students ages 7-14 will work with a variety of media
including clay, paint, paper mache and pastel to create
four projects. 10 a.m.-Noon. Art Institute & Gallery.
410-546-4748.
December 1-31: Mid Atlantic Crafts Festival and
Exhibit. This year’s festival and exhibit presents an
increased regional scope and vendor capacity offering
Delmarva residents a chance to view the works of artists
from five mid-Atlantic states while shopping for one-ofa-kind holiday gifts at over 20 vendor booths. The
exhibit showcases works of artisans from Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey in a variety of media including wheat weaving, Japanese silk
embroidery, textile landscape collage, ceramics, jewelry
and quilts. The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, LaMay
and Welcome galleries. 410-742-4988.
December 2: Salisbury University Chorale and
Chamber Choir. 4:30 p.m. Holloway Hall, Salisbury
University. 410-543-6385.
December 3: Movie Screening. Back to the
Movement. Final installment of a 14-hour series “Eyes
on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965”.
Through contemporary interviews and historical
footage, the series covers all the major events of the civil
rights movement from 1954-1985. 7 p.m. Caruthers
Hall, Salisbury University.
December 3: Maryland the Edible: Traditional WildCrafting. Learn from Michael Twitty as he takes you
from the mountains, Piedmont and Coastal Plains and
begin to appreciate our rapidly dwindling natural food
resources. 7 p.m. Wicomico Library. 410-749-3612.
December 5: Hibernation. Ward Museum- Nature
Tales for Tots. Free reading program. This program is
designed for children of the preschool to first-grade age.
Early learners hear lively stories pertaining to the environment. Following the reading, a fun craft activity is
conducted. 10-11 a.m. The Ward Museum of Wildfowl
Art, Ward Museum lobby. 410-742-4988.
December 5-8: UMES Gospel Choir Fall Revival.
The UMES Gospel Choir, under the direction of Dr. Della
Dameron-Johnson, holds its fall revival. 7-9 p.m. Ella
Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts, University of
Maryland Eastern Shore. 410-651-6487/6571.
December 6: Salisbury University Concert Band.
7:30 p.m. Holloway Hall, Salisbury University. 410543-6385.
December 7 & 14: One Day Polymer Clay Class.
Students teen to adult will learn various methods of working with polymer clay to create jewelry, sculptures and
ornaments with instructor Jess Cross. 5-8 p.m. Art
Institute & Gallery. 410-546-4748.
December 8: Salisbury Symphony Orchestra.
Featuring Charlotte Paulsen, mezzo-soprano, and selections from Handel’s Messiah and Tchaikovsky’s opera
Joan of Arc. 8 p.m. Holloway Hall, Salisbury University.
410-543-6385.
December 8: Family Holiday Craft Events. Make personalized gifts for the holiday season. Prices range from
$1-$5 per item for walk-in projects. The museum also
hosts two workshops. Adults may participate in a
wreath-making workshop. Bring gloves and ribbon. For
children ages 6-15, the museum offers “Painting a
Miniature Canada Goose.” Refreshments and snacks
will be sold, and all participants receive free admission
to the museum. Noon-4 p.m. The Ward Museum of
Wildfowl Art. 410-742-4988.
December 8: Early Eastern Shore Christmas. The 10
museums of Worcester County each display Christmas
traditions of times past. Each facility features a different
display. Self-guided tours. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Museums of
Worcester County.
December 10, 12 & 14: Falling in Love with &
Finding one’s Way with Clay. Intro to hand building
pinch pots, bowls, vases and platters. Class includes
pinching, texturing, surface enrichment and firing in a
kiln. Instructor: Jimmy Merchant. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Art
Institute & Gallery. 410-546-4748.
December 10, 12 & 14: Pencil Portraiture Class.
Learn to draw and turn your favorite portrait into a work
of art with instructor Jimmy Merchant. 3-5 p.m. Art
Institute & Gallery. 410-546-4748.
December 19: Bears. Ward Museum - Nature Tales
for Tots. Free reading program. This program is
designed for children of the preschool to first-grade age.
Early learners hear lively stories pertaining to the environment. Following the reading, a fun craft activity is
conducted. 10-11 a.m. The Ward Museum of Wildfowl
Art, Ward Museum lobby. 410-742-4988.
SEAFORD
December 1: Seaford “Jingle Bell Time” Christmas
Parade. One of the largest Christmas Parades on
Delmarva. Noon. Downtown.
SELBYVILLE
December 7: Selbyville Christmas Parade. Kick off
the holiday season with floats, marching bands, antique
cars, beauty queens, lots of food and fun, and a special
appearance by Santa and Mrs. Claus! 7 p.m.
Downtown. 302-539-2100.
Winter 2007
DELMARVA EVENTS
WINTER 2007
the North Atlantic in the bitter cold squalls of snow, as
you try to fill the hold with enough salt cod to pay the
bills. Or perhaps it’s balmy in the Java Straits coming
home with tea and silks from China. Or maybe it’s off
Cape Horn, where it’s never warm, headed to the coast
of Peru for whales. In any case, it’s a long way from
home when it comes to Christmas for a sailor at sea.
Come hear songs, verse, and stories that paint the
scenes of Christmas at sea, presented by folksinger and
chanteyman Geoff Kaufman. 5-6:30 p.m. Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum, Steamboat Building, Van Lennep
Auditorium, 213 N. Talbot St. 410-745-2916.
December 8: Sweeter Side of CBMM Saturdays for
Kids. Visit Kids Town during this new festival and participate in hands-on and art-making activities. 10 a.m.4 p.m. Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, 213 N.
Talbot St. 410-745-2916.
December 8-10: Sweeter Side of CBMM: A Classic
(Boat) Christmas. You can’t have a St. Michaels
Christmas without classic boats! Members of the Antique
and Classic Boat Society’s Chesapeake Chapter will display these works of art under a tent at CBMM. Bring the
kids for children’s activities and light refreshments in the
Steamboat Building, and watch model boats sail and
race on the Miles River! 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum, , 213 N. Talbot St. 410-7452916.
Maureen Golden and her husband, Neil, purchased their home on
Mulberry Street in St. Michaels, Md. early this year. Their house will be
on the “Christmas in St. Michaels” Tour of Homes on Saturday, Dec. 8,
12-5 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 9, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m.
SNOW HILL
December 1: Christmas at Furnace Town. Artisans.
Celebrate Christmas the way early settlers did. Museum
Store Sale. 4 p.m. Furnace Town Living Heritage
Museum. 410-632-2032.
December 1: Enjoy Breakfast with Santa at the new
Firehouse in Snow Hill. Small toys and gifts will be given
to each child. 410-632-2115.
December 1: Children’s Christmas Shop. This shop
with kid friendly prices and free gift wrapping is just for
children. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Snow Hill Branch of the
Worcester County Library.
December 1: Victorian Christmas. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Julia A. Purnell Museum, W. Market Street. 410-6320515.
December 1: Holiday Heritage Walk. Bring a flashlight and dress warmly. 7-9 p.m. Furnace Town Living
Heritage Museum.
December 1, 22, 23, 29 & 30: Christmas Train
Garden. Fascinating for children of all ages. Pocomoke
River Canoe Co. 1-3 p.m. 410-632-1700.
December 3:
Snow Hill Christmas Parade
sponsored by Snow Hill Lion’s Club. 7 p.m. Market
Street.
December 6:
Holiday Tasting Tour. Four walking tours, led by home-town guides, begin at 3:00,
4:00, 5:00 and 6:00, and last four hours, with a walking distance of about one mile. 410-632-0960.
December 7:
Arts on the River, First Friday
and gallery walk. Gallery owners and merchants
throughout the town keep their shops open for extended
hours. Special openings and guest artists are featured at
the galleries. A Family Scavenger Hunt will be held
through galleries and businesses in downtown Snow Hill.
5-8 p.m. 410-546- 1978.
December 7: Festival of Trees Preview. Wander
among beautifully decorated Christmas trees at your
leisure. 5-8 p.m. Old Firehouse, W. Green Street.
December 8:
Victorian Christmas at the Julia
Delmarva Quarterly
A. Purnell Museum, W. Market Street. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
410-632-0515.
December 8: Christmas Mart & Greens Sale. Noon4 p.m. 19th Century Christmas Service. Candle light
service with carol singing around a wood stove. 7-8
p.m. Furnace Town Living Heritage Museum. 410-6322032.
December 9: Reception for the Festival of Trees
Charity Auction. 2 p.m. Auction begins at 4 p.m. Old
Firehouse, West Green Street.
ST. MICHAELS
December 1-31: “Chesapeake Icons” Exhibition.
Blue crabs, oysters, skipjacks, lighthouses, and waterfowl. These images have become symbols of the
Chesapeake Bay. How these Chesapeake icons have
evolved and ways they have been portrayed is the theme
of this new exhibition. Used by artists, writers, and
salesmen of all types, these five representations of the
Bay make up much of the collection of the Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum. This exhibition showcases a
number of iconic artifacts-from oyster cans and seafood
marketing materials to fine art and models of skipjacks.
The exhibit includes artwork by John Moll and John
Barber, decoys by the Ward Brothers and Rich Smoker,
sculpture by Bart Walter and Dave Gentry and quilts by
Sally Dillon and Janet Hale and Eileen Doughty, among
many others. The “Icons” exhibition will feature special
programming as well as gallery talks in the exhibit. For
well over a hundred years, the oyster has served as the
defining seafood industry of the Chesapeake Bay. In a
gallery talk on December 8, from 1:30-2 p.m., learn
how the oyster, as an iconic image, has been used as a
successful marketing and advertising tool. Museum educators will discuss how our extensive collection of oyster
cans illustrates the large number of businesses once
active in this region and how they have helped shaped
the way people identify the area. The Chesapeake Bay
Maritime Museum, 213 N. Talbot St. 410-745-2916.
December 8: A Sailor’s Christmas Day. Perhaps it’s
SUDLERSVILLE
December 1 & 8: “Old Fashioned Christmas”.
Model train display and refreshments. 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Sudlersville Train Station Museum, 101 Linden Ave/Rt.
300. 410-438-3501.
VIENNA
December 22: Luminaries and House Tours. Enjoy
the quaint community of Vienna with its streets lined by
candlelight and homes open for touring in celebration of
the holiday season. 6 p.m. Vienna Heritage Museum.
WILMINGTON
December 1-9: David Meyer: Separated by Sight
#3. Separated by Sight is an installation of unique forms
scattered throughout an interior space. Each form is a
derivative of a photo-based image that existed and consists entirely of small piles of flour grouped together. The
thousands of piles of flour contained within each of the
forms vary in size and are based on the tonality of the
original image. While certain obscure forms create a
state of doubt, the defined nature of other forms provides
a lucid moment of recognition that questions the relationship to the surrounding forms. Delaware Center for
the Contemporary Arts, 200 South Madison St. 302656-6466.
December 1-31: Surprising Artistry: Francis B.
Crowninsheild Watercolors. Francis B. Crowninshield
was one of the last inhabitants of the duPont family home
at Hagley. The exhibit, which will be on display in the
changing exhibit gallery in Hagley’s duPont family
home, will include paintings of each of the three homes
and gardens where Francis and Louise duPont
Crowninshield lived. Hagley Museum, Rt. 141. 302658-2400.
December 1-31: Christmas Display. Winter Fantasy
awaits guests to Longwood Gardens as the horticultural
showplace presents its annual Christmas Display.
Indoors and out, Longwood is transformed into a winter
wonderland featuring elegantly decorated, snow-kissed
trees, fragrant flowers, dancing fountains, more than
500,000 lights and ice skating performances under the
stars. Longwood Gardens, Rt 1. 610-388-1000.
December 1-31: Exhibition: Full Circle? A History
of Change on Market St. This project will draw heavily
from the photograph collections of the Historical Society
to show the history of Market Street in Wilmington. From
its beginning, Market Street has been the pulse of the
city. At the same time, changes on Market Street have
Winter 2007 • 55
DELMARVA EVENTS
mirrored the changes occurring in urban areas across
the country. Using maps, photographs and museum collections, this exhibit will include the city’s meteoric mid19th century expansion, shopping and restaurant history, banking history, the development of Rodney Square,
along with important civic events including visiting dignitaries and the race riots of 1968. Tue-Fri. 11 a.m.-4
p.m. Sat. 10a.m.-4 p.m. Delaware History Museum,
504 Market St. 302-655-7161.
December 1-31: Microbes: Invisible Invaders ...
Amazing Allies. . This interactive journey uses special
effects and hands-on displays to explain what microbes
look like, the history of infectious disease, and how infection is being combated worldwide. The exhibition is
sponsored by Pfizer Inc. and the DuPont Corporation
and produced by Evergreen Exhibitions in collaboration
with the National Institutes of Health Mon - Sat 9:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday 12 to 4:30 p.m. Delaware
Museum of Natural History, 4840 Kennett Pike. 302658-9111.
December 1-31: Sharyn O’Mara: New Work
(Untitled: ceiling).
Sharyn O’Mara’s installation
“Untitled: ceiling” takes its inspiration from American
car-culture and consumerism. In contrast to the fast pace
of daily travel and consumption of natural resources, the
space provides a quiet respite from a material world
where new is better and more is a primary driving force.
A room within a room, “Untitled: ceiling” is made from
over 21,000 air-freshener trees, and “new car scent”
permeates the air. The hive-like mass calls into question
how our relationships to space and to one another are
altered by the ease with which we traverse our environment and consume its resources. Delaware Center for
the Contemporary Arts, 200 South Madison St. 302656-6466.
December 1-31: “Expanding Circles.” “It takes a village to raise a child,” is an often-heard phrase. This
exhibition examines the many layers of relationships that
make up our world, from immediate family members to
the larger community. All of the artists in some way
depict a family. This family may be composed of blood
relatives, new family identities, the neighborhood, a
larger constructed community, or the global village, thus
the title of the exhibition, “Expanding Circles.” Viewers
are asked to consider the many expanding circles of
their own world and to reflect on the social constructs of
contemporary society. There is no single approach, point
of view, nor style of art in the exhibition. Instead, the
work in the show links together through this overarching
theme of the relationship of individuals to each other and
to their communities. The exhibition was organized
around a theme and not around gender. In fact, the
organizing curator was surprised to learn that all of the
artists who were selected for “Expanding Circles” were
women. Domestic subjects were among the first available to female artists; it is interesting that a concern with
family and community still informs the work of women
artists in the 21st century. Artists in the exhibition:
Salma Arastu, Rosalind Bloom, Peggy Seeney Caranda,
Yolanda Chetwynd, Jessica C. Damen, Judeth Pekala
Hawkins, Randi Reiss-McCormack, Carol TaylorKearney and Carla Tudor. Delaware Center for the
Contemporary Arts, 200 South Madison St. 302-6566466.
December 1-31: Exhibition: In Company with
Angels: Seven Tiffany Windows. An exhibition of
stained glass angels made in 1902 for a Swedenborgian
church in Cincinnati that were displaced when the
church was razed in 1964. Delaware Art Museum,
2301 Kentmere Pkwy. 302-571-9590.
December 1-31: Exhibition: Seeing the City:
Sloan’s New York. Explore New York City through the
eyes of Ashcan School artist John Sloan. Sloan moved
to New York in 1904. His life in Chelsea and Greenwich
Village provided the subjects for paintings, prints, and
illustrations from 1905 through the 1940s. Delaware
Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Pkwy. 302-571-9590.
56 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
December 1-31: Exhibition: Precious Spaces:
Masterpieces in Miniature. The annual miniatures exhibition is the Museum’s signature holiday display, with a
different Museum- or art-related theme each year. This
year, the theme will convey that each vignette is a
diminutive masterpiece in its own right and also a showcase for the miniature artist’s interpretation of and original, full-scale work. Delaware Art Museum, 2301
Kentmere Pkwy. 302-571-9590.
December 1-31: Exhibition: Revolution - Ben
Whitehouse. Ben Whitehouse is a well-known painter of
contemporary landscapes. Originally from Great
Britain, he now lives in Chicago. Whitehouse holds an
MFA from the University of Chicago. Recently, he has
begun investigating landscapes in a slightly different
way, with an interest in how the landscape changes over
a 24-hour period. Whitehouse’s new project, Revolution,
consists of a series of 24-hour, single shot, high definition digital works that record from a fixed point for an
entire 24-hour period, one revolution of the earth. The
works are then viewed in real time on large-scale plasma screens. He studies the land by doing both timebased digital images and painting a series of highly stylized interpretations of the land which he organizes into
particular patterns. The DCCA will exhibit both the high
definition digital presentations and the paintings. The
Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. 302-6566466.
December 1-31: Exhibition: K is for Kids. Don’t
miss this alphabetical introduction to Winterthur’s
diverse collection of decorative art objects. This familyfriendly exhibition explores intriguing objects in the
Winterthur collection and studies early methods of reading education. For visitors of all ages! This exhibition is
made possible by the generous support of: DuPont, Mrs.
Patrick Healy III, F. M. Kirby Foundation, The LaffeyMcHugh Foundation, and The Max and Victoria Dreyfus
Foundation, Inc. 800-448-3883.
December 2: A Christmas Carol. The season isn’t
complete without experiencing Charles Dickens’ beloved
holiday classic about an unrepentant miser’s redemption
at the hands of three ghostly visitors. Troupe America’s
enchanting production, filled with many favorite carols,
will be a treat for the child in all of us. As Tiny Tim says,
“God bless us, everyone!” 3 p.m. The Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market St. 800-37-GRAND.
December 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23: Broadway
Santa. Join this hilarious holiday excursion to Broadway
as Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the rest of the North Pole
gang make Broadway history performing Santa’s original stage-play. Can the elves, reindeer, and the Claus
family pull it off? Despite the barrage of merry mishaps
and calamities, Broadway Santa dazzles theatre critics
and takes New York by storm! 2 p.m. Delaware
Children’s Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave. 302-6551014.
December 4: Gráda. Live at the baby grand. Celtic
quintet Gráda brings their Christmas tour to the US, featuring Alan Doherty, lead soloist on The Lord of the Rings
soundtrack, as well as Nicola Joyce, Colin Farrell, Gerry
Paul and Andrew Laking. Gráda has an infectious, modern take on Irish music, “with enough steam in its heels
to leave most of its peers at the starting blocks,” says The
Irish Times. Gráda promises special surprises for their
Christmas show, including ‘seasonally themed’ numbers
and humorous audience interactions. 8 p.m. The Grand
Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 800-37-GRAND.
December 5-23: The Complete Works of William
Shakespeare (Abridged). By Adam Long, Daniel Singer
and Jess Winfield. Directed by Steve Tague. This hilarious, breakneck comedy has three comedians making
their way through all of the Bard’s plays (and some sonnets, too!) in less than two hours. A wild frolic through
the works of Shakespeare, you’ve never seen the classics
performed like this. Complete with a hip-hop Othello,
and the histories performed as a football game, this is
Shakespeare for those who don’t think they like
Shakespeare-and especially for those who do! As
London’s longest-running comedy, The Complete Works
of William Shakespeare (abridged) is chock-full of sight
gags, physical humor and irreverent foolery. Delaware
Theatre Company, 200 Water St. 302-594-1100.
December 7-29: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Be
Our Guest as we present the classic and beloved musical “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast!” All your favorite
characters - including Belle, Gaston, Lumiere, the Beast,
and many more - take you on a romantic, funny, scary,
and enchanting journey. Wilmington Drama League,
W. Lea Blvd. 302-764-1172.
December 9: Jim Brickman’s Holiday Homecoming
Concert. The warmth and intimacy of Jim Brickman’s
holiday concerts have been compared to a gathering of
friends and family in a special homecoming that resonates with the true spirit of Christmas. For over a
decade, his holiday concerts have been musical homecomings for fans of the dynamic composer, recording
artist, radio personality and concert headliner. And
every year, more people discover the magic of Jim
Brickman’s piano artistry and his ability to capture the
spirit of the season. Is it any wonder that Jim Brickman’s
name has become synonymous with new holiday classics
and brilliant interpretations of beloved carols? DuPont
Theatre, 10th & Market Sts. 302-656-4401.
December 11: Lois Young. Christmas Show: Holiday
Cheer and rockin’ Reindeer. Bring a teddy bear or
favorite doll or make an ornament to show us. Wear a
Santa hat, reindeer antlers or “Sugar Plum” fairy costume. 10 a.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N.
Market St. 302-658-7897.
December 11: CeCe Winans Christmas. Blessed
with one of the music industry’s greatest voices, CeCe
Winans crosses all musical styles as well as social and
age barriers. Her inspirational and powerful delivery
has impacted gospel music for nearly two decades, winning nine Grammy awards. CeCe Winans brings her
fresh contemporary vibe to the Christmas season with
music that pulsates with spiritual intimacy. 8 p.m. The
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 800-37GRAND.
