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Rock Point Virtual Exhibit
Between 1935 and 1943 the Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) produced some 270,000 photographic images of rural, urban, and industrial America. The original intent was to document rural poverty and publicize the New Deal programs designed to ease social distress.
The photography was set up under Roy Stryker, formally an economics instructor at Columbia University. He hired a small but talented group of photographers, among whom were Arthur Rothstein and Reginald Hotchkiss. In September 1936, Rothstein visited Rock Point, on the Wicomico River in Charles County, Maryland. The community was revisited by Hotchkiss in April and September 1941.
Rock Point, although hard hit by the Great Depression, was still one of the most important seafood centers on the Potomac River. From here, in the early twentieth century, over 1,000 gallons of shucked oysters were shipped a week during the season of the nearby metropolitan areas.
Why Rock Point was selected as a subject by the FSA photographers is not known. Whatever the reason, the photographs offer a window into a world now vanished. Today, little is left of Rock Point to mark the decline of this little community, once so dependent on the Chesapeake's bounty for its livelihood.
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Oyster House
Rock Point, Maryland, April 1941. An oyster house and a shuck pile. The oyster house at Rock Point looked out over the Wicomico River.
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Shucking Oysters
Rock Point, September 1936. Shucking oysters at 25 cents a gallon. The average worker shucks five gallons a day. Shucking houses like this were prone to flooding at certain times of the year.
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Shell Pile
Rock Point, April 1941. Shell Pile which will be returned to the river to start new beds. Huge piles of oyster shells like this could be found outside most shucking houses.
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Blowing Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Blowing oysters to remove all foreign matter. Oysters were thoroughly rinsed and agitated by forced air and water for several minutes to remove grit and pieces of shell.
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Oyster Shucker
Rock Point, April 1941. An oyster shucker at the oyster house. Harold Waters shucking oysters. Shucked oysters were places in the pail to Waters' right. When full, it was taken to the processing room.
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Filling the Stalls
Rock Point, April 1941. Filling the stalls at the oyster house for the coming day. Photograph shows David Butler shoveling oysters. Shell was taken to the back of the building by wheelbarrow.
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Unloading Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Unloading oysters. Alongside the wharf at Rock Point is the buyboat Geo. W. Hall, locally owned by E. K. Lloyd. The 43-foot Hall was built in 1921 at Dalmers, Maryland.
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Oystermen
Rock Point, April 1936. Oystermen get forty cents a bushel at the wharf. Using a bushel tub to unload a Potomac River dory.
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Unloading the Oyster Boat
Rock Point, April 1936. Unloading an oyster boat. The slanted floorboards of a Potomoac River dory, seen here, allowed for more carrying capacity.
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Culling Board
Rock Point, April 1941. The culling board of an oyster boat. Oysters were dumped on the culling board for sorting. Undersized oysters and shells were pushed over the side.
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Oystermen Resting
Rock Point, April 1936. Oystermen resting. Posing for the camera are, right to left: Richard Grissett, Miles B. Norris, Rudolph Simms, Steven Norris, unknown (Bobby Norris?).
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Young Fishing Boat Captain
Rock Point, April 1941. James G. Johnson at the tiller of the workboat Three Brothers, names after Henry, William, and Kaiser Stine (Stein). Johnson was still fishing commercially in 1986.
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A Local Fisherman
Rock Point, September 1941. Yak Stein, a local fisherman. Joseph (Jacob) Stine and his brothers came to Rock Point from Baltimore around 1900 to work in a tomato cannery.
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At the Wharf
Rock Point, September 1936. At the wharf. The locally owned buyboat Geo. W. Hall alongside Rock Point wharf during an extreme high tide.
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Buyer's Boat of the Oyster Fleet
Rock Point, September 1936. The buyer's boat of the oyster fleet. Oyster-tonging boats alongside the buyboat Annie Marie in the Wicomico River. Annie Marie was built in 1914.
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Housed Shucking-House Employees
Rock Point, September 1936. The buildings in the foreground, now gone, housed shucking-house employees. In the right background is the Rock Point elementary school, also gone.
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Crab Fisherman
Rock Point, September 1936. Crab fisherman. In the 1930s crabs sold to the packing house fetched a meager $1.25 a barrel.
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Leaving for Home
Rock Point, September 1941. Eastern shore men leaving for home after unloading a day's catch of crabs. Left to right are Maurice Simms and Dick Gooseberry.
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Crabbing Season
Rock Point, September 1941. Rock Point wharf during the crabbing season.
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Sorting the Cooked Crabs
Rock Point, September 1941. Sorting the cooked crabs for shipping. Crabs are being sorted according to size by Eugene Lloyd, on the left, partner in the packing house.
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Crabs into the Cooker
Rock Point, September 1941. Dumping crabs into the cooker. Richard Grissett empties a barrel of crabs.
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Crab Cooker
Rock Point, September 1941. A crab cooker which holds about seven barrels of crabs. The cooking takes thirty minutes and is done by live steam from the boiler in the background.
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Sorting According to Grade
Rock Point, September 1941. Sorting crabs according to grade before shipment. Seen here is Capt. William Furbush.
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Shipped to Washington DC
Rock Point, September 1941. Cooking crabs to be shipped to Washington D.C. Richard Grissett is on the right with Woodrow Johnson on the truck. Behind on the hill is the general store.
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Oyster Tonger
Rock Point, April 1941. An oyster tonger. The man with the pipe is Capt. Benjamin Stine, tonging for oysters from a Potomac River doryboat.
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Capt. Benjamin Stine
Rock Point, April 1941. Oyster tonger Capt. Benjamin Stine.
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Capt. Benjamin Stine
Rock Point, April 1941. Oyster tonger Capt. Benjamin Stine.
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Capt. Benjamin Stine
Rock Point, April 1941. Oyster tonger Capt. Benjamin Stine.
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Working an Oyster Bed
Rock Point, September 1936. Working an oyster bed. Hand-tonging for oysters from Potomac River dories.
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Tonging Oysters
Rock Point, September 1936. Tonging oysters. It is September, the weather is mild, and the first of the season's oysters are brought aboard.
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Oystermen
Rock Point, September 1936. Oystermen. Bobby Norris at the wheel of a dory. Ahead of him is the old-style bilge pump, once a fixture of every wooden workboat.
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Tonging and Culling Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Tonging and culling oysters on the Wicomico River in Maryland. Two men are tonging while one is culling the oysters as they are brought aboard.
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Tonging and Culling Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Tonging and culling oysters on the Wicomico River in Maryland. Two men are tonging while one is culling the oysters as they are brought aboard.
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Tonging and Culling Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Tonging and culling oysters on the Wicomico River in Maryland. Two men are tonging while one is culling the oysters as they are brought aboard.
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Tonging and Culling Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Tonging and culling oysters on the Wicomico River in Maryland. Two men are tonging while one is culling the oysters as they are brought aboard.
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Tonging and Culling Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Tonging and culling oysters on the Wicomico River in Maryland. Two men are tonging while one is culling the oysters as they are brought aboard.
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Tonging and Culling Oysters
Rock Point, April 1941. Tonging and culling oysters on the Wicomico River in Maryland. Two men are tonging while one is culling the oysters as they are brought aboard.
In the early 1900s Rock Point was a thriving community with a number of stores, an impressive hotel steamboat service to Washington and Baltimore, and an economy based largely on farming and the seafood industry. However, a serious fire at the wharf in the early 1930s, coupled with a general decline in the Potomac River fisheries and a move away by residents to nearby Cobb Island, led to gradual decay. A second fire in 1958, which destroyed the packing house, brought an end to seafood processing at Rock Point. Today, at the end of the concrete road leading to the old wharf, the only remnants are some pilings, several pieces of an iron boiler, and broken cement foundations. The FSA photographs seen here will help ensure that at least some of this maritime heritage will not be forgotten.