Our Museum is currently closed to protect the health of our community. The Museum reopens to the public on Friday, January 21, 2022. Visitors can buy tickets online or at the door once the museum. Capacity restrictions in our exhibit spaces have been lifted. Face coverings and social distancing are required. Please follow instructions posted in our spaces.
The Museum is situated on a small waterfront campus at the mouth of Back Creek, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay and is housed in the last surviving historic oyster-packing plant in Annapolis.
Photos courtesy of DANIE Photography and Quatrefoil Associates
By integrating technology with authentic artifacts, the AMM’s permanent exhibit is designed to engage visitors with the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay and local maritime heritage. The exhibits focus on three thematic sections: Bay Health, Oyster Economy and Annapolis Waters.
Interactives invite visitors to learn, play and experience the maritime history and ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. Visitors can step up to a large-scale, four player digital game, interact with a life-like hologram of a Bay waterman, or board one of three boats to experience the Bay in a virtual reality setting.
Our live fish cam is currently offline as we work to reopen the museum following significant storm damage. The fish cam features our aquariums as seen in our new permanent exhibit. Thank you to our generous sponsor, Hannon Armstrong.
Our Then & Now aquariums demonstrate the change in water quality for the Chesapeake Bay over time. Our Then (blue) aquarium shows a recreation of a 17th century Bay while our Now (black) aquarium mirrors water quality in the Bay today. Discover how and why our Chesapeake Bay has evolved this way during your visit.
The Buchanan Bay Room Gallery offers approximately 88 linear feet of well-lit, air-conditioned exhibition space for two-dimensional artwork. All work displayed in the gallery is maritime or Chesapeake Bay-themed to complement the mission of the Museum. Displayed art is for sale with partial proceeds benefiting the Museum.
Jay Fleming’s photographs on exhibit in the museum’s Bay Room reflect the rich maritime history and the diversity of the aquatic ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay. The prints are select works from Jay’s book, Working the Water. This exhibit features photography of wildlife in their natural habitats and photographs from his forthcoming book on the Bay’s inhabited offshore islands, Island life. The exhibit is constantly changing as Jay creates new work from his trips on the Chesapeake.
The Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park offers virtual exhibits through the generous support of the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County.
Eastport, a neighborhood of Annapolis, was a working-class village and best known as home for local watermen of the Chesapeake Bay. For hundreds of years, these watermen tonged for oysters, crabbed, and made their living from the waters of the Chesapeake. Small, local businesses thrived on the bounty of resources the Bay provided and helped to build the Eastport community that we know today. These small businesses employed a diverse workforce, a reflection of the community.
Founded in 1886 by William McNasby Sr., the McNasby Oyster Company began as a single storefront on Compromise Street. The business continued to grow until it became necessary to expand to a packing plant on 723 Second Street in the community of Eastport, the same historic structure where the Annapolis Maritime Museum stands today. The McNasby Oyster Co. left a lasting impression upon Eastport, and a legacy that the Annapolis Maritime Museum continues to uphold in telling the stories of the local watermen. View the bibliography for “McNasby’s Oyster Company: An Eastport Landmark”.
Discover how the Owens Yacht Company, one of the first family owned and operated boat building companies in Annapolis, grew into an empire and then eventually disappeared. Learn about the family’s story, as well as the story of some of their most valuable employees while admiring the craftsmanship of the boats that they built. View the bibliography for “Dynamically Different: The Owens Yacht Company”.
Discover how Arnie Gay, a hardworking dedicated sailor, transformed the Annapolis waterfront into the Sailing Capital of America. Follow Arnie’s story from sailing into Annapolis harbor aboard Delilah through his work with the Annapolis Yacht Club and the many changes Gay inspired in our modern waterfront.
Discover how watermen’s work reflects the biological seasonality of the various species native to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Many commercial fishermen in Annapolis and the traditional watermen’s neighborhood of Eastport found additional work at local boatyards, at nearby farms, or in other lines of work with odd jobs. View the bibliography for “Crab Pots, Eel Spears, and Fish Nets: Seasonal Changes in Watermen’s Work”.