December 15:
Grand Gala Featuring Linda
Ronstadt. The 31st Annual Grand Gala will feature a
spectacular performance by one of America’s most influential and beloved performers, Linda Ronstadt at The
Grand, followed by an enchanting series of after parties
at the Hotel du Pont. Having released more than 30 of
her own albums and appeared on more than 100 others, Linda Ronstadt has been one of the definitive voices
of popular music for more than thirty years. An eleventime Grammy winner, Linda has put her own distinctive
stamp on a variety of musical styles - rock, pop, standards, Mexican folksongs, bluegrass, and most recently
Cajun. Her hits include “Blue Bayou,” “It’s So Easy,”
“You’re No Good,” “What’s New,” and “Don’t Know
Much” (with Aaron Neville). Linda’s Grand Gala performance will explore the full range of her extraordinary
career, showcasing her musical curiosity and a clear,
passionate voice that continues to delight audiences
around the world. 8 p.m. The Grand Opera House,
818 N. Market St. 302-658-7897.
December 16: Big Band Christmas with Jimmy
Dorsey Orchestra. Celebrate the holidays with The
Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra! Cherish the classic group’s hit
records including “Green Eyes,” “Tangerine” and “So
Rare,” paired with swingin’ renditions of traditional
Christmas favorites. Now under the leadership of trombonist Bill Tole, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra continues to
bring joy to both the young and the “young at heart” as
they embrace the sounds of all-American music this
Christmas. 7 p.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N.
Market St. 800-37-GRAND.
December 22-23: The Nutcracker. First State Ballet
Theatre, Delaware’s premier ballet company, presents its
acclaimed annual production of Tchaikovsky’s dance
masterpiece. Elaborate sets and costumes from Moscow
Winter 2007
DELMARVA EVENTS
WINTER 2007
depict the story of the valiant nutcracker prince and a
girl’s journey in the the Land of Sweets. Under the artistic direction of Pavel Kambalov, the ballet is a
Wilmington tradition. Sat. 7 p.m. Sun. 3 p.m. The
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 800-37GRAND.
WORTON
December 1: Santa’s Workshop. 1-4 p.m. 410-7782083.
House. This event shares the unique ways in which Kent
School’s Little School creates a foundation for learning.
Little School has a home-like and interactive environment that fosters a child’s self esteem and love of learning. Kent School. 410-778-4100.
January 11-13: YMCA Camp Tockwogh. Women’s
Craft Weekend. Women of all ages are invited to spend
the weekend creating wonderful craft projects. Checkin at 5 p.m. 410-348-6000.
WYE MILLS
December 1: Christmas Bazaar. Old Wye Church,
Rt. 662. 410.827.8484.
DOVER
January 1-5: “Make ‘Home Place’ Your Place for the
Holidays”: John Dickinson Plantation’s Holiday Display.
Holiday display featuring decorative re-creations of traditional 18th Century foods including syllabub, moon
and stars in jelly, ham pie, and hen’s nest. John
Dickinson Plantation, 340 Kitts Hummock Road.
January 1-31: Barrel Gallery Exhibit. “Eye to the
Sky: Climate and Crops” Discover how farmers, past &
present, anticipate changing weather. The Delaware
Agricultural Museum, 866 N. DuPont Highway. 302734-1618.
January 1-31:
“My Favorite Christmas
Remembered”. Personal stories of a singular time. The
Delaware Agricultural Museum, 866 N. DuPont
Highway. 302-734-1618.
January 1-31: Greetings from Delaware: The Jann
Haynes Gilmore and Joyce B. Puckett Collection of Artist
Greeting Cards. Exhibition and launch of exhibition catalog. This exhibition features hand-made greeting
cards by some of the most important Delaware and
American artists of the first half of the twentieth century.
Children and family activities will be offered with this
exhibition. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406
Federal St. 302-674-2111.
January 5: Biggs Kids. A free program for children
ages 5-10. This program is designed to enrich children’s understanding of art in the world around them.
2-3:30 p.m. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406
Federal St. 302-674-2111.
January 11, 12, 18, 19, 20, 25 & 26: The
Guys by Anne Nelson. Director: Kevin Smith. Less than
two weeks after September 11, 2001, Joan, an editor,
gets a phone call on behalf of Nick, a fire captain who
lost 8 men in the World Trade Center. Nick has been
asked to deliver eulogies for some of the men and has
no idea how to begin. Joan agrees to help and she and
Nick spend a long afternoon together, recalling the fallen men through recounting their virtues and foibles as
Joan fashions their stories into memorials of words.
Through their shared experience, Joan finds her personal connection to the tragedy and Nick finds renewed
confidence and acceptance, both of them drawing on
humor, the tango, and appreciation of craft, in all its
forms. The Patchwork Playhouse, 140 E. Roosevelt
Avenue. 302-674-3568.
January 15: Biggs Kids (Pirates). During this session
we will be learning about Pirates and their history in
Delaware. Each participant will work to create a pirate
flag. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St.
302-674-2111.
January 25: “Sweet Dreams” A Patsy Cline Tribute.
C.J. Harding has been performing her incredible
“Tribute to Patsy Cline” to sell out audiences across the
country. When she struts on stage wearing costumes she
has made based on what Patsy Cline wore, and sings
with that rich voice you would think that Cline were still
alive. Performing favorites, Crazy, I Fall to Pieces, Just a
Walk Closer to Thee and more, from one of the greatest
country singers of all time, everyone is sure to have a
good time. Schwartz Center for the Arts, 226 South
State Street. 302-678-5152.
~ JANUARY ~
ARDEN
January 1: New Year’s Day Dances. International
Folk Sounds (band) dancing 2-5 p.m. Pot-Luck dinner 57 p.m., Bring a dish or dessert to share! Contra dance
with Waverly Station (David Knight on fiddle and Liz
Donaldson playing piano) with Laurie Fisher calling.
Ralph Gordon may join them (on guitar). 7-10 p.m.
Arden Gild Hall, 2126 The Highway. 302-478-7257.
ARDENTOWN
January 11-31: The Cleveland Grand Opera is celebrating its biggest night in history. World famous tenor
Tito Merelli, known to his fans as “Il Stupendo” is scheduled to sing the lead in Otello. Before the star gets
beyond his hotel room, chaos ensues. This hilarious farce
proves “the show must go on!” . . . under any circumstance. The New Candlelight Theatre, 2208 Millers
Road. 302-475-2313.
BETHANY BEACH
January 1: 7th Annual Hometown Pet Show. The Pet
Show gives our furry and not-so furry-friends a chance
to strut their stuff and compete for prizes in a variety of
fun categories. Bethany Beach Bandstand. 302-5392100.
January 1: 12th Annual Leo Brady Exercise Like the
Eskimos. Splash into the New Year! Join hundreds of
splashers, or thousands of spectators, as the New Year is
kicked off with a dip in the Atlantic. On the beach.
302-539-2100.
January 19: 2nd Annual Winter Blues Ball. Shake
off those “winter blues” by dancing the night away! Live
entertainment, silent auction, live auction, and much
more. The Bistro at Bear Trap Dunes Restaurant and
Banquet Facility. 302-539-2100.
CAPE CHARLES
January 1-31: Exhibition: Featuring works by
Jimmy Merchant and works by many other local artists.
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Stage Door Gallery, 303 Mason Ave.
757-331-3669.
CENTREVILLE, DE
January 1-31: Exhibition: Looking towards Spring Gallery Artists. Hardcastle Gallery, 5714 Kennett Pike.
302-655-5230.
CHESTERTOWN
January 3-26: Still Life. Chestertown Arts League,
312 Cannon St. 410-778-5789.
January 4: Chestertown’s 1st Fridays. Arts &
Antiques. Extended shop hours, with arts and entertainment throughout Historic Downtown.
January 5: Concert Series. The choir of Emmanuel
Episcopal Church will sing Evensong. 6 p.m. Epiphany. Emmanuel Church, Cross & High Sts. 410778-3477.
January 6-29: Art Noir. A brooding and an emotional portrait of life that we all experience. See how
artists interpret the dark themes of life. Artworks, 306
Park Row. 410-778-6300.
January 9: Kent School Little School Admission Open
Delmarva Quarterly
EASTON
January 1-31: The Artist Revealed. Artist Portraits
and Self-Portraits (In Partnership with Syracuse
University). An artist’s portrait, like all good portraits,
offers the viewer more than physical features. One sees
the characteristics of the sitter that make that person a
unique individual. All artists are involved with, or have
a heightened interest in, creative pursuits which makes
them interesting candidates for portrait subjects. On the
other hand, a self-portrait is an artist’s opportunity to
make a statement. Traditional portraiture, especially
commissioned ones, often came with expectations that
the image be a favorable likeness of the sitter. Self-portraiture removed those restrictions enabling artists to be
more experimental. This exhibition brings together fifty
works in a variety of media that examine self-portraits
and portraits of other artists. Included in the show are
works by Milton Avery, Chuck Close, Leonard Baskin,
Edward Steichen, Norman Rockwell and Anders Zorn.
Sitters include James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Eakins,
Charlie Chaplin, C.S. Lewis and Pablo Casals.
Academy Art Museum, 106 South St. 410-822-ARTS.
January 1-31: New Works, Part l. Fresh, new
works by our gallery artists. Be the first to see them!
Opening Reception, January 4, 5-9 p.m. South Street
Art Gallery, 5 South St. 410-770-8350.
January 12: “Writing the Essay,” with essayist and
photographer George Merrill. The Eastern Shore
Writers’ Association welcomes all writers to its winter
meetings. Programs are free and open to the public. An
optional lunch follows, allowing guests to mingle with
other writers and the speaker. 11 a.m. 410-745-6938.
January 12: Cephas & Wiggings. Blues. Avalon
Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410-822-7299.
January 25: David Bromberg and His Angel Bank.
Legendary Performer. Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St.
410-822-7299.
January 26-27: Miniature Painting Workshop with
Diane DuBois Mullaly. South Street Art Gallery, 5 South
St. 410-770-8350.
January 31: The Temptations. Avalon Theatre, 40 E.
Dover St. 410-822-7299.
GEORGETOWN (DE)
January 25-27: Dinner Theater Comedy. Funny
Money. Do you take the money... and RUN? Possum
Point Players, 441 Old Laurel Rd. 302-856-4560.
GREENSBORO
January 25: Mobtown & Gangs of Baltimore, Martin
Ford, Ph.D. presented by Maryland Humanities Council,
NCB. Free entertainment for family & friends. 7 p.m.
Caroline County Library.
GREENVILLE
January 4-26: “Random Rotations” Group Show
featuring a variety of styles and media by favorite
Gallery Artists. The Gallery, 3922 Kennett Pike. 302654-8638.
LEWES
January 1-31: First Town in the First State. Utilizing
an historic timeline, the exhibit presents over 11,000
years of Lewes culture beginning with the original
Native American residents, through the period of
European colonization, the American Revolutionary
War, the birth of the United States as a nation, and the
War of 1812. Zwaanendael Museum, 102 Kings
Highway. 302-645-1148.
