LANCASTER—The Steamboat Era Museum, 156 King Carter Drive, Irvington, recently announced its 2026 Second Saturday Speaker Series.
The programs will begin at 3 p.m. and light refreshments will be available, reported museum manager Candee Pevahouse. Admission is $10 per program or $40 for all five. Tickets can be purchased at shop.steamboateramuseum.org.
The series will open Saturday, January 10, with “Steamboats on the Chesapeake.” Produced by Mark Huffman of 26th Street Media, Richmond, the film traces the history of the Chesapeake Bay steamboats from their beginning in 1813 to the end of service in 1962. Included is an interview with Jack Shaum, of Chestertown, Md., the author of three books about Chesapeake steamers, as well as a number of local and area residents.
The series will continue:
• February 14, with “The Clyde Line: Linking the Eastern Seaboard by Steamboat.” Justin McIntyre, curator of the South Carolina Maritime Museum, will share the story of the Clyde Line’s coastal steamers, which once connected major port cities along the Eastern Seaboard, including New York, Charleston and Jacksonville.
• March 14, with “The Neuroscience of Nautical Cats: Why Felines Make Great Sailors.” This presentation by Dr. Lesley O’Brien, neuroscientist at California Southern University, will explore the neurological and behavioral traits that make cats suited to life on the water. Dr. O’Brien is an author with extensive scientific publications as well as an illustrated children’s book series on the “purritcular” adventures of Captain Marco!
• April 11, with “How Steamboats Shaped the Northern Neck.” Local historian Larry Chowning, a general assignment reporter/photographer at the Southside Sentinel in Urbanna, for a talk on how steamboats transformed the communities, economies and culture of the Northern Neck.
• May 9, with “When Claiborne Bridged the Chesapeake: The Rise and Fall of the Ferry Era.” Martin “Marty” Bollinger’s latest book on the Clairborne-Annapolis Ferry Company highlights the importance of this service connecting Annapolis to the Eastern Shore before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was completed. Bollinger, a Naval Institute member since 2009, retired in 2013 from Booz Allen Hamilton and teaches industrial strategy courses to flag-level officers and senior civilians of the Navy, Marines and Air Force.
