The Hull Lifesaving Museum's Executive Director, Lory Newmyer, and Maritime Program Director, Ed McCabe attended the 7th Annual National Maritime Heritage Conference October 27-29, 2004 in Norfolk, VA. At the conference, Ms. Newmyer presented They Had To Go Out, introducing the Lifesaving Museum's plans to develop a national traveling exhibit about the history of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. This concluded two-days of presentations by regional experts in the history of the nation's organized lifesaving, all sponsored by the U.S. Life-Saving Heritage Association.

The conference included representatives from maritime museums around the country, as well as specialists in dozens of maritime heritage fields, including naval historians, small craft collection archivists, shipwrights and boat builders, sailing school ship owners and operators, lighthouse preservationists, and underwater archaeologists. Over 50 scholarly presentations were offered to the 450 conference attendees. The museum presented early plans for the development of They Had To Go Out in order to solicit scholarly contributions to the exhibit from a broad range of researchers and experts in the field.

The Lifesaving Museum will host a colloquium to further advance the project in January 2005, which will include an opportunity for public involvement. For more information, please contact the museum.