NEW CASTLE
January 1-31: Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
more than 60 indoor merchants sell everything from
fresh produce, meats and fish to Pennsylvania Dutch
items, furniture, jewelry, clothing, linens, electronics,
musical instruments and CDs. Outside, over 160 flea
market vendors gather to offer an eclectic assortment of
bargains ranging from yard sale items to fine antiques.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday. New Castle-Hare’s Corner.
302-328-4102.
January 1-31: Flight to Freedom. Exhibit documents
Winter 2007 • 57
DELMARVA EVENTS
the escape of a fugitive slave family from Maryland on
the Underground Railroad and the assistance they
received from abolitionists Thomas Garrett and John
Hun. New Castle Court House Museum. 302-3234453.
January 1-31: We the People...The Right of Trial By
Jury. Interactive exhibit chronicles the history of jury trial
in Delaware. New Castle Court House Museum. 302323-4453.
NEWARK
January 15: Exhibition: In Remembrance: Selections
from the Paul R. Jones Collection. University of
Delaware Museums, 105 E. Main Street. 302-8318037.
January 15: Exhibition: Atget to Zorach: The
University Collects. University of Delaware Museums,
105 E. Main Street. 302-831-8037.
January 18-19:
The Annual One Act
Festival/Competition. Chapel Street Players present our
annual one act festival featuring 3 one act plays. This
year each one act is directed by a new director. One
play is chosen as the winner and sent to state competition. Chapel Street Players, 27 N. Chapel St. 302-3682248.
NORTH EAST
January 25-27: The Underground Season. An
emerging genre on the American Theatre scene is the 10
min. piece. 8-10 p.m. The Milburn Stone Theatre, 1
Seahawk Drive. 410-287-1037.
OCEAN CITY
January 7-9: Watercolors for Beginners and Beyond.
Instructor, Barbara Doyle Schmid. Students will learn
about basic watercolor principles. 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Art League of Ocean City, 502 94th St. 410-524-9433.
January 12-13: Exhibit. The Optimist Club is sponsoring an exhibit of its youth art contest. It will feature
artwork by Worcester County middle and upper school
students. 1 - 6 p.m. Art League of Ocean City, 502 94th
St. 410-341-4424.
January 19: North American Craft Show. Shore’s
largest juried craft exposition. Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun.
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Convention Center, 40th St. & Bay.
410-524-9177.
January 19-20: Nautical & Wildlife Art Festival.
Shore’s premier nautical & wildlife fine art presentation.
Painters, artists & sculptors from 15 states. Sat., 10 a.m.5 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Convention Center, 40th
St. & Bay. 410-524-9177.
January 19-20: Student Exhibit. Students of
Barbara Doyle Schmid & Stasia Heubeck will be exhibiting their watercolors and oils. Light refreshments served.
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Art League of Ocean City, 502 94th St.
410-524-9433.
ONANCOCK
January 10: International Film. 8 p.m. Roseland
Theater, Market Street. 757-787-8805.
ROCK HALL
January 21: The Kent County Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. Breakfast. A county-wide celebration of the legacy of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including breakfast, keynote
speech, music and awards. 7:30 a.m. Rock Hall Fire
Hall. 410-639-7126.
SALISBURY
January 1-13: Mid Atlantic Crafts Festival and
Exhibit. This year’s festival and exhibit presents an
increased regional scope and vendor capacity offering
Delmarva residents a chance to view the works of artists
from five mid-Atlantic states while shopping for one-ofa-kind holiday gifts at over 20 vendor booths. The
exhibit showcases works of artisans from Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and New Jersey in a vari-
58 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
ety of media including wheat weaving, Japanese silk
embroidery, textile landscape collage, ceramics, jewelry
and quilts. The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, LaMay
and Welcome galleries. 410-742-4988.
January 2: Ducks. Ward Museum - Nature Tales for
Tots. Free reading program. This program is designed
for children of the preschool to first-grade age. Early
learners hear lively stories pertaining to the environment.
Following the reading, a fun craft activity is conducted.
10-11 a.m. The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Ward
Museum lobby. 410-742-4988.
January 9, 16, 23 & 30: Develop Your Own
Painting Style. Work on color mixing, composition and
concept with instructor Myrna McGrath. 10 a.m.-noon.
Art Institute & Gallery. 410-546-4748.
January 12-13: Steve Foxwell - Gunning Style
Widgeon Hen (baldpate). Come carve a working decoy
with a master carver. Steve was Ronnie Rue’s apprentice
from Cambridge, Maryland. The piece is of cork body
with a carved head finished in oil paint. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Ward Museum
lobby. 410-742-4988.
January 16: Snow. Ward Museum- Nature Tales for
Tots. Free reading program. This program is designed
for children of the preschool to first-grade age. Early
learners hear lively stories pertaining to the environment.
Following the reading, a fun craft activity is conducted.
10-11 a.m. The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art, Ward
Museum lobby. 410-742-4988.
January 19: Ballroom Dance. Music by Bob Hughes
the “One Man Band”. Lessons at 7 p.m., dancing 8
p.m.-11 p.m. Asbury United Methodist Church. 410749-4914.
January 19-26:
Arts and Crafts Workshop.
Activities may include gourd birdhouse making, stained
glass, jewelry making and other topics taught by artisans featured in the 2007 Mid-Atlantic Craft Festival.
Ward Museum. 410-742-4988.
January 26-27: Bobby Swain - Carve, Burn and
Paint a Whimbrel. Bobby Swain, folk artist from
Onancock, Virginia is back by popular demand. This
two day class promises to be an exciting one. Oil paints
will be used. Spend the second day of class in Bobby’s
studio in Onancock. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The Ward Museum
of Wildfowl Art, Ward Museum lobby. 410-742-4988.
ST. MICHAELS
January 1-31: “Chesapeake Icons” Exhibition. Blue
crabs, oysters, skipjacks, lighthouses, and waterfowl.
These images have become symbols of the Chesapeake
Bay. How these Chesapeake icons have evolved and
ways they have been portrayed is the theme of this new
exhibition. Used by artists, writers, and salesmen of all
types, these five representations of the Bay make up
much of the collection of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum. This exhibition showcases a number of iconic
artifacts-from oyster cans and seafood marketing materials to fine art and models of skipjacks. The exhibit
includes artwork by John Moll and John Barber, decoys
by the Ward Brothers and Rich Smoker, sculpture by Bart
Walter and Dave Gentry and quilts by Sally Dillon and
Janet Hale and Eileen Doughty, among many others.
The “Icons” exhibition will feature special programming
as well as gallery talks in the exhibit. For well over a
hundred years, the oyster has served as the defining
seafood industry of the Chesapeake Bay.
The
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, 213 N. Talbot St.
410-745-2916.
January 5: Saturdays for Kids. Ships & Shapes. See
the wall of colorful “trail board” signs that were once a
common sight on sailing and steam ships. Learn about
the trail boards and the importance of collecting in the
special exhibition, Their Last Passage: The Collection of
Robert H. Burgess before creating a life size, paper trail
board to take home. Tidewater Tales, 10:30. Drop-in
Program, 11:30, 1:00, and 3:00. Chesapeake Bay
Maritime Museum, 213 N. Talbot St. 410-745-2916.
January 19: Saturdays for Kids. Waterfowl. Meet a
decoy carver and learn about ducks and birds while visiting the Waterfowling building. Paint your own duck
decoy head. Tidewater Tales, 10:30. Drop-in Program,
11:30, 1:00, and 3:00. Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum, 213 N. Talbot St. 410-745-2916.
WILMINGTON
January 1-6: Christmas Display. Winter Fantasy
awaits guests to Longwood Gardens as the horticultural
showplace presents its annual Christmas Display.
Indoors and out, Longwood is transformed into a winter
wonderland featuring elegantly decorated, snow-kissed
trees, fragrant flowers, dancing fountains, more than
500,000 lights and ice skating performances under the
stars. Longwood Gardens, Rt. 1. 610-388-1000.
January 1-6: Microbes: Invisible Invaders ...
Amazing Allies. This interactive journey uses special
effects and hands-on displays to explain what microbes
look like, the history of infectious disease, and how infection is being combated worldwide. The exhibition is
sponsored by Pfizer Inc. and the DuPont Corporation
and produced by Evergreen Exhibitions in collaboration
with the National Institutes of Health Mon - Sat 9:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sunday 12 to 4:30 p.m. Delaware
Museum of Natural History, 4840 Kennett Pike. 302658-9111.
January 1-6:
Exhibition:
Revolution - Ben
Whitehouse. Ben Whitehouse is a well-known painter of
contemporary landscapes. Originally from Great
Britain, he now lives in Chicago. Whitehouse holds an
MFA from the University of Chicago. Recently, he has
begun investigating landscapes in a slightly different
way, with an interest in how the landscape changes over
a 24- hour period. Whitehouse’s new project,
Revolution, consists of a series of 24-hour, single shot,
high definition digital works that record from a fixed
point for an entire 24-hour period, one revolution of the
earth. The works are then viewed in real time on largescale plasma screens. He studies the land by doing both
time-based digital images and painting a series of highly stylized interpretations of the land which he organizes into particular patterns. The DCCA will exhibit both
the high definition digital presentations and the paintings. The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts.
302-656-6466.
January 1-12: Exhibition: Full Circle? A History of
Change on Market St. This project will draw heavily
from the photograph collections of the Historical Society
to show the history of Market Street in Wilmington. From
its beginning, Market Street has been the pulse of the
city. At the same time, changes on Market Street have
mirrored the changes occurring in urban areas across
the country. Using maps, photographs and museum collections, this exhibit will include the city’s meteoric mid19th century expansion, shopping and restaurant history, banking history, the development of Rodney Square,
along with important civic events including visiting dignitaries and the race riots of 1968. Tue-Fri. 11 a.m.-4
p.m. Sat. 10a.m.-4 p.m. Delaware History Museum,
504 Market St. 302-655-7161.
January 1-13: Exhibition: Precious Spaces:
Masterpieces in Miniature. The annual miniatures exhibition is the Museum’s signature holiday display, with a
different Museum- or art-related theme each year. This
year, the theme will convey that each vignette is a
diminutive masterpiece in its own right and also a showcase for the miniature artist’s interpretation of and original, full-scale work. Delaware Art Museum, 2301
Kentmere Pkwy. 302-571-9590.
January 1-17:
Sharyn O’Mara: New Work
(Untitled: ceiling). Sharyn O’Mara’s installation Untitled:
ceiling takes its inspiration from American car-culture
and consumerism. In contrast to the fast pace of daily
travel and consumption of natural resources, the space
provides a quiet respite from a material world where
new is better and more is a primary driving force. A
Winter 2007
DELMARVA EVENTS
room within a room, “Untitled: ceiling” is made from
over 21,000 air-freshener trees, and “new car scent”
permeates the air. The hive-like mass calls into question
how our relationships to space and to one another are
altered by the ease with which we traverse our environment and consume its resources. Delaware Center for
the Contemporary Arts, 200 South Madison St. 302656-6466.
