About the Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park
The Annapolis Maritime Museum was founded in 2000, growing out of the work of the Eastport Historical Society in the waterfront neighborhood across Spa Creek from downtown Annapolis. Its home is the former McNasby Oyster Company building at 723 Second Street, which the museum describes as "the last oyster-packing plant in Annapolis." The choice of building is the point: the museum's subject is the working Chesapeake, the watermen, boatbuilders and packers whose trades shaped Eastport long before it became a yachting address, and the plant where oysters were shucked and shipped is itself the museum's largest artifact. The organization marked its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2025.
The museum's stated purpose is to educate young people and adults about the maritime heritage of the Annapolis area and the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay through programs, exhibits and community events. That dual mission, history and environment together, runs through everything it does. Permanent exhibits occupy the McNasby building, and a changing program of art exhibitions runs alongside them.
In addition to the museum campus on Back Creek, the organization operates a second site, the Park Campus and Education Center at 7300 Edgewood Road, which includes the 12-acre Ellen O. Moyer Nature Park with outdoor classrooms and trails used for hands-on environmental education. Between the two campuses the museum runs field trips and school programs for kindergarten through twelfth grade, summer camps for children from kindergarten through ninth grade, and "Box of Rain," a youth program for ages 8 to 14.
Collections and Research Services
For the family or neighborhood historian the most useful holding is the Michael F. Miron Oral History Collection, a collection of recorded interviews that the museum lists among its resources. The museum also maintains what it calls its Research Library and Collections. Neither is a drop-in reading room; contact the office by phone or at office@amaritime.org to ask about access to a specific interview, photograph or object. Since oral histories are a strong source for the look and use of individual houses and docks, pair a visit with our guide to finding old photos of a house and neighborhood, and for Anne Arundel County family lines start with free family history research.
Planning Your Visit
According to the museum's website, the museum campus at 723 Second Street is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm, and the administrative office is staffed Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. Tickets are sold online; admission prices were not posted on the pages we reviewed, so check amaritime.org for current rates, event listings and any seasonal changes, or call (410) 295-0104. The Park Campus at 7300 Edgewood Road is a separate location, so confirm which site a program uses before you go.
Two other Maryland sites on this directory pair well with a trip to the bay: Fort McHenry National Monument in Baltimore, and the Maryland Historical Society, the state's main historical library and museum.
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