Upcoming Events

Grand Opening

January 23, 2014  - 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Join us for the Grand Opening Reception for, Into the Blue: Maritime Navigation and the Archaeology of Shipwrecks.  The museum is pleased to announce that Tom Layton, author of three books chronicling the Gold Rush era ship, the Folic, will be in attendance as well as members of the Mendocino County Museum staff. Also, see a new documentary film about the Frolic made by CSU, Chico's Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology (ALVA).  Appetizers and refreshments will be provided.

World Explorations  - Nautical Navigation Before GPS

Sunday - February 9, 2014, 4:00-5:00 p.m. at the Chico Women's Club.

Back by popular demand, naval historian and collector, Bob Benner, will reprise his fascinating exploration of the history of nautical navigation.  Drawing on his experience in the U.S. Navy Reserve during WWII and as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant in the Korean War, Mr. Benner will weave tales of life at sea with his extensive knowledge of the history of maritime navigation.  While many of his objects will be featured in the museum's exhibition, attendants can expect to see some examples of his world class collection of nautical navigation instruments. 

World Explorations - Black Sailors and Abolition in the Age of Sail

Sunday - March 9, 2014, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. at the Chico Women's Club.

CSU, Chico Professor of English, Matthew Brown, will present his research on African Diasporic sailors and writers. 

"During the era of American slavery, free and enslaved sailors of African descent roamed widely around the Atlantic world, participating in key historical events and leaving their stamp on the communities with which they came into contact. They stood with the patriots in the Boston Massacre and they stood with Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay. Sailors also penned the first six autobiographies of Diasporic Africans written in English. But even before they began carrying their stories into print, they were an essential conduit of information between ships and ports and the growing abolitionist movement. Information about the horrors of slavery and emerging forms of resistance could not have traveled so swiftly to abolitionists without the information network that I call the Sailor’s Telegraph. By examining Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative, I hope to shed some light on the Sailor’s Telegraph and to make some assertions about some of the ways sailor-writers like Equiano shaped American literature." ~Matthew Brown