January 1-20: Exhibition: Seeing the City: Sloan’s
New York. Explore New York City through the eyes of
Ashcan School artist John Sloan. Sloan moved to New
York in 1904. His life in Chelsea and Greenwich Village
provided the subjects for paintings, prints, and illustrations from 1905 through the 1940s. Delaware Art
Museum, 2301 Kentmere Pkwy. 302-571-9590.
January 1-31: Exhibition: In Company with Angels:
Seven Tiffany Windows. An exhibition of stained glass
angels made in 1902 for a Swedenborgian church in
Cincinnati that were displaced when the church was
razed in 1964. Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere
Pkwy. 302-571-9590.
January 1-31: Expanding Circles. “It takes a village
to raise a child,” is an often heard phrase. This exhibition examines the many layers of relationships that make
up our world, from immediate family members to the
larger community. All of the artists in some way depict a
family. This family may be composed of blood relatives,
new family identities, the neighborhood, a larger constructed community, or the global village, thus the title of
the exhibition, Expanding Circles. Viewers are asked to
consider the many expanding circles of their own world
and to reflect on the social constructs of contemporary
society. There is no single approach, point of view, nor
style of art in the exhibition. Instead, the work in the
show links together through this overarching theme of
the relationship of individuals to each other and to their
communities. The exhibition was organized around a
theme and not around gender. In fact, the organizing
curator was surprised to learn that all of the artists who
were selected for Expanding Circles were women.
Domestic subjects were among the first available to
female artists; it is interesting that a concern with family
and community still informs the work of women artists in
the 21st century. Artists in the exhibition: Salma Arastu,
Rosalind Bloom, Peggy Seeney Caranda, Yolanda
Chetwynd, Jessica C. Damen, Judeth Pekala Hawkins,
Randi Reiss-McCormack, Carol Taylor-Kearney and
Carla Tudor. Delaware Center for the Contemporary
Arts, 200 South Madison St. 302-656-6466.
January 1-31: Exhibition: K is for Kids. Don’t miss
this alphabetical introduction to Winterthur’s diverse collection of decorative art objects. This family-friendly
exhibition explores intriguing objects in the Winterthur
collection and studies early methods of reading education. For visitors of all ages! This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of: DuPont, Mrs. Patrick
Healy III, F. M. Kirby Foundation, The Laffey-McHugh
Foundation, and The Max and Victoria Dreyfus
Foundation, Inc. 800-448-3883.
January 13: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of
London with Pinchas Zuckerman. Virtuoso violinist
Pinchas Zuckerman will conduct this impressive British
orchestra, and will solo on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
in D Major. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has established a worldwide reputation for its performances, and
“plays like a dream, with characterful wind soloists and
much silvery, aristocratic string tone,” proclaims The
London Times. The orchestra will also perform Carl
Maria von Weber’s Overture from Oberon as well as
Beethoven’s sprightly Symphony No. 7 in A Major. 3
p.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 80037-GRAND.
January 15: Lois Young. Superheroes: It’s a Bird, It’s
a Plane, It’s You!! Bring an action figure or your favorite
doll. Dress up as a superhero or heroine or princess. 10
a.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 80037-GRAND. 302-658-7897.
January 16-31: Exhibition: Pahl Hluchan, Painting.
Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
Reception February 1st. Mezzanine Gallery, 820 N.
French St. 302-577-8291.
January 18: Band of the Coldstream Guards and
Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.Musicians from Scotland’s
renowned martial bands in full military regalia perform
stirring Gaelic melodies of Scotland, Ireland, England
and Wales. With a musical tradition dating back hundreds of years, the Guards will perform both traditional
folk tunes and other familiar songs. And of course, don’t
forget the bagpipes! 8 p.m. The Grand Opera House,
818 N. Market Street. 800-37-GRAND.
January 19: Highland, Heath, and Holler. Highland,
Heath, and Holler celebrates Celtic music’s voyage from
the Isles to Appalachia, featuring artists Alasdair Fraser
and Natalie Haas from Scotland, Ireland’s own Martin
Hayes and Dennis Cahill, and Bruce Molsky from
Appalachia. These cross-cultural artists will hold listeners
spellbound with their ballads, jigs and reels, and rowdy
tunes in this electrifying performance. 8 p.m. The
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market Street. 800-37GRAND.
January 20: An Evening with Jorma Kaukonen and
David Bromberg. From dizzying electric guitar gymnastics to breathtaking solo acoustic work, the music of
Jorma Kaukonen has remained ahead of its time. His
brilliant finger-picked fretwork and songwriting, showcased in a compelling blend of rock, blues, folk and
country influences, helped distinguish Jefferson Airplane
and its spin-off band, Hot Tuna. The Grand presented
this sold-out show a few years ago and this will be an
encore performance of these two guitar legends. David
Bromberg brings new music from his first CD release in
years to the stage along with many favorites from a
career spanning thirty-five plus years. David and Jorma
will mix it up with their own sets and then play together
in a musical reunion of two old friends. 7 p.m. The
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market Street. 800-37GRAND.
January 20-31: Sleeping Beauty. 2 p.m. Delaware
Children’s Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave. 302-6551014.
January 22: DuPont Champagne Chamber II.
Beethoven - Septet. Join us at intermission for champagne and delectable confections. Hotel DuPont Gold
Ballroom,11th and Market Streets. 302-656-7442.
January 25: Bowfire. Ten hyper-virtuoso violinists
take the audience on a musical journey that moves
seamlessly through jazz, classical, bluegrass, Celtic
rock, Texas swing and Cape Breton styles, mixed in with
incredible step and tap dancing and one beautiful voice.
“Bowfire demonstrates what the violin and fiddle can do
in the hands of masters,” praises The Bergen Record. An
amazing sensory experience blending dynamic sound,
costumes and lighting. 8 p.m. The Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market Street. 800-37-GRAND.
January 25: John Gorka, live at the baby grand. In
the forefront of contemporary acoustic music stands
folksinger John Gorka. Gorka’s sterling performances
and his rich multi-faceted songs are full of depth, beauty and emotion. His passion for folk tradition has gained
Gorka increased attention from critics and audiences
internationally. The New York Times proclaims,
“Listening to John Gorka sing, one can get goose-bumps
all over. There are many reasons: fresh lyrics, a stunning
emotional baritone voice, and his twisted humor.” 8
p.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market Street.
800-37-GRAND.
January 26:
Tony Fenelon.
Internationally
acclaimed, Tony Fenelon has toured the world extensively in concert and is a regular featured piano soloist in the
Australian Pops Orchestra. Trained primarily in piano
and voice, Tony later discovered the majestic sound of
the theatre organ, which led to his second career. Tony
has completed 12 major theatre organ concert tours in
the USA and the UK. Dickinson Theatre Organ Society.
302-998-2803.
January 31: Sophie Milman. Enjoy a night of hot
jazz in the midst of an exotic orchid paradise at The Jazz
Club at Longwood Gardens. Glamorous jazz ingénue
Sophie Milman, at just 24 years of age, has established
herself as one of the genre’s most exciting performers.
Since her self-titled debut was released in 2004, it has
sold almost 100,000 copies worldwide, hit the Billboard
Top 5 in Canada and the Top 15 in the United States,
and topped the iTunes jazz charts. Now the Russianborn international jazz sensation returns with her sophomore release “Make Someone Happy” melding tales of
her past, her present, with a look toward the future.
Milman’s inspiring story begins with her family’s emigrating from Russia to Israel at the tender age of 7, then
moving again at 16 to seek a new life in Canada. In
2006, she earned a Juno Award nomination for Best
Jazz Vocal Album and was appearing on stage with
international superstars including Aaron Neville and the
Neville Brothers, Chick Corea, and Jesse Cook. A triumphant return home to Toronto in October 2006 yielded an acclaimed iTunes EP, Live at the Winter Garden
Theatre, which debuted at No. 1 upon its release in
Canada and dominated the jazz charts. The concert
takes place in Longwood’s intimate and elegant 300-seat
Ballroom, unique for its stunning décor, including fabricpaneled walls and a ceiling of rose-colored etched glass.
Your evening at The Jazz Club at Longwood is a concertgoing experience like no other. Arrive before the concert
and stroll Longwood’s indoor Conservatory bursting with
more than 5,500 types of plants from around the world.
After stopping to enjoy a drink from the bar, enter a
world where thousands of colorful, exotic and fragrant
orchids bloom as part of Longwood’s breathtaking
Orchid Extravaganza. After the concert, relax at an
exclusive dessert and coffee reception and meet the
artists. 8 p.m. Longwood Gardens, Rt 1. 610-3881000.
~ FEBRUARY ~
ARDENTOWN
February 1-24: The Cleveland Grand Opera is celebrating its biggest night in history. World famous tenor
Tito Merelli, known to his fans as “Il Stupendo” is scheduled to sing the lead in Otello. Before the star gets
beyond his hotel room, chaos ensues. This hilarious farce
proves “the show must go on!” . . . under any circumstance. The New Candlelight Theatre, 2208 Millers
Road. 302-475-2313.
CAPE CHARLES
February 1-29: Exhibition: Featuring works by
Jimmy Merchant and works by many other local artists.
11 a.m.-5 p.m. Stage Door Gallery, 303 Mason Ave.
757-331-3669.
CENTREVILLE (DE)
February 1-29:
C. Phillip Wikoff - Oils &
Watercolors. Opening Reception: Friday, February 1st,
5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Hardcastle Gallery, 5714 Kennett
Pike. 302-655-5230.
CHESTERTOWN
February 1: Chestertown’s 1st Fridays. Arts &
Antiques. Extended shop hours, with arts and entertainment throughout Historic Downtown.
February 2: Concert Series. Presents “2” Peter H.
Bloom, flute and Mary Jane Rupert, piano. 8 p.m.
Norman James Theatre, Washington College. 410-7787839.
February 1-26: Artworks Red. Colors inspire. It’s
about life and the liquid of death. The parameters are
open. The color red is the focus. Artworks, 306 Park
Row. 410-778-6300.
February 1-29: Photography Award Show. Annual
event with prizes Chestertown Arts League Gallery, 312
Cannon St. 410-778-5789.
February 22: Concert Series. Nathan Laube is a
fourth-year student at The Curtis Institute of Music,
Winter 2007 • 59
DELMARVA EVENTS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 8 p.m. Emmanuel Church,
Cross & High St. 410-778-3477.
February 22:
George Washington’s Birthday
Convocation. 3:30 p.m. Benjamin A. Johnson Lifetime
Fitness Center, Washington College. 410-778-7888.
February 23: George Washington Birthday Ball.
Benjamin A. Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center,
Washington College. 8 -12 p.m. 410-810-7146.
