Klingel Aquascope Exhibit To Open at Mathews Museum

Klingel Aquascope Exhibit to Open at Mathews Museum

“100 Hours beneath the Chesapeake”

Klingel Aquascope Exhibit To Open at Mathews Museum

The Mathews Museum is set to welcome a new “resident,” maritime explorer Gilbert Klingel’s underwater 3,000-pound, large yellow “Aquascope.” After years of residing at the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland, and through the efforts of Mathews Museum Board Chair Tom Robinson, the Museum was able to negotiate a permanent home for the Aquascope.

This nationally significant exhibit, originally the subject of a major pictorial article in National Geographic magazine and an award-winning PBS documentary, will be unveiled at a “Members Only” private reception on Thursday, August 27. A public opening will follow on Saturday, August 29.

The Aquascope is an elongated large metal structure designed to allow two people to lie down and view the depths down to 100 feet through a large window. In 1952, the National Geographic Society commissioned Klingel to design and build a two-man submersible for a 1954 underwater exploration of the Chesapeake Bay. Afterwards, he wrote a 16-page article for National Geographic, accompanied by color photographs taken by staff photographer Willard Culver. As a pioneering Chesapeake naturalist, Klingel gained widespread recognition, taking people to places they had never seen before.

In May of last year, upon hearing about the arrival of the Aquascope, a team of filmmakers, scientists, and divers from the National Geographic Explorers Club gathered in Mathews to recreate Klingel’s 1954 Chesapeake Bay exploration. Adding to the excitement, this same team of filmmakers, scientists, and divers from the National Geographic Explorers Club are planning to attend the opening events alongside local community members and descendants of Klingel’s legacy.

“The Explorers Club plans to attend the grand opening of the exhibit, amid additional TV and newspaper coverage,” notes Robinson. “We will be working diligently with other members of the Mathews community to provide access to this man and his legacy. Gilbert Klingel was one of the most remarkable men to have ever lived in Mathews County. Boat builder, author, explorer, naturalist, metallurgist, photographer, inventor, sailor… he did it all. He was a real renaissance man. Although known by only a handful of Mathews residents, Klingel was revered around the world for his contributions to society.”

Visit www.mathewsmuseum.org for up-to-date details.