On Thursday, July 10, 2008, Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum (JPPM) will host the third lecture in a 5-part Speaker Series on the War of 1812 titled “War Comes to the Chesapeake.�

 

Dr. Ralph Eshelman, maritime historian and paleontologist, will present “Battlefields, Skirmishes, and Encampments: Remnants of the War of 1812 in Maryland�.

 

The lecture will start at 7:00 PM in the JPPM Visitor Center, 10115 Mackall Road, St. Leonard, Maryland 20685. Light refreshments will be served following the lecture.

 

The 5-part Speaker Series is co-hosted by the Calvert Marine Museum. For information regarding this and upcoming lectures in the “War Comes to the Chesapeake� Speaker Series, call 410-586-8501, visit the JPPM website Visitors Guide at www.jefpat.org, or email jppm@mdp.state.md.us.

 

Dr. Eshelman is a specialist in maritime history, the War of 1812, vertebrate paleontology, polar exploration, and cultural resource management. He is a past president of the Council of American Maritime Museums, and founding vice-president of the National Maritime Preservation Task Force of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. From 1974 to 1990 he held the position of Director at the Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland. Additionally, he has served as a Research Associate in the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and as a consultant to the American Battlefield Protection Program, National Park Service. Dr. Eshelman has shared his expertise as a geologist, naturalist, and historian with passengers on expedition cruise ships around the world. He presently serves as historian to the Star-Spangled Banner National Historical Trail, a program of the National Park Service. Dr. Eshelman is widely published and lectures on both maritime and military history, polar exploration, geology, and paleontology.

 

Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum, a state museum of archaeology, is a program of the Maryland Historical Trust, a division of the Maryland Department of Planning and the home of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory. It is located on 560 scenic acres along the Patuxent River and St. Leonard Creek in St. Leonard, Calvert County, Maryland.