Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs wins national award
The Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs received notification June 18 from the American Association for State and Local History that the multidimensional interpretive program, The DeBraak and Its Atlantic World, is a recipient of the 2014 Award of Merit, a component of the association’s Leadership in History Awards program.
The award will be presented to Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs representatives Sept. 19 during the association’s annual meeting that will take place in St. Paul, Minn.
The DeBraak and Its Atlantic World shines a spotlight on His Majesty's Sloop of War DeBraak, a British warship that was escorting and protecting a convoy of British and American merchant ships en route to the United States when it was capsized and lost off the Delaware coast May 25, 1798. The surviving section of the ship's hull and its associated artifact collection have been curated by the division since they were acquired by the state of Delaware in 1992.
Held on Mondays from late spring through early fall, program activities begin at the Zwaanendael Museum at 102 Kings Highway in Lewes, where a lecture and video on the ship are presented in conjunction with the exhibit A Seaborne Citizenry: The DeBraak and Its Atlantic World. Visitors are then transported via van to the DeBraak hull facility in nearby Cape Henlopen State Park for an interpreter-led tour of the surviving section of the ship’s hull.
Remaining programs during 2014 will be held at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., Mondays, June 30; July 7, 14, 21 and 28; Aug. 4, 11, 18 and 25; and Sept. 8, 15, 22 and 29. For tickets and more information, go to shop.delaware.gov/index.php?cPath=155 or call 302-645-1148.
The American Association for State and Local History’s Leadership in History Awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation and interpretation of state and local history throughout the United States. The American Association for State and Local History is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn.
