Mystic, Conn. (July 16, 2021) – Mystic Seaport Museum announces it will be hauling its 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan for routine maintenance and preservation work on Monday, July 19.
The ship will be moved from its berth on the Museum’s waterfront to the shipyard at the south end of the property. The public is invited to watch as the ship is pushed and towed down the river beginning around 3:30 p.m.
Once at the shipyard, staff will haul the Morgan out of the water on the yard’s synchronized shiplift and then move it onto dry land so the Museum’s shipwrights can access the hull for work. The Museum hauls the ship approximately every 3 years for inspection, maintenance such as painting and caulking, and repairs as needed.
“This is a rare opportunity to see an historic vessel such as the Charles W. Morgan high and dry, where one can walk right up and see the shape and details of the hull, which is normally invisible under the water,” said Peter Armstrong, the president of Mystic Seaport Museum.
The ship should be out of the water for about a month and will remain open to the public to go on board during much of that time.
About the Charles W. Morgan
The Morgan is the last of an American whaling fleet that numbered more than 2,700 vessels. Built and launched in 1841, it is America’s oldest commercial ship still afloat.
The 107-foot long whaleship typically sailed with a crew of about 35, representing sailors from around the world. Over an 80-year whaling career, the Morgan embarked on 37 voyages with most lasting three years or more. Built for durability and not speed, it roamed every corner of the globe.
The Morgan was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966 and it is also a recipient of the coveted World Ship Trust Award. Since its arrival at Mystic Seaport Museum in 1941, more than 20 million visitors have walked its decks. While built to hunt and process whales for profit, its purpose now is to tell an important part of America’s maritime heritage for current generations.
Media Contact
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
860.333.7155 (m) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the world. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Mystic, Conn. (July 1, 2021) – Mystic Seaport Museum announces it is participating in Connecticut’s Summer at the Museum program, which offers free admission to resident children and one accompanying adult from July 1 to September 6.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced the program at a press conference at the Connecticut Science Center on Wednesday. The program is part of the Governor’s plan to use recovery funds to provide students and families engaging educational and enrichment experiences in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are grateful to Gov. Lamont and the state legislators for making this program possible and enabling us to welcome to our Museum many who might not otherwise be able to afford admission in these challenging times,” said Peter Armstrong, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. ”After a traumatic year where children were cooped up in front of a computer screen, we are pleased to be able to offer an outdoors learning experience, where they can be outside, go for a boat ride, and learn new things — but most important, get out in the fresh air and have fun with their family.”
The offer is available to all Connecticut children ages 18 and younger, plus one accompanying adult. To be eligible, families must be Connecticut residents. Participants are asked to fill out a brief form online to order their free admission tickets in advance of their visit. They can do that by visiting Mysticseaport.org/CTKidsFree.
Please note the free admission offer is not available during The WoodenBoat Show, August 20-22.
Included in admission is the Museum’s newest exhibition, A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World. The Panorama, which is owned and conserved by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, is the longest painting in North America at more than 1250 feet long and recreates the experience of a whaling voyage of the 1840s. It depicts the story of whaling and the cultural ties born of that global industry.
Mystic Seaport Museum is one of the five leading attractions in the state to participate. The others are the Mystic Aquarium, the Beardsley Zoo, the Connecticut Science Center, and the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. For a complete list of all participating museums, please visit CTVisit.com.
Media Contact
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
860.333.7155 (m) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the world. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Mystic, Conn. (June 23, 2021) – Mystic Seaport Museum announces the appointment of Akeia de Barros Gomes, Ph.D., as the Museum’s new senior curator for social maritime histories. De Barros Gomes, a multi-dimensional museum professional and educator, comes to Mystic Seaport Museum from the New Bedford Whaling Museum and will join the Mystic staff on July 6, 2021.
“We look forward to welcoming Akeia back to Connecticut and to our Museum,” said Peter Armstrong, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “She is a key part of an institution-wide reframing of the traditional narratives around the American maritime experience as it relates to African, African-American, and Indigenous peoples. As America’s leading maritime museum, we are proud to have Akeia join our staff to help lead a necessary reflection on how America’s activities on the world’s oceans have — and continue to play — a part in our country’s society from the position of race and slavery. We are deeply grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, whose support made this position possible.”
As senior curator of social maritime histories, de Barros Gomes will be responsible for working on curatorial projects of race, Indigenous histories, ethnicity, and diversity in New England’s maritime activities as it relates to the site and collections of Mystic Seaport Museum. She will lead a multi-disciplinary team to examine the Museum’s and other regional collections to develop contemporary re-imaginings of people’s actions in the past and present, and translating that into content relevant to today’s social environment. The first 2 years of the work will culminate in a major exhibition in the fall of 2023 in collaboration with Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and Williams College funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The exhibit will map a more complex historical framework of New England’s maritime history by engaging with questions of race and sovereignty, weaving a new narrative with a creative use of visual and material culture, archaeology, oral traditions, and songs and performance. Additionally, de Barros Gomes will lead a curatorial team in the development of educational programs, both in-house and online, related to those themes.
The curatorial position is supported by a $4.9 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Part of the Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative, the grant funds a partnership with Brown, Mystic Seaport Museum, and Williams College that uses maritime history as a basis for studying historical injustices and generating new insights on the relationship between European colonization in North America, the dispossession of Native American land, and racial slavery in New England.
The collaborative project, titled “Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom,” is creating new work and study opportunities at all three institutions, particularly for scholars, curators, and students from underrepresented groups, and will support the Museum’s exhibition.
De Barros Gomes has spent the last 3 years at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, where she was the curator of social history. In that role, she was responsible for the curation of exhibitions, installation of exhibitions, historical research, and interpretive public programs and public outreach. Exhibitions of note include Ripples: Through a Wampanoag Lens; In the Neighborhood; Captain Paul Cuffe: His Work, Vision and Living Legacy; and Enlightened Encounters: The Two Nations of Manjiro Nakahama. Prior to her position in New Bedford, de Barros Gomes was an assistant professor at Wheelock College where she taught a variety of subjects in the Departments of Psychology and Human Development and American Studies. She also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut from 2009-2010. De Barros Gomes received a Ph.D. in Anthropology/Archaeology from the University of Connecticut. Her prior education includes a BA in Anthropology/Archaeology at Salve Regina University and a MA in Anthropology/Archaeology from the University of Connecticut. She serves on the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Advisory Commission for the State of Massachusetts and the Board of Trustees for the Newport Historical Society.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to initiate this new role at Mystic Seaport Museum,” said de Barros Gomes. “It is not only important that Indigenous, African, and African American stories are given their rightful place in the historical narrative of this country, it is essential that historical narratives are a collaborative effort and that their voices are a primary voice in telling that history.”
“I have had the great privilege of working with Akeia at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and have seen first-hand her lasting contributions to community connections, scholarship, and programming in that wonderful city,” said Christina Connett Brophy, senior director of museum galleries and senior vice president of curatorial affairs. “We are thrilled she will be joining Mystic Seaport Museum as the first appointee of a now permanent position that addresses diversity in American Maritime History and broadens our capacity to engage visitors in a more inclusive conversation.”
Media Contact
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
860.333.7155 (m) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the world. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Mystic, Conn. (June 7, 2021) – Mystic Seaport Museum and Discovering Amistad are collaborating to bring a Juneteenth Celebration to the grounds of the Museum on June 19. Amistad, the 128-foot flagship of the State of Connecticut, is currently on display at the Museum’s waterfront.
Juneteenth is a historic day that marked the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers delivered the news to Galveston, Texas that the Civil War was over and enslaved African-Americans were free. Texas was the last state to be informed that slavery had been abolished, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
On Saturday, June 19, Discovering Amistad, in collaboration with Mystic Seaport Museum, has planned a special program – including live music, a panel discussion, a “Harambee” reflection, and tours of the schooner Amistad – to commemorate Juneteenth. The 2-hour program is designed to increase awareness and to highlight the roles that we all can play to dismantle racism.
The program begins at 3 p.m. Admission to the Museum is free after 2:30 p.m. for those attending the event. Guests are asked to identify themselves at the gate to facilitate entry.
“Juneteenth is a day to reflect on the struggles and triumphs of the African-American community, both historically and in the present day,” said Paula Mann-Agnew, executive director of Discovering Amistad. “It’s a day to recommit ourselves to addressing racism and promoting social justice.”
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
860.333.7155 (m) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the world. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Mystic, Conn. (May 26, 2021) – Mystic Seaport Museum announces the launch of Mystic Seafest 2021, a summer-long celebration of all things to do with the ocean in an ongoing series of events at the Museum from Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day. The festival begins with the opening of the new exhibition A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World on May 29.
Mystic Seafest 2021 will offer entertainment for the entire family and for those who simply want to enjoy a day by the beautiful Mystic River. Under the theme “Come celebrate life on the ocean wave!”, the Museum will host a continuing series of concerts, boat shows and parades, new exhibits, artists-in-residence, maritime lectures, and other programming related to the ocean.
The Museum will kick off Seafest with the opening of its newest exhibition, A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World, in collaboration with the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
The Panorama, which is owned and conserved by the Whaling Museum, is the longest painting in North America, as well as a rich tapestry of fascinating narratives that delight, inform and entertain. The Panorama recreates the experience of a whaling voyage, detailing the remarkable sights that only whalemen were privileged to see. It depicts the story of whaling and the cultural ties born of this global industry, now ingrained in the unique multi-cultural landscape of New England.
In an era before the age of cinema, the painting traveled the country as a “moving” panorama. It was how curious people without the means or inclination to travel were transported to exotic locales in the 1800s. The Panorama was a performance spectacle, scrolling across a stage on giant spools with accompanying theatrics and narration. Although the painting will not be shown again as a moving panorama, which would undo the extensive conservation efforts, Mystic Seaport Museum will display one 30-foot scene at a time, accompanied by a 34-minute narrated digital film that depicts the entire painting much as it would have been seen in 1848.
Visitors are encouraged to pick up their free Grand Panorama Passport souvenir. The Museum will be issuing stamps for each port of call and each scene — there are 15 over the course of the exhibition. Awards will be given to those with multiple stamps throughout the show’s run and there will be a special prize for those who collect all 15 at the end.
The exhibition runs through March 27, 2022.
Mystic Seafest 2021 signals the Museum’s return to pre-COVID levels of operation with the historic village, indoor exhibits, the shipyard, children’s activities, and waterfront boat rides all returning for the summer season. Memorial Day Weekend begins Seafest with a wide range of additional programs and activities, including:
