Lunch & Learn: “The Best Evidence Yet for an Anomalous Animal”: Documenting the Cultural History of Chessie the Sea Monster

Registration not required, but encouraged. Please register for the event here.

Dr. Eric A. Cheezum will present on his new book, Chessie: A Cultural History of the Chesapeake Bay Sea Monster, telling the story of the Bay’s legendary cryptid, and will describe the research methodology involved in uncovering its history. Dr. Cheezum explores the project’s origin as his dissertation and its long gestation and path to publication, along with the extensive research and interviews that made the work possible, and some of the key figures and connections whose generosity ensured that the facts of Chessie’s amazing career were brought to the surface. As Chessie’s story will show, truth really is stranger than fiction!

Eric A. Cheezum is a native of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He received his B.A. in History from Salisbury State University in 1999, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of South Carolina in 2002 and 2008, respectively. Besides Chessie: A Cultural History of the Chesapeake Bay Sea Monster (Johns Hopkins, 2024), he is the co-author of Woodrow Wilson (CQ Press, 2003) with Kendrick A. Clements. He is an adjunct professor at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Maryland and a full-time farmer.

ASL interpretation will be available for attendees.

Presented in partnership with The Maryland State Archives and The Maryland Four Centuries Project.