Free lectures on four very different topics will be presented at the Calvert Marine Museum during the month of September. On Friday, Sep. 11, Scott Todd will present Restoring the Lady Katie as part of the 2009 Vintage Model Yacht Regatta.

Todd is a well known waterman and model maker from the Eastern Shore. He will be presenting his restoration of the full-size skipjack Lady Katie, which is docked in Cambridge, laced with photographs and his own entertaining tales of the Eastern Shore.

This event is sponsored by the Solomons Island Model Boat Club. For more information and a complete schedule of 2009 Vintage Model Yacht Regatta events, please visit http://simbc.wetpaint.com.

On Saturday, Sept. 12, the museum’s Fossil Club is hosting a symposium entitled Darwin, Science, and Society in the auditorium beginning at 2:30 p.m. Featured speakers include Dr. Daryl P. Domning giving a talk on Evolution and Original Sin: The ‘Problem of Evil’ Solved; Dr. Stephen J. Godfrey on The Structure of the Universe through the Eyes of the Bible; and Rev. Dr. Christopher R. Smith Questions in Genesis: Creationism and Biblical Interpretation.

The presentations are intended to depolarize the Creation/Evolution debate, in this the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.  The event is sponsored by the Clarissa and Lincoln Dryden Endowment for Paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, Richard Dodds, Curator of Maritime History, at the Calvert Marine Museum will present Solomons Island: The Ebb and Flow of Church and Community at 7 p.m. in the museum auditorium.

This is the first of three symposium’s celebrating the 325th Anniversary of Middleham Chapel. Hosted by the Calvert Marine Museum and Middleham and St. Peter’s Parish, this symposium is on the development of Solomons Island and St. Peter’s Chapel. The evening also features the newly published, "A History of Middleham and St. Peter's Parish:  Sharing Our Story 1684 - 2009." Enjoy light refreshments following the presentation.

On Saturday, Sept. 26, Dr. Kent Mountford will present In the Wake of Chesapeake Explorers at 7 p.m. in the auditorium. Dr. Mountford, an ecologist, Chesapeake historian, and licensed Captain, sailed the route taken by many 17th century Chesapeake explorers to the New World. Aboard the five mast, full-rigged ship, Royal Clipper, Mountford navigated using replica instruments from the late 16th and early 17th century.

He will discuss North African and Canaries archipelago ports of call relevant to the early New World voyages, as well as his attempts to reckon position with relatively crude instruments on a rolling deck. Death aboard the early trans-Atlantic vessels was a common occurrence and Royal Clipper has her own adventures to relate.

All lectures are free and open to the public in the museum auditorium. For more information about activities, events, and programs at the Calvert Marine Museum, visit www.calvertmarinemuseum.com.