February 24: YMCA Camp Tockwogh. Open House.
Come to YMCA Camp Tockwogh’s Open House to learn
more about this amazing summer resident camp located
right here in Kent County. The day includes an information session, a complementary lunch, and a tour of the
facilities. We will begin at 11 a.m. with a slide show
and the tour portion should end approximately 2 p.m.
410-348-6000.
February 28: Goldstein Program in Public Affairs. A
lecture by Dr. Gloria House. Washington College,
Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall. 7:30 p.m. 410-8105745.
CHURCH HILL
February 29: Driving Miss Daisy. Alfred Uhry’s contemporary classic, this is a warm-hearted study of the
unlikely friendship between a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish
widow and the thoughtful, black man she must rely on as
a chauffeur. Spanning twenty-five years, the two grow
ever more dependent on each other until they realize
they have more in common than they ever believed possible - and that times and circumstances would ever
allow them to publicly admit. 8 p.m. Church Hill
Theatre, Walnut St. 410-758-1331.
DENTON
February 8: United States Army Woodwind Quintet.
Free entertainment for family and friends. 7 p.m.
Caroline County Library.
February 15: UMES Jazz Ensemble, John R. Lamkin,
Ph.D, director. Free entertainment for family & friends.
7 p.m. Caroline County Library.
February 22: KABUDI (the Band). Ghanaian
Highlife, Reggae & Caribbean soca music “Get up &
dance!” Free entertainment for family & friends. 7 p.m.
Caroline County Library.
February 29: Lakshmi, Rhythms of Southern India.
Classical dance in works of “visual delight”. Free entertainment for family & friends. 7 p.m. Caroline County
Library.
DOVER
February 1-25: Greetings from Delaware: The Jann
Haynes Gilmore and Joyce B. Puckett Collection of Artist
Greeting Cards. Exhibition and launch of exhibition catalog. This exhibition features hand-made greeting cards
by some of the most important Delaware and American
artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Children
and family activities will be offered with this exhibition.
Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St. 302674-2111.
February 1-29: Barrel Gallery Exhibit. “Eye to the
Sky: Climate and Crops” Discover how farmers, past &
present, anticipate changing weather. The Delaware
Agricultural Museum, 866 N. DuPont Highway. 302734-1618.
February 1-29: Exhibition: Pahl Hluchan, Painting.
Reception February 1st. Mezzanine Gallery, 820 N.
French St. 302-577-8291.
February 2: Biggs Kids. A free program for children
ages 5-10. This program is designed to enrich children’s
understanding of art in the world around them. 2-3:30
p.m. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St.
302-674-2111.
February 8: Philadanco. The Philadelphia Dance
Company (Philadanco) is a modern contemporary
dance company hailed as a miracle of skill and energy,
and comprised of dancers whose blazing physicality
and commitment light up the stage. Favoring virtuosity
60 • Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
and expressiveness, from sky high legs to deeply arched
arabesques to soaring leaps, the company brings more
than 35 years of innovative artistry. Schwartz Center for
the Arts, 226 South State Street. 302-678-5152.
February 9: Artful Dining. Artful Dining guests will
have the unique opportunity to dine at the Biggs Museum
while glimpsing a sneak peek at our premier exhibition
Delaware Silver. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406
Federal St. 302-674-2111.
EASTON
February 1-2: The Artist Revealed. Artist Portraits
and Self-Portraits (In Partnership with Syracuse
University). An artist’s portrait, like all good portraits,
offers the viewer more than physical features. One sees
the characteristics of the sitter that make that person a
unique individual. All artists are involved with, or have a
heightened interest in, creative pursuits which makes
them interesting candidates for portrait subjects. On the
other hand, a self-portrait is an artist’s opportunity to
make a statement. Traditional portraiture, especially
commissioned ones, often came with expectations that
the image be a favorable likeness of the sitter. Self-portraiture removed those restrictions enabling artists to be
more experimental. This exhibition brings together fifty
works in a variety of media that examine self-portraits
and portraits of other artists. Included in the show are
works by Milton Avery, Chuck Close, Leonard Baskin,
Edward Steichen, Norman Rockwell and Anders Zorn.
Sitters include James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Eakins,
Charlie Chaplin, C.S. Lewis and Pablo Casals.
Academy Art Museum, 106 South St. 410-822-ARTS.
February 1-29: New Works, Part II. More new
works by gallery artists, to chase away the winter blahs.
Opening Reception, February 1, 5-9 p.m.
February 2: Leon Redbone. Legendary Performer.
Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410-822-7299.
February 7: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra
“Mostly Baroque”. 7:30 p.m. Avalon Theatre, 40 E.
Dover St. 410-822-7299 or 888-846-8600.
February 9: An Eastern Shore Writers meeting. The
Eastern Shore Writers’ Association welcomes all writers
to its winter meetings. Programs are free and open to the
public. An optional lunch follows, allowing guests to
mingle with other writers and the speaker. 11 a.m. 410745-6938.
February 17: Taj Mahal. Legendary Performer.
Avalon Theatre, 40 E. Dover St. 410-822-7299.
February 29: “Take a Leap” Tour with Eileen Jewell
& Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles. Alternative Rock
and Roll/Alternative Country. Avalon Theatre, 40 E.
Dover St. 410-822-7299.
GEORGETOWN (DE)
February 1-3: Dinner Theater Comedy. Funny
Money. Do you take the money... and RUN? Possum
Point Players, 441 Old Laurel Rd. 302-856-4560.
GREENVILLE
February 1-29:
“Winter Warm Up”. Opening
Reception February 1, 5 - 8 p.m. The Gallery, 3922
Kennett Pike. 302-654-8638.
LEWES
February 2-26: Lewes Historical Society exhibit
“Looking at Lewes - The Artist’s Eye.” Recorded scenes
of Lewes from bygone times borrowed from public and
private collections. Peninsula Gallery. 302-645-0551.
NEW CASTLE
February 1-29: Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
more than 60 indoor merchants sell everything from
fresh produce, meats and fish to Pennsylvania Dutch
items, furniture, jewelry, clothing, linens, electronics,
musical instruments and CDs. Outside, over 160 flea
market vendors gather to offer an eclectic assortment of
bargains ranging from yard sale items to fine antiques.
Friday, Saturday & Sunday. New Castle-Hare’s Corner.
302-328-4102.
February 1-29: Flight to Freedom. Exhibit documents the escape of a fugitive slave family from
Maryland on the Underground Railroad and the assistance they received from abolitionists Thomas Garrett
and John Hun. New Castle Court House Museum. 302323-4453.
February 1-29: We the People...The Right of Trial By
Jury. Interactive exhibit chronicles the history of jury trial
in Delaware. New Castle Court House Museum. 302323-4453.
NEWARK
February 3: The Pied Piper - Tales and Scales. The
streets of Hamelin resound with the frantic scurrying of
rats! Tales & Scales reinvents the time-honored story of
The Pied Piper with contemporary music, lively dance,
the colorful poetry of Robert Browning, and their trademark transformations. In this latest Musictale, a normal
town is turned upside down and learns the value of honesty and generosity. Mitchell Hall Theatre at University
of Delaware.
February 22: An American Voice: Join us for a memorable vocal recital in celebration of Black History Month
featuring the world famous tenor Lawrence Brownlee
and the renowned collaborative pianist Martin Katz in
his second MPCS appearance. Brownlee is winner of
both the 2006 Richard Tucker and Marian Anderson
Awards- “An astonishing technician who rightly brought
the house down.” (The Sunday Times [London]) “Martin
Katz must surely be considered the dean of collaborative
pianists.” (The Los Angeles Times). Mitchell Hall Theatre
at University of Delaware.
February 24: Seussical: “Oh, the thinks you can
think” when Dr. Seuss’ best-loved characters and stories
hit the stage in the Seussical. The noble Horton the
Elephant, the one-feathered bird Gertrude McFuzz, and
the antics of the Cat in the Hat steal the spotlight in one
of Theatreworks USA’s largest-scale productions to date.
Come see this unforgettable musical adventure by
Broadway veterans Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens
adapted especially for young audiences. Mitchell Hall
Theatre at University of Delaware.
NORTH EAST
February 10: Gospel Explosion. Honoring the great
tradition of gospel music. 7:30-9:30 p.m. The Milburn
Stone Theatre at Cecil College, 1 Seahawk Drive. 410287-1037.
February 22: Friends and Neighbors Concert. All
jazz night featuring local jazz artists; 7:30-9:30 p.m.
The Milburn Stone Theatre at Cecil College, 1 Seahawk
Drive. 410-287-1037.
OCEAN CITY
February 4-6: Watercolors for Beginners and
Beyond. Instructor, Barbara Doyle Schmid. Students will
learn about basic watercolor principles. 9:30 a.m.-2:30
p.m. Art League of Ocean City, 502 94th St. 410-5249433.
OCEAN PINES
February 10: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. 3
p.m. Pre-concert talk 2 p.m. Community Church, Rt.
589. 888-846-8600.
OCEAN VIEW
February 9: Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
Mariner’s Bethel Church, Rt 26 & Central Ave. 7:30
p.m. Pre-concert talk 6:30 p.m. 888-846-8600.
ONANCOCK
February 14: International Film. 8 p.m. Roseland
Theater, Market Street. 757-787-8805.
Winter 2007
DELMARVA EVENTS
ONLEY
February 16: Arts Council of the Eastern Shore
(ACES):
The Virginia Symphony will present
“Shakespeare in Love” with assistant conductor Matthew
Kraemer. 8 p.m. Nandua High School, Rt. 13. 757302-0366.
REHOBOTH BEACH
February 1-3: Mardi Gras Weekend. Restaurants
will have New Orleans inspired food, Bourbon Street
beverages, incredible parties, and beads! Come on
downtown! Gumbo Cook-Off at participating restaurants. Taste all the gumbo in town and vote for your
favorite. 227-2772.
February 3: Polar Bear Plunge. Be invigorated as
never before - take the Polar Bear Plunge into the
Atlantic Ocean For Special Olympics Delaware! 302855-0547.
February 23: Merchants’ Attic & General Public
Garage Sale. Largest indoor garage sale on the shore.
9 a.m.-1 p.m. Rehoboth Beach Convention Hall, 229
Rehoboth Ave. 800-441-1329.
ROCK HALL
February 23: Rock Hall EXPO. See demos, seminars
and displays from the area’s top marine, outdoor, arts,
entertainment, lodging, dining and shops. Lunch available. Inside and outside exhibits. 10 a.m-3 p.m. Rock
Hall Fire House, inside and out. Rain or Shine 410-6397483.
SALISBURY
February 6: Develop Your Own Painting Style. Work
on color mixing, composition and concept with instructor
Myrna McGrath. 10 a.m.-noon. Art Institute & Gallery.
410-546-4748.
ST. MICHAELS
February 1-29: “Chesapeake Icons” Exhibition.
Blue crabs, oysters, skipjacks, lighthouses, and waterfowl. These images have become symbols of the
Chesapeake Bay. How these Chesapeake icons have
evolved and ways they have been portrayed is the theme
of this new exhibition. Used by artists, writers, and
salesmen of all types, these five representations of the
Bay make up much of the collection of the Chesapeake
Bay Maritime Museum. This exhibition showcases a
number of iconic artifacts-from oyster cans and seafood
marketing materials to fine art and models of skipjacks.
The exhibit includes artwork by John Moll and John
Barber, decoys by the Ward Brothers and Rich Smoker,
sculpture by Bart Walter and Dave Gentry and quilts by
Sally Dillon and Janet Hale and Eileen Doughty, among
many others. The “Icons” exhibition will feature special
programming as well as gallery talks in the exhibit. For
well over a hundred years, the oyster has served as the
defining seafood industry of the Chesapeake Bay. The
Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, 213 N. Talbot St.
410-745-2916.
WILMINGTON
February 1: 19th Annual Today’s Horticulture symposium. The day-long program covers a variety of topics of interest to gardeners, horticulturists, landscape
designers, and nursery professionals. The symposium is
organized and produced by the Longwood Gardens
Professional Gardener Alumni Association (PGAA) with
support from The Chanticleer Foundation and Longwood
Gardens. This year’s speakers include well-known garden writer Pam Baggett; Jimi Blake, founder of Hunting
Brook, one of Ireland’s most compelling contemporary
gardens; PGAA Alum and Longwood Gardens’
Waterlily expert, Tim Jennings; famed garden photographer Andrea Jones; Dr. William Mathias, founder and
owner of the Wild Orchid Company; award-winning
landscape designer Darrel Morrison; and PG Alum
Marcie Weigelt; who has been responsible for Mt. Cuba
Delmarva Quarterly
WINTER 2007
Center’s hallmark pond landscape for 25 years.
Concurrent sessions enable attendees to select among a
variety of interesting topics, including “Water Gardening
Back to Basics” and “Native Ferns in the Landscape.”
Attendees will also enjoy a presentation on the wide
variety of tropical plants available for mid-Atlantic summer gardens, discover a world of hardy terrestrial
orchids that you can grow in the region, take a look at
unique forms of inspiration for landscape design and the
resulting intriguing gardens; and enjoy a photographic
journey to the great gardens of the world. Throughout
the day, attendees can purchase unique horticultural
items, including tropical and temperate annuals, perennials and woody plants, books, and more. Longwood
Gardens, Rt 1. 610-388-1000.
February 1: David Lanz. Piano sensation David Lanz
is one of America’s best-loved contemporary New Age
recording artists. His deeply-felt compositions helped
forge the New Age music movement over 20 years ago.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of fans around the
world have embraced his music, which is infused with a
passion and tranquility much sought after in the face of
today’s hectic world. Lanz’s music, says The Seattle PostIntelligencer, “beckons the listener to a world of dreams.”
8 p.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market Street.
800-37-GRAND.
February 1-10: Sleeping Beauty. 2 p.m. Delaware
Children’s Theatre, 1014 Delaware Ave. 302-6551014.
February 1-10: Expanding Circles. “It takes a village to raise a child,” is an often heard phrase. This
exhibition examines the many layers of relationships that
make up our world, from immediate family members to
the larger community. All of the artists in some way
depict a family. This family may be composed of blood
relatives, new family identities, the neighborhood, a
larger constructed community, or the global village, thus
the title of the exhibition, Expanding Circles. Viewers are
asked to consider the many expanding circles of their
own world and to reflect on the social constructs of contemporary society. There is no single approach, point of
view, nor style of art in the exhibition. Instead, the work
in the show links together through this overarching theme
of the relationship of individuals to each other and to
their communities. The exhibition was organized around
a theme and not around gender. In fact, the organizing
curator was surprised to learn that all of the artists who
were selected for Expanding Circles were women.
Domestic subjects were among the first available to
female artists; it is interesting that a concern with family
and community still informs the work of women artists in
the 21st century. Artists in the exhibition: Salma Arastu,
Rosalind Bloom, Peggy Seeney Caranda, Yolanda
Chetwynd, Jessica C. Damen, Judeth Pekala Hawkins,
Randi Reiss-McCormack, Carol Taylor-Kearney and
Carla Tudor. Delaware Center for the Contemporary
Arts, 200 South Madison St. 302-656-6466.
February 1-29: Exhibition: K is for Kids. Don’t miss
this alphabetical introduction to Winterthur’s diverse collection of decorative art objects. This family-friendly
exhibition explores intriguing objects in the Winterthur
collection and studies early methods of reading education. For visitors of all ages! This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of: DuPont, Mrs. Patrick
Healy III, F. M. Kirby Foundation, The Laffey-McHugh
Foundation, and The Max and Victoria Dreyfus
Foundation, Inc. 800-448-3883.
February 2: Richard Nader’s Stars of Doo Wop. The
second of three concerts in The Grand’s annual and very
popular Richard Nader’s Stars of Doo Wop series.
Featuring Joey Dee and The Starliters (“Peppermint
Twist”), The Chantels (“Maybe”), and Emil Stucchio and
The Classics (“Til Then”). 8 p.m. The Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market Street. 800-37-GRAND.
February 2-29: Bizarre Beasts Past and Present.
Bizarre Beasts Past and Present takes visitors back in
time-and into a few of life’s modern nooks and crannies-
to experience first-hand some of the strangest animals
ever to inhabit the Earth. Delaware Museum of Natural
History, 4840 Kennett Pike. 302-658-9111.
February 2-29: Exhibition: Frida Kahol: Through
the Lens of Nickolas Muray.
Delaware Art Museum,
2301 Kentmere Pkwy. 302-571-9590.
February 8: Jason Moran live at the baby grand.
Jason Moran uses an impressionistic approach to playing piano and composition. His critically acclaimed trio,
The Bandwagon, and his work with jazz contemporaries
such as Cassandra Wilson, Steve Coleman, and Greg
Osby has made Moran a leading light and a man to
watch in modern jazz. The New York Times boasts that
Moran “has proved himself as a deft conceptualist, finding inspiration in the rhythm and tonality of spoken language, in film, in jazz and pop, and hip-hop.” 8 p.m.
The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market Street. 80037-GRAND.
February 8-9: Classical Series Concert 4. Emerging
pianist Simone Dinnerstein makes her debut appearance
at the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, presenting
Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 5. The Orchestra will
then continue with Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4. Grand
Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 302-656-7442.
February 10: Fred Garbo Inflatable Theatre. New
vaudevillian Fred Garbo delights audiences of all ages
with his comedic performances, using sets and costumes
that inflate. A whimsical combination of physical comedy and inventive science, the show defies expectations
with surprises around every turn. “Helium light and
hilarious” says The New York Times, and the Hong Kong
Standard praises “some of the funniest and cleverest
mime, juggling, acrobatics and inflatables . . . in theatre
today.” 3 p.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N.
Market Street. 800-37-GRAND.
February 15: The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler.
In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month,
eight Delaware-based community organizations are
proud to announce plans for The Vagina Monologues, a
tenth anniversary benefit performance. 8 p.m.
Delaware Theatre Company, 200 Water St. 302-5941100.
February 15-17:
Opera Delaware Presents
“Women on the Verge...” Gilbert & Sullivan’s, The
Gondoliers. (English with supertitles). A riotous comedy set in Venice about mistaken identity, babies switched
at birth, and commoners who become kings for a day,
all with some of Gilbert & Sullivan’s best music! The
Gondoliers features a young Queen who is betrothed to
be married but secretly in love with a commoner. The
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St. 1-800-37GRAND or 302-652-5577.
February 19: Lois Young. Princesses, Dragons and
Daring Deeds!! Bring a dragon, unicorn or any mythical
figure. Dress up as a princess or a knight. 10 a.m. The
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market Street. 800-37GRAND.
February 20: 50th Anniversary Monterey Jazz
Festival. In 1958, jazz reached a new pinnacle of
artistry and attention at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Since then, the world-renowned Festival has continued to
introduce jazz to new and larger audiences. In tribute,
an all-star tour will feature trumpeter Terence Blanchard,
vocalist Nnenna Freelon, pianist Benny Green, legendary saxophonist James Moody, drummer Kendrick
Scott and bassist Derrick Hodge, all with long histories of
appearing at Monterey. 8 p.m. The Grand Opera
House, 818 N. Market Street. 800-37-GRAND.
February 21: State Symphony of Mexico. The
Symphonic Orchestra of the State of Mexico and its
director, Enrique Batiz, will perform a special all-Spanish
program including the lyrical Concierto de Aranjuez by
Rodrigo, with classical guitar soloist Alfonso Moreno.
The concert will also include works by Turina, Granados,
and de Falla. The State Symphony of Mexico, says The
Salzburg News, has “brilliant technique, a fine sense of
harmony and a strong temperament.” 8 p.m. The
Winter 2007 • 61
DELMARVA EVENTS
WINTER 2007
Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market Street. 800-37GRAND.
February 21: Turtle Island Quartet. Enjoy a night of
hot jazz in the midst of an exotic orchid paradise at The
Jazz Club at Longwood Gardens. This exciting performance features the bold and trendy Turtle Island Quartet.
Since its inception in 1985, the Turtle Island Quartet has
been a singular force in the creation of bold, new trends
in chamber music for strings. Winner of the 2006
Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Recording
of the Year, Turtle Island fuses the classical quartet esthetic with contemporary American musical styles.
Proclaimed by world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma as “a
unified voice that truly breaks new ground - authentic
and passionate - a reflection of some of the most creative
music-making today,” the Turtle Island Quartet never disappoints. They will present Love Supreme - Turtle Island
Plays The Music Of John Coltrane. The concert takes
place in Longwood’s intimate and elegant 300-seat
Ballroom, unique for its stunning décor, including fabricpaneled walls and a ceiling of rose-colored etched glass.
Your evening at The Jazz Club at Longwood is a concertgoing experience like no other. Arrive before the concert
and stroll Longwood’s indoor Conservatory bursting with
more than 5,500 types of plants from around the world.
After stopping to enjoy a drink from the bar, enter a
world where thousands of colorful, exotic and fragrant
orchids bloom as part of Longwood’s breathtaking
Orchid Extravaganza. After the concert, relax at an
exclusive dessert and coffee reception and meet the
artists. 8 p.m. Longwood Gardens, Rt 1. 610-3881000.
February 23: Big Band Tribute to Benny Goodman.
