BEAUFORT – Images from the early the 1870s-1980s capture the workaday life of African American watermen in an exhibit at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort, through early June.
The “African Americans and North Carolina Maritime History” exhibit’s 33 photographs are from the museum’s collection. Scenes capture oystering, seafood processing, the Menhaden Chantymen singers, rescuers at coastal lifesaving stations, and other examples of the ways the watermen affected the state’s history, economy and society.
The N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort is located at 315 Front Street. The three N.C. Maritime Museums are the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, Hatteras; the N.C. Maritime Museum, Beaufort; and the N.C. Maritime Museum, Southport. The museums are part of the Division of State History Museums in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.