Enhancing the watershed

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum works to improve the lives of guests, community members

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum preserves and explores the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and makes this resource accessible to all.

How does one organization tackle such aspirational goals while also hosting nearly 100,000 annual guests? CBMM’s approach to realizing this vision has led to its recognition as both a world-class institution and a leader in its local community.

Engaging Guest Experiences

A visit to CBMM in St. Michaels, Md., is an experience like no other. CBMM’s waterfront campus includes historic structures, purpose-built exhibition galleries, a floating fleet of historic vessels, and its own working Shipyard, plus a new Welcome Center slated to open later this year. Guests can try something different on every visit, from taking in the views from the 1879 Hooper Strait Lighthouse, to watching the careful construction, maintenance, and preservation of traditional Bay watercraft, to cruising the Miles River with volunteer docents.

Transformative Educational Programming

First and foremost, CBMM is an educational organization. Its collection boasts more than 80,000 objects and its year-round programming is designed to inspire and educate current and future stewards of the Bay, and to share its heritage, ecology, and culture.

Children and adults alike are invited to explore the Bay with CBMM through virtual learning, specialized tours, hands-on programs, on-thewater experiences, and corresponding curriculum units.

CBMM has also sought to address inequities through Rising Tide, a free after-school program for local youth, and a bus scholarship program to benefit PK-12 student field trips. In its Shipyard, CBMM’s shipwrights are engaged in the transference of traditional skills through a certified Shipwright Apprentice Program.

A Vital Community Partner

With the goal of being a valuable resource for the community, CBMM is dedicated to working closely with its neighbors to have a positive and lasting impact on the economy, public schools, larger community, and the Chesapeake watershed.

CBMM is a recognized driver to the local and state economies as a tourism destination for both local residents and those from outside the area, and large-scale projects like its Master Plan campus upgrades and Maryland Dove build in the Shipyard have proven a boon to the area with much of the spending in wages and benefits to locally based team members.

Beyond economics, CBMM is part of 140 local partnerships that help improve business and community and supports more than 90 nonprofits through donations and fundraising. In addition, its employees are involved with more than 100 community organizations through public service or volunteering.