Clarinetist Terry Myers and his splendid orchestra frame
impressive likenesses of songs that helped make Benny
Goodman a household name when big bands ruled the
musical world. This tribute to the King of Swing will
include selections such as “One O’Clock Jump,” “The
Very Thought Of You,” “Moonglow,” and “It’s Almost
Like Being In Love.” 8 p.m. The Grand Opera House,
818 N. Market Street. 800-37-GRAND.
February 23: Sol y Canto live at the baby grand. A
special program of bilingual English and Spanish children’s songs, Sol y Canto is Latin music for the entire
family. With its exceptional musical lineage from
Panama, Uruguay and Argentina, Sol y Canto (sun and
song) is a brilliant ensemble nationally renowned for
dramatic and uplifting interpretations of Pan-Latin musical traditions. 8 p.m. The Grand Opera House, 818 N.
Market Street. 800-37-GRAND.
WYE MILLS
February 23: 11th Annual Bay to Ocean Writers
Conference. This day-long conference for beginning
and intermediate writers features a wide range of
thought-provoking speakers and topics, panel discussions, manuscript reviews, bookstore, continental breakfast, networking lunch, and more. The Bay to Ocean
Writers Conference moves into its second decade with
an array of writing workshops, panels and discussion
groups. The conference will offer several excellent panels and presentations on the publishing industry. A continental breakfast and networking lunch with the presenters is included in the program. Participants can purchase speakers’ books and have them signed by the
authors at the conference book store. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Kent Humanities Building, Chesapeake College, Rt. 50.
410-482-6337 or 410-820-9159.
GET YOUR ITEM IN
To have your event included, contact Joni at 302-6457700 or mail your event to Joni, c/o Delmarva
Quarterly, P.O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958 or email to
[email protected]
62 • Delmarva Quarterly
PATRICK J. HENDRICKSON PHOTOGRAPH / HIGHCAMERA.COM
ASSATEAGUE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE - This is a recent photograph of the
lighthouse on Assateague Island in Virginia. Chincoteague National
Wildlife Refuge is home of the lighthouse constructed in 1833 at a cost
of approximately $55,000. According to information gleaned from the
internet, it has twin rotating lights that flash one after the other from a
height of 154 feet above sea level. The lights can be seen 19 miles out
to sea. The Assateague Lighthouse stands 142 feet high with a base that
measures over 27 feet in diameter. The Assateague Lighthouse is an
active navigational aid and is in the National Register of Historic places.
Winter 2007
DELMARVA PLACES
WINTER 2007
PLACE NAMES IN THE NANTICOKE WATERSHED
Fords and pig iron and native American skill gave rise to
a variety of place names in this heartland of Delmarva
BY LYNN L. REMLY
P
lace names generally reflect local histo- from an Indian reservation on Broad Creek marshy hope. There may be a similar derry, and in the case of the Nanticoke was sold. It was quite simply named for the ivation for the Marshyhope, since the early
River watershed, they often recall fea- laurel trees that grew along the banks of the Nanticoke Indians were unable to farm the
area because of its marshy quality.
tures of the channels on which settlement creek.
An interesting slice of history is preserved
Federalsburg owes its name to its onedepended. Just as often, they encapsulate
the efforts to overcome the obstacles pre- time political convictions. It began as in Bloomery Road north of Federalsburg
sented by the river or natural features that Northwest Fork Ford (also known by the near the Idylwild Wildlife Management
characterize its banks. Occasionally, the corrupted form Noris Ford), in 1682, when Area. The area north of Idylwild held bog
name holds the hopes and dreams of those James and William Wright came from iron, which was part of a local industry.
England with one of William Penn’s colonies When pig iron becomes hot, it is said to
who settled there.
The Nanticoke River got its name and settled on the Marshyhope Creek, the bloom. Hence the name, which recalls the
from Capt. John Smith, who named it after headwaters of what was then called the iron smelting days. Houston’s Branch is
the Indians he encountered on his 1608 Northwest Fork of the Nanticoke River. The the name applied to a small stream emptying into the North West
voyage, the Nantaquak.
Fork a few miles above
Their skill on the water
Federalsburg. It was evigave rise to their name,
dently named for James
which means “those who
Houston, the earliest miller
ply the tidal stream” or
in the area, who moved to
“tidewater people.” Smith
this region from Sussex
called them “the best
County about 1800.
Marchants” of all other
Brookview
and
tribes in the region; imporEldorado are sister comtant trading commodities
munities located on the
were animal pelts and
northwest branch of the
Roanoke - beads made
Nanticoke
River.
from shells of oysters and
Brookview was originally
clams - which gave a name
called Crochet’s Ferry,
to a city on the other side
memorializing the man
of the Chesapeake Bay,
who began the ferry from
Roanoke.
there to Eldorado. The
Seaford, on the other
name gave way to
hand, has an expressly
Brookview around 1900,
English name, according to
Federalsburg Mill, on the banks of the Marshyhope.
again for obvious reasons.
two derivations.
First
called Hooper’s Landing after Thomas name was changed to “Northwest Fork Eldorado was also formerly known as “The
Hooper, whose 1726 deed made him Bridge” or “The Bridge” after the bridge Ferry,” but the area was later given the
Seaford’s first citizen, the town might have built at that spot in the early 1790s, and name of a local farm, Eldorado. Signifying
taken its name from its function as the ford thus it remained until early 1812, when the “the gilded one,” the name Eldorado has a
over the Nanticoke River, which creates the Federalist Party held a mass meeting at “The golden history.
In the United States alone, the states of
city’s southern boundary. In support of this Bridge” and gave the town its new name,
Arkansas, California (town and county),
interpretation are the communities of Federalsburg.
The source of the name Broad Creek is Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio,
Middleford to the North, and beyond
that, an area once known as Little Ford. The obvious, but that of the Marshyhope is Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin have
downstream site would have been the less so. The ground in the area is marshy, cities or towns with the name, to say noth“ford” closest to the “sea.” More likely, but why “hope”? There is a town of Marshy ing of Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Mexico.
however, is that it was named for Seaford, Hope in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, settled In Australia, it names a gold-mining ghost
England, whose residents settled in what in 1815 by one James Mappel, whose town, probably reflecting the hopes of its
became southern Delaware during land neighbors advised him to leave the marshy settlers as well as the gold itself. The origiplace because frost hurt his crops. He nal, mythical Eldorado was the City of Gold
assignments in 1631.
The town of Laurel was founded in always replied, “I hope it will improve,” and sought by Spanish conquistadores. Hope
1683 but platted in 1802 when the land his neighbors remarked that his hope was a springs eternal. DQ
Delmarva Quarterly
Winter 2007 • 63
STRICTLY DELMARVA
WINTER 2007
HAVE ALL THE ENFORCERS MOVED TO DELMARVA?
With more and more laws, and more and more officers patrolling,
it’s important to have a grounding philosophy when arrested and contested.
BY DAVE FREDERICK
I
have been a person belonging to the public all my professional
life, both as a teacher and journalist. Anytime someone from my
cosmos steps off into the social matrix of laws, bylaws and
Roberts Rules of Order, I most likely know about it. I have taught students the intricacies and subtleties beyond the norms and mores
that evolve into the laws guiding human interaction. Many of my
best friends and former students have been arrested multiple times,
with little effort on their part.
“Mr. Frederick, is it true that you told your students if they haven’t
been arrested by the time they graduate from high school that they
aren’t getting out much? Please tell me you didn’t tell them that,” a
parent said at the football concession stand, not even offering to
cover the cost of my boiled dog.
I responded in non-defensive fashion that with town cops, state
cops, rent-a-cops, marine police, auxiliary cops, ferry cops, choppers in the sky, cops under cover, sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, state park
rangers, environmental protection officers, game wardens, deputy
dogs and an endless pool of citizens on patrol that it was no longer
a status symbol to “have a sheet” of misdemeanors that would most
likely not disappear when they turned
18 because someone, somewhere in
place and space, would have to
delete their record and that never
happens until it’s too late and a
prospective employer already knows
you smoked Acapulco Gold before
the Sun Splash reggae concert and
got into a fight with a parking lot tee
shirt salesman stoned on Quaaludes.
Fredman is a single word nickname given to me by students at
Cape Henlopen High School early in
my teaching and coaching career. It
evolved from Coach Fred and is now
moving in the modern millennium
towards Freddogg as I get older and
cooler. It becomes significant as I am
often quoted by young offenders as a
subreference in magistrate courts
and inside local police stations where
those too talkative for tolerance are
handcuffed to wooden benches.
A few summers ago a magistrate judge called me at home in the
dead of the afternoon.
“The funniest thing in my entire career just happened in my courtroom,” the judge said. “Do you know Chris Palmetto?”
“Yes, I know him; former student and football player.”
“Well, I read him his ticket for multiple traffic offenses on the
same maneuver in Lewes with the Chief of Police standing right next
to him. He was charged with reckless driving, speeding, cracked
windshield, no insurance or registration card and operating a
64 • Delmarva Quarterly
motor vehicle with intent to deliver.”
“Domino’s?”
“No!”
“Anyway, Chris looks at the Chief then back at me and said,
‘Everything he wrote down is absolutely true’.”
“Well then, Mr. Palmetto, if everything on the ticket is true, why
are you standing in front of me pleading ‘Not guilty’?”
“Because Fredman said, ‘Always plead not guilty,’ Palmetto
said.”
The judge thought it hysterical that I was being referenced and
cited as a legal authority in court, but try taking back a guilty plea
coerced by a cop who threatens to pile on charges if you don’t
plead out prior to legal counsel.
Another time I was summoned to a state police troop. Three students were booked on multiple offenses after squealing tires leaving the pool hall parking lot. That caught the attention of “Secret
Stake Out Man,” slouching nearby in an unmarked white car with
black-walled tires, re-evaluating his career path.
Basically these three, college-bound seniors had a tiny digital
scale in the backseat - grams and kilograms - and unless they were members of weight watchers that just didn’t
compute.
The officer was going to “let my
people go” except they wouldn’t
answer the simplest of questions
including their names, destination and
who owned the car. Just before enacting the threat to take them to juvenile
detention center, the cop asked:
“What’s wrong with you idiots? Why
won’t you talk?”
“Fredman said we have the right to
remain silent,” one kid said, before
producing my phone number. I had no
idea such a rigid interpretation of
Miranda Rights had been inculcated
into their craniums through my teaching.
Delmarva is not “The Hood of
Human Habitat” so really, is all the
enforcement justified?
Have you ever stood by and watched a grown man measuring
another man’s trout? Have you ever had your boat pulled over by
a marine policeman in a car because your registration sticker was
out of date?
The newest addition to all of this enforcement is Citizens on Patrol
inside state parks and small towns. No wonder our inner cities are
so lawless. All the enforcement people have moved to Delmarva.
I enter each new day a soft target and easy mark, and I will
always plead not guilty if I speak at all. DQ
Winter 2007
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