One year after an old industrial building at the threshold of Fells Point, off the eastern fringe of the Inner Harbor, was filled with the authentic and artificial relics of African-American shipbuilding history, the bold experiment in storytelling has proven a success.
The Frederick Douglass?Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum, a first for its unique choice of subject matter and curious way of presenting it, celebrated its one-year anniversary Friday night ? a landmark date for the pioneers of this narrative venture.
“I knew that we had good stories to tell, but I had no idea people were going to enjoy the stories,” said museum curator Dianne Swann-Wright. “I had no idea that schoolchildren were going to enjoy it so much, and that educators were going to appreciate it so much.”
The numbers, said Swann-Wright, are evidence of that alone.
In only one year of operation, and in a city with an already well-established museum circuit ? the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters, to name a few ? the Douglass-Myers maritime park has attracted exactly 12,532 visitors as of Thursday. That?s more than 1,000 a month, which exceeds the founders? original goal.
And according to Swann-Wright, at least 95 percent of those visitors report a positive experience, and most say they?d like to return.
“That?s pretty good,” she said with a laugh.
And it isn?t just the scenic harbor-side location or the curiously interactive exhibits ? a talking Frederick Douglass, for one ? that have attracted so many visitors. The biggest draw, said Swann-Wright, is the story itself.
“What we do is to reclaim and to really recall stories that have been forgotten, or stories that have been unknown,” she said.
The stories are those of famed Maryland-born writer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass? education as an African-American shipbuilder at a time when maritime industry was at its height ? both as an economic engine and force for slavery.
People come to the museum thinking they know the story behind Douglass? life ? his talent for brilliant oration and role as abolitionist firebrand ? but neglect what really made him who he was, Swann-Wright said.
“It kind of tells the side of the story that hasn?t been publicly recognized before,” she said.
That story also includes the life of Isaac Myers, founder of the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Co., which was owned by and employed both black and white shipbuilders and dockworkers. That was a first, especially in an industry that, even after the Civil War, was staging anti-black strikes and sparking racial riots.
Myers? story is interwoven rather seamlessly with that of Douglass, and the choice to pair “two great men, one well-known and one lesser known” is what gives the museum its character, the curator said.
That and is the “learning by doing” creed. At the Douglass-Myers museum, visitors can fiddle with artificial relics of 19th century shipbuilding, complete model designs and even “caulk” ? seal or finish ? the wooden deck of a ship.
“Our museum provides an interdisciplinary education,” said education coordinator Willa Banks.
The interactivity is just one component of a narrative vision that, one year after its genesis, has preserved the integrity of the story and evolved into something unique.
“The idea was, if you could show the examples of the past to the people of the present, then they would become inspired by the people who came before them,” she said. “There was a really powerful story here.”
IF YOU GO
Frederick Douglass?Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum
1417 Thames St.
Baltimore
410-685-0295, extension 252
Admission
$5 General admission
$4.50 Seniors
$4 Students
$4 Children
Free Under 6
