Fish & Ships - Great Lakes Museum installs temporary exhibit at Toledo Zoo

        The National Museum of the Great Lakes has installed a small temporary exhibition entitled “What’s in a Name?” at the Toledo Zoo.
        The exhibit, housed in the Reflections Gallery of the Aquarium at the zoo, is part of a larger collection of Great Lakes ships nameboards.
        The nameboards, which would have been attached to the vessel’s pilothouse, range in size from eight to 13 feet long each.
         The exhibit tells the stories of the ships as well as for whom and why they were named.
        “Boats have had proper names since ancient times, but the nameboards displayed here only came into prominence after the evolution of the pilothouse in the 1840s,” says Carrie Sowden, NMGL Archaeological Director and one of the exhibit curators. “One of the more interesting nameboards is that of the Alex D. Chisholm, formerly known as the William P. Snyder, and the fleet mate of NMGL’s 617-foot museum ship, Col. James M. Schoonmaker.”
        This temporary exhibit is an expansion of NMGL’s collaborative efforts throughout the Toledo community. “Since we first arrived in Toledo six years ago, NMGL has been working to be neighbors and friends with other cultural organizations in the community,” said Kate Fineske, Communications and Development Director for NMGL. “This is just the beginning of some of the great collaborative efforts we hope to build in the years to come.”
        Originally scheduled to open in April, the Toledo Zoo and NMGL held off on installation until both entities reopened. The plans call for the exhibit to remain at the Toledo Zoo through December. The exhibit is included with zoo admission.