The Legacy of Gilbert Klingel: Man of Steel

Join us on Saturday, March 9 for a viewing of the PBS film, “The Legacy of Gilbert Klingel: Man of Steel,” winner of the first place grand prize at the 2019 Richmond RVA Environmental Film Festival.

Gilbert Klingel was a self-taught naturalist and explorer who spent his life studying the Chesapeake Bay. His article, “One Hundred Hours Beneath the Chesapeake,” in the May 1955 issue of National Geographic featured color photos that were among the first taken from beneath a temperate estuary. These images were taken from inside a diving vessel invented by Klingel that was lowered into the waters off Gwynn’s Island in the Chesapeake Bay.

The film showcases Klingel’s passion for conservation and his adventures including his time being shipwrecked on a sparsely populated remote island near the shores of Cuba after a violent storm at sea and building underwater submersibles and 30-75 foot boats with metal hulls by hand.

After the film a panel discussion will be held featuring the film’s producer and director Dave Miller, co-producer Tom Robinson, Klingel’s daughter and co-producer Marcy Klingel Benouameur, and estuarine ecologist Dr. Kent Mountford.

Price: $20 per person to attend

$10 for a DVD copy of “The legacy of Gilbert Klingel: Man of Steel”