Museum hosts free “Shipwreck Explorers” activity day during Spring Break

The annual Spring Break Activity Day at the North Berrien Historical Museum invites families and kids of all ages to experience the past with fun crafts, games, and demonstrations during the school break.  On Wednesday, April 4, 2012, the museum will hold a “Shipwreck Explorers” themed activity day, from 1:00 to 3:00pm.  The event is free and offers activities throughout the museum to complement our newest permanent exhibit “Shipwrecks of the Berrien County Coast.”

Participants at “Shipwreck Explorers” will receive a sailor hat, race toy sailboats, and make their own message in a bottle, imagining the dangers seen by ships on Lake Michigan.  In the new exhibit, all can complete a treasure hunt and view interactive video clips of shipwreck divers.  A member of the Michigan Underwater Diving Club will demonstrate diving equipment and describe the underwater sights to be seen in local waters.  To remember the importance of historic lighthouses in ship safety, participants will craft a light-up model of the St. Joseph Lighthouse to take home along with a map of Lake Michigan lighthouses.

The North Berrien Historical Museum is located at 300 Coloma Avenue, on Red Arrow Highway across from Coloma High School.  For more information on this program, contact the museum at (269) 468-3330 or visit our website at www.NorthBerrienHistory.org.

Local Links to the Titanic Disaster April 17

The North Berrien Historical Museum invites the public to a presentation on southwest Michigan connections to the Titanic this spring.  In April 1912 the massive and luxurious steamship RMS Titanic, during her maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, hit an iceberg and sank.  The disaster took the lives of 1,517 people while just 705 were rescued.  The focus of this slide show presentation in Coloma will be on the survivors and policy consequences of Titanic’s sinking that had significant ties to southwest Michigan.  “Local Links to the Titanic Disaster” will be held on Tuesday, April 17 at 7pm.  The program is free to attend and refreshments will follow.

Ruth Becker in 1912, a Titanic survivor who
later was a teacher in Berrien County for 20 years.

Titanic passengers to be discussed include the Becker family, a mother and three children bound for Benton Harbor.  Two parties on the ship were traveling to Dowagiac: the Bishops, a wealthy newlywed couple, and the Touma (Thomas) family, a mother with two children immigrating from Syria to join her husband here.  Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan, who led the U.S. investigation in to the tragedy, was a Dowagiac native.  The aftermath of the Titanic disaster also impacted ships on the Great Lakes by forcing new maritime laws about lifeboat capacity and wireless telegraphy.

This April 17 program will be presented by Tracy Gierada from the North Berrien Historical Museum and Jennifer Quail from the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College.  While at the North Berrien Historical Museum, visitors can also view the new exhibit “Shipwrecks of the Berrien County Coast.”  For more information, call the museum at (269) 468-3330 or visit our website www.NorthBerrienHistory.org.

LMC professor explains “Why the War of 1812 Matters” on March 20

The North Berrien Historical Museum invites the public to join us on March 20 for our monthly third-Tuesday program, when the featured speaker will be Dr. Chris Paine, Professor of History at Lake Michigan College.  Dr. Paine will present a program called “A Most Decisive Draw: Why the War of 1812 Matters.”  He will provide a general history of the War of 1812, emphasizing its often overlooked significance in the present-day.  Michigan Territory was the site of land and naval battles involving the U.S., Great Britain, and Native Americans, with lasting consequences for our state and nation.  The State of Michigan has even recognized the importance of the conflict with a special Commission to help commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the war.

“A Most Decisive Draw: Why the War of 1812 Matters” with Dr. Chris Paine will be held on Tuesday, March 20 at 7pm at the North Berrien Historical Museum.  The program is free and refreshments will follow.  The museum is located at 300 Coloma Avenue, on Red Arrow Highway across from Coloma High School.  For more information, contact the North Berrien Historical Museum at (269) 468-3330 or visit our website at www.NorthBerrienHistory.org.

