Membership in the Friends of the St. Clement’s
Island and Piney Point Museums is an enriching experience, providing our
members with a link from the past to the present.
From our museum sites on the Potomac River,
visiting members can observe the full life of a great American gateway
in the 21st century: kayakers paddling by on a Sunday morning; pleasure
boaters under sail or motoring past; tugboats and barges pushing gravel,
sand and other construction supplies upriver toward Washington.
And they can also observe the continuation of
Southern Maryland traditions: neighbors fishing and crabbing off their
piers, and watermen in sleek white boats, going from crab pot to crab
pot, bringing the contents to market.
In nearly two decades in St. Mary’s County, I’ve
learned the history and the stories of the river. I’m still learning
about it, and I hope I’ll always be making new discoveries about it. But
I couldn’t have learned nearly as much without my membership in the
Friends of the St. Clement’s Island and Piney Point Museums. Our museum
group, which also includes the Drayden African American School House,
the Little Red Schoolhouse and interpretation of the U-1105 Black
Panther Submarine Shipwreck Preserve, contain the stories, the photos,
the artifacts, the books and the exhibits which reveal the drama, the
excitement, the energy of life along the Potomac. Member support for our
museums has enriched the lives of many by preserving and retelling the
rich history of Maryland’s birthplace.
Father Andrew White, S. J., in his account of the
1633-1634 voyage that led to the settlement of Maryland by English
colonists, said of the Potomac, “This is the sweetest and greatest river
I have seen, so that the Thames is but a little finger to it.” We owe to
Father White much of our understanding of the first days of the Maryland
colonists as they explored the river, and to our museums, we owe much of
our knowledge about the days since.
Join us in supporting these wonderful museums! By
being a member of the Friends, you become part of Potomac River stories
yet to be written.
Board of Directors:
Sheila Gibbons Hiebert, President
Lewie Aldridge, Jr., Vice President
Ann Davis, Secretary
Paul G. Nelson, Treasurer
Sharon Balenger
John Madel
Thomas A. Mattingly, Sr.
Patricia Cooke Weiland
Delegate John F. Wood, Jr.
Please support our mission!
The Friends of the St. Clement's Island 
