Steamboat Era Museum

10/18/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out for our Irvington walking tour.

Museum supporters got a chance to walk down Steamboat Road and stand where photographs were taken more than 100 years ago. We are grateful to Mark and Prentiss Lay for hosting the group on their historic property.

Keep your eyes open for more opportunities to journey through time in the near future!

We invite you to become a museum member today; your support preserves the memory of our communities and gets you first access to events like these: https://steamboateramuseum.org/membership/

10/17/2026

Have no fear, the porch is here!

We are monitoring the weather forecast for our walking tour on Steamboat Road. Thankfully, it looks like the morning rain will move off before we start at 1:30 PM.

If the weather forecasters are lying, as is sometimes the case, we have a great big porch to enjoy drinks, food, and history under.

We hope to see you there!

10/14/2026

Join us this weekend, October 17, for a stroll down Steamboat Road and Irvington’s history!

Park (where legal!) on Steamboat Road and meet us at Prentiss and Mark Lay’s house at 1:30 PM for light refreshments and the tour.

We hope to see you there: https://steamboateramuseum.org/speaker-series/

10/08/2026

Wharf Wednesday 10/7/2026 Baltimore Harbor 1851-1872

In 1851, H.H. Clark, a professional photographer, set up his camera on Federal Hill and took the first known photos of Baltimore’s port. Baltimore by this time had expanded far beyond its early days of exporting wheat and flour to Europe and the West Indies in the 1820s. Shoe making and clothing factories appeared. Practical canning methods for oysters, fruits and vegetables began in 1847 and imports of tea, coffee, sugar, wines and fruits from Europe were received. Exports of to***co, grain, flour continued but now so were exports of cotton cloth, hardware, canned foods and other consumer goods.

The photographs below were collected in a small 1963 pamphlet by The Peale, a Baltimore museum established in 1814 by Rembrandt Peale, which is still in existence today. https://thepeale.org/

10/05/2026

Sunday on a Steamboat - TANGIER

TANGIER was built in 1875 for the Eastern Shore Steamship Company, owned by the Harlan & Hollingsworth Company in Wilmington, DE. Costing $80,000, she was 153’ long, 29’ beam and a depth of hold 8’. Her usual assigned route of Crisfield and the lower Eastern Shore. Steamboat companies usually had three steamers assigned to one route so this provided Crisfield with daily service. TANGIER’S partners were HELEN and MAGGIE.

TANGIER carried 175 passengers and her saloon was 115’ long with 25 staterooms opening onto it. Two private ladies’ saloons were aft with connecting staterooms, and all were finely furnished. There were also 24 berths furnished with horse hair mattresses and curtains. All compartments had steam heat.

Along with the usual trials and tribulations of Chesapeake Bay steamers – storms, ice, fog, forest fire smoke, broken shafts and groundings, TANGIER attracted several unusual happenings. In 1883, a whale was captured and towed ashore to Bernard’s Island, at the mouth of Gilford Creek. The carcass was sold to the fish factory for $300 and produced seven barrels of oil, which was shipped to Baltimore.

The next year, a young gentleman and lady from Onancock ran to catch TANGIER. The gangplank had been pulled in but was put back out for the couple. As the steamer pulled away, an angry older man was seen yelling on shore. The couple was married on board. It happened again in 1885 - another couple eloped from Finney’s Wharf and had a shipboard wedding but this time their friends were on board to celebrate.

TANGIER was lengthened by 16’ and had a 5,000 candle power spotlight installed in 1889. From 1892 to 1894, she was chartered out to the Baltimore & Eastern Shore Railroad Company for the Baltimore to Claiborne route. By 1919 she was a relief boat and used only as a replacement boat for other steamers undergoing repair or as an extra boat during heavy harvest seasons. Her final owner in 1923 was the Baltimore and Virginia Steamboat Company, and they sold her in 1927 when she was stripped down to become a motor tanker named Suburban.

09/29/2026

The photographs have arrived!

Thank you to everyone who supported the museum by attending the 15th Irvington Crab Festival—whether you were an attendee, a volunteer, or one of our amazing sponsors.

Plans are already underway for the 16th Irvington Crab Festival, so keep an eye out for tickets going on sale next year!

A very special thank you to our sponsors:
Clements Tent Rentals
Chesapeake Bank
The Town of Irvington
Bragg & Company Real Estate
Mary Burgess, Realtor
Streamline Roofing Northern Neck
Irvington VA - VIA Events
Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville Real Estate
Pearl Boutique
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory B. Kirkbride
Bay Auto Service, Inc.
Peninsula Heating & Air
Custom Yacht Service
Rappahannock HANG UPS, INC
Wagmoor LLC
Hubbard Insurance Agency
The Local, Irvington VA

09/28/2026

Sunday on a Steamboat 9/27/2026 HELEN

The Eastern Shore Steamboat Company was very successful with its routes from Baltimore to the Eastern Shore. They contracted with Harlan and Hollingsworth Company, located in Wilmington, DE, to build yet another steamer after MAGGIE was built in 1869. Three years later, HELEN was launched.

HELEN wasn’t much different than MAGGIE. For cost saving, steamboat lines and shipbuilding companies frequently used the same designs and plans for multiple vessels. HELEN was 150’ long, with a 28’ beam. She had a steel hull and a side-wheel although the side-wheel was enclosed within the superstructure, so she looked like she had a propellor. Her depth of hold was only 7’. HELEN had a vertical walking beam engine, also enclosed in the superstructure. The engine had a cylinder with a 20” bore and a 72” stroke which produced 283 hp. A crew of 27 ran the steamer.

In 1872, HELEN began her route from Baltimore to Crisfield, Ononcock, Pungoteague and Occohonock. As with most steamers, when she wasn’t on her regular route, she carried excursionists to resorts at Bay Side, Battle Point, and Ocean City. In 1879, it was $4 to Ocean City, meals and staterooms extra. HELEN also carried farm products and seafood from Crisfield to Baltimore for distribution north, including at times 200 barrels of oysters, 2,200 boxes of peaches and 1,000 barrels of potatoes.

The Maryland Steamboat Company purchased HELEN in 1890. The Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company bought the Maryland Steamboat Company in 1894, HELEN was included. She was converted to a freighter and in 1916 she was converted to diesel. By 1936 she was abandoned.

09/24/2026

Wharf Wednesday 9/23/2026 Tolchester Beach

In 1875-1876, the Tolchester Beach Steamboat Company formed and purchased 1,000 waterfront acres in Kent County, MD, with the intent of connecting steamboats to a Kent County railroad spur. The spur was never built. Inspired by the attractions displayed at The Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876, they opened Tolchester Beach, the most prestigious resort and amusement park on the Chesapeake Bay.

In 1877 a wharf was bult and by May of 1878, the Tolchester Steamboat Company was advertising two trips per day three times a week plus extra trips for excursions. The location, 27 miles out from Baltimore, was a two-hour trip for $0.50 and remained the same for decades. Only ten acres of land when it opened, the park was primitive, but it included fine fishing, picnic grounds and a bath house.

After the 1880s, it expanded to 53-acres and as steamship travel became increasingly popular, improvements were made. A 53-room hotel was built, and facilities for games and picnics were improved. The park included horse-racing, a shooting range and a tenpin bowling alley.
By the 1900s, Tolchester Steamboat Company ran six weekly trips from Baltimore or Annapolis plus chartered excursions. Improvements and upgrades continued; even bathing suits available for rent increased from 500 to 2,000!

A proud lineage of steamers carried excursionists to Tolchester Beach: SARAH K. TAGGERT (1877) and PILOT BOY (1878), each carrying 600 passengers. By the 1880s, NELLY WHITE and LOUISE carried 2,400 passengers each. When steamer LOUISE retired in 1925, it was estimated she carried over 5 million passengers. There were other steamers too: three different TOLCHESTERS, EMMA GILES, POCOHONTAS, and BEAR MOUNTAIN.

Tolchester Beach’s heyday faded by the 1920s as times changed. Cars began to be commonplace and carried folks to other resorts. The Great Depression added to the decline. By 1936, Tolchester Beach was bankrupt and sold to shareholders and the park refurbished. In the 1940s, moonlight cruises were added, while steamer runs decreased to three on Sunday. 1950 saw the sale of Tolchester Lines’s Pier 16, used since 1877, to the city of Baltimore for the Light Street Improvement Project. Tolchester Beach Amusement Park was closed in 1962. The only remains of the park is the bandstand located at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD.

09/18/2026

The tent is here. This can only mean one thing: Irvington Crab Festival TOMORROW!

Get your last minute tickets today: https://steamboateramuseum.org/events/crab-festival/

09/17/2026

One more day!

Grab your Irvington Crab Festival tickets while they are still available!

🚨 The final Irvington Crab Festival tickets are up for grabs 🚨

With a cool 80-degree weekend approaching, now is the time to act! Come out and support the museum’s educational mission, enjoy some crabs, and bid in the silent auction.

In case you missed it: Jumbo Lump Daddy & the Backfin Boys will return to serenade us through the evening 🎶

Get your tickets while they last: https://steamboateramuseum.org/events/crab-festival/