Shipwrecks of the Berrien County Coast to Open in April 2012

The Joseph P. Farnan burned and sank in 1889.
 Drawing by Robert Doornbos, MSRA

A new permanent exhibit at the North Berrien Historical Museum explores the history of shipping and shipwreck discovery nearby in Lake Michigan. “Shipwrecks of the Berrien County Coast” focuses on over 40 ships that once carried people and goods to southwest Michigan, but were wrecked and now remain in the depths of local waters to this day. The exhibit examines the various cargos shipped, presents images and several salvaged artifacts from actual wrecks, and explains how underwater archaeology on shipwrecks can help people today discover unknown information about the past.

Berrien County developed with help from water-based transportation routes that linked it to Great Lakes ports. A study of the shipwrecks lost en-route to and from the region, and the cargos they carried, offers a glimpse of the region’s economic history. Although many of these vessels used the ports at St. Joseph- Benton Harbor in their travels, the exhibit also shows where historic piers once existed to aid in loading ships at numerous points along the coast.

The J. Barber with its load of peaches sank in 1871.
Image courtesy of C. Patrick Labadie Collection.

Most of the shipwrecks covered in the exhibit were lost in the mid to late nineteenth century, when commercial shipping in Lake Michigan was at its peak. On view are samples and pictures of the area’s most common ship cargo, which included fruit, grain, lumber, fish, raw materials, manufactured goods, and tourists, especially between here and Chicago. All this movement promoted the growth of trade and industry and thus the prosperity of southwest Michigan.

A few shipwreck artifacts have long been preserved in the North Berrien community. A historic ship’s bell will be featured in the exhibit, on loan from the First Congregational Church in Coloma. Traced back to the propeller steamer Montezuma built in Cleveland in 1848, the bell was salvaged from the ruined boat and donated to the church around 1860. In early 1895, the Carter family of Coloma was among those who saw debris strewn along the frozen beach between Benton Harbor and South Haven. The wreckage was undoubtedly from the Graham & Morton Company’s steamer Chicora, carrying flour from Milwaukee to St. Joseph when it was caught in a terrible blizzard. The Carter family kept a wooden stool from among the Chicora’s debris and used it at home for a century before donating it to the North Berrien Historical Museum, where it will now be a part of the new shipwrecks exhibit.

Sometimes local residents were even among those who tragically lost their lives when a ship foundered. Overloaded with a cargo of peaches in September 1868, the steamer Hippocampus capsized in a storm, killing twenty-six people including five crew men from Bainbridge Township. Overall, however, the lumbermen, farmers and shopkeepers of early Berrien County benefited greatly from their easy access to shipping on the Great Lakes.

Divers taking notes on a wreck.

“Shipwrecks of the Berrien County Coast” is guest curated by for Valerie van Heest of Holland, an historian and experienced shipwreck diver recognized in the Women Divers Hall of Fame. Van Heest is active in Lake Michigan wreck discovery as a co-founder of the non-profit Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates and is also a museum exhibit designer with the firm Lafferty van Heest. She has earned several State History Awards from the Historical Society of Michigan for her books and distinguished volunteer service in promoting the study of our state’s submerged maritime heritage.

The North Berrien Historical Museum invites the public to attend two programs related to the new exhibit. An opening reception on Thursday, April 12, from 5:30-7:30pm will feature refreshments and remarks by guest curator Valerie van Heest at 6:00pm. On Wednesday, April 4, from 1:00-3:00pm, the museum invites all ages, especially ages 6-12, to join us for “Shipwreck Explorers: Spring Break Activity Day” during the school break. At this fun and free program, kids will receive a sailor hat, do a “treasure hunt” in our new exhibit, race toy sailboats, and more. Take home crafts will include making your own “message in a bottle” and a light-up model of the St. Joseph Lighthouse.

Admission to the North Berrien Historical Museum is free. Open hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 4pm through May 1. After May 1 the museum’s summer hours begin, Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm. For more information please contact the North Berrien Historical Museum at (269) 468-3330 or visit our website at www.NorthBerrienHistory.org.