Rumseian Society President Nick Blanton to Speak

Author: Brad Hopkins, ITP Admin | Published: 03/16/2012 | 308 Views | Short URL: http://itpwv.com/local/n/8685

Nick Blanton, President of Shepherdstown’s Rumseian Society and much acclaimed dulcimer maker, will give a talk called “Stubborn Advocates:  How Shepherdstown Came to Carry a Torch for James Rumsey” at 7:00 p.m., March 29, at the Entler Hotel, located at 129 E. German Street, at the corner of German and Princess Streets. Light refreshments will be served after the talk.  Admission is free.
 
In 1787, inventor James Rumsey demonstrated a working steamboat on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown. Since that time, Shepherdstown has memorialized his achievement with the Rumsey Monument, built in about 1915, and with the construction in 1987 of a half-scale model of the steamboat.  Nick Blanton was one of the craftsmen involved in that project.  The model is now housed in the courtyard of the Shepherdstown Museum.

Blanton’s talk is the second in Shepherdstown’s 250th Anniversary Historic Speaker Series, sponsored by the Historic Shepherdstown Commission as a contribution to the 250th celebration of Shepherdstown’s founding in 1762.

For more information, call Cheryl Brown at 304-876-0919, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Photo: The half-scale model of James Rumsey’s steamboat takes to the Potomac River where Rumsey launched the original model in 1787.  Speaker Nick Blanton is seated on the rail.