Kicking the Can

Buying food in metal cans at the market is something we do without thinking much about how those time saving cans got there.  For hundreds of years before canning societies preserved foods through drying, smoking, sugaring, freezing, and salting.  The ability to safely store and ship food in glass and metal canisters dates only to the early 1800’s and since then has had a tremendous impact on history.  Al Smith and Leo Nollmeyer discuss the impact of the canning industry on the Eastern Shore. Kicking the Can is one a series of public programs supporting the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibition Crossroads: Change in Rural Maryland, Maryland Humanities’ current Museum on Main Street exhibition. (The Smithsonian exhibition is on view St. Paul’s church in Oxford October 29–December 16.) 

Smith began a career in the canning industry as a salesman with an office in Hurlock from 1958 to 1960.   His success selling cans led to a 42- year long career with the Continental Can Company from which he retired as Managing Director of their European operations based in the U.K.  Al will talk about the history of the industry and its impact on the economy of the Eastern Shore.

Leo Nollmeyer moved to Oxford as a teenager when his father bought a packing house which he renamed the Oxford Packing Company.  Leo worked at Oxford Packing for several years before turning to a career in finance.  Leo’s recollections of life in the seafood packing business will be entertaining as well as informative, especially his tales of misadventure transporting oysters and crabs to Baltimore via ferry.

Oxford Museum sponsors Kicking the Can in partnership with the Oxford Community Center.