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The AJ Meerwald and the New Jersey Oyster Industry
April 10, 2022 @ 5:00 pm
The AJ Meerwald and the New Jersey Oyster Industry.
Co-authors Connie McCart and Rachel Dolhanczyk of the Bayshore Center at Bivalve will share highlights from the new book that charts the history of New Jersey’s Delaware Bay oysters and the historic ship that carries the industry’s traditions today.
The AJ Meerwald is a restored Delaware Bay new style schooner that was built to dredge oysters under sail, but saw a lifetime of change come full circle. She served the US Coast Guard during World War II, returned to oystering under power for 10 years, was converted to dredge clams and then was let to rot in Maryland before being saved in 1986 by John Gandy and the Bayshore Center at Bivalve (BCB). BCB was founded in 1988 and is New Jersey’s only environmental history museum and the home port of the Schooner AJ Meerwald, New Jersey’s official tall ship, with a mission to further the understanding of the human impact on the environment. Located on a working waterfront, BCB operates the Delaware Bay Museum in the Oyster Shipping Sheds dating back to 1904. From our wharves, patrons have an unspoiled view of the beauty of the Maurice River, a National Wild and Scenic River, and get to watch oystermen navigate the river as osprey and bald eagles soar overhead. https://www.bayshorecenter.org/
The AJ Meerwald and New Jersey’s Oyster Industry. Order your copy today at https://www.bayshorecenter.org/shop/
About the Authors
Constance L. McCart, EdD, is a retired school administrator and teacher, a graduate of Rowan and Temple Universities. She resides in the Turnersville section of Washington Township with best buddy Winston, an English cocker. She enjoys spending time with family and friends and traveling. Dr. McCart has been a longtime member of the Washington Twp. Historic Preservation Commission and the Friends of the Heggan Library. A highlight of the eleven years spent as an onboard educator with the A.J. Meerwald was sailing in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. Volunteering on the A.J. was the motivation for this book. Other publications include Grenloch Terrace, the Most Beautiful Spot in South Jersey (Instantpublisher.com, 2011); From Beau’s Kitchen (Instantpublisher.com, 2010); Images of America: Washington Township, Gloucester County (Arcadia Publishing, 2009); The ACES Project: Logan Township’s Journey Toward Infusion of the Arts (Logan Township School District and the NJ Council of the Arts, 2005) and Prescriptions for Better Writing (NJ State Department of Education, 1988).
Rachel Rodgers Dolhanczyk, MA, has been the museum curator at the Bayshore Center at Bivalve’s Delaware Bay Museum since 2010. A native of the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, she found her way to the water and has worked in the history field for over twenty years along New Jersey’s waterfronts and the Chesapeake Bay. Dolhanczyk is a graduate of Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and has a BA in history from Wheaton College (Massachusetts) and an MA in museum education from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She spent a semester enrolled in the Williams College–Mystic Seaport Coastal and Ocean Studies Program. In 2004, she received an Award of Recognition from the New Jersey Historical Commission for her outstanding service to the public knowledge and preservation of New Jersey’s history. She lives in a two-hundred-year-old house in Cape May County with her husband and children, who also enjoy all things history.
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