WELCOME TO SOUTHERN MARYLAND

Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum presents lecture on”The Happiest of All Showboat Stories”: The James Adams Floating Theatre . . . .
In the days before television, computers, video games and the internet captured imaginations and free time, residents of coastal Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina anxiously awaited the arrival of the best entertainment going: the James Adams Floating Theatre. Join Patricia Samford as she discusses the history of the theatre that was perhaps best known as the inspiration for Edna Ferber’s 1926 novel Showboat, later turned into a Broadway musical and three hit movies. However, for people living along the Chesapeake Bay between 1914 and 1941, when the theatre was in operation, the showboat was an opportunity for an evening of diverting musical and theatrical entertainment. Patricia Samford is the Director of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum (JPPM).  She first became interested in the Adams Floating Theatre when she lived in Bath, North Carolina – a frequent stop on the showboat’s Mid-Atlantic circuit. The talk will be held on July 24 at 7 PM in JPPM’s Maryland Archaeological Conservation Lab. This lecture is sponsored in part by the Friends of JPPM and by the MARPAT Foundation in memory of Thomas W. Richards. The talk is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be served.