The Annapolis Maritime Museum’s 2012 Maritime Lecture Series opens Thursday.

Author Jane McWilliams is scheduled to present illustrated stories from her award-winning history of the city—from its first European settlement in 1649 to 1976.

The program is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. There will be a one-hour presentation followed by a discussion period, according to a release.

The cost is $10 for museum members and $15 for non-members. For more information or to attend, call 410-295-0104 or visit amaritime.org.

The lecture is the first of 10 weekly seminars designed to highlight Annapolis’s maritime heritage.

Upcoming lectures include:

• Jan. 26: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Stephen R. Brown, Tidewater: the Chesapeake Bay in Photographs
  Brown, a Washington, DC, photographer, shares his experiences sailing the Chesapeake Bay.
• Feb. 2: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Dave Gendell, Schooner America
  Annapolis writer Gendell traces the history of the famous schooner from 1851 to 1942.
• Feb. 9: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Jane Cox, Findings at Pig Point
  Cox reviews Anne Arundel County’s Lost Towns Archaeology Project and its discoveries at the prehistoric site known as Pig Point on the Patuxent River’s Jug Bay.
• Feb. 16: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Peyton Robertson, NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Restoration Efforts.
  The director of the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office will review the federal government’s collaborative efforts to restore the bay through environmental education, habitat and fisheries restoration, and data collection.
• Feb. 23: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Cece Donovan, Poplar Island: Vanishing Island Restored.
  Donovan, of the Maryland Environmental Service, will talk about the Poplar Island project, which is using dredge spoils to restore an island that nearly disappeared due to erosion.
• March 1: 7-8:30 p.m.
  George Daughan, 1812: The Navy’s War
  Naval historian Daughan will give a presentation on the War of 1812.
• March 8: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Capt. John P. Hamill, Maryland Pilots Association.
  Maryland pilots have been guiding ships up and down the bay since the 1640s and Hamill will share stories of ships, shipwrecks, and the vessels at anchor in Annapolis Roads.
• March 14: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Lt. Greg Bartles, The History of the Natural Resources Police.
  The Area 8 commander of the Maryland Natural Resources Police will share the history of the NRP.
• March 22: 7-8:30 p.m.
  Barbara Tagger and Orna Garnett, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.
  Garnett will give a living history interpretation of the “Moses” of runaway slaves, while Tagger will discuss the new Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park Initiative on the Eastern Shore.
  As part of the Four Rivers’ Maryland Day celebration, admission to this program is only $1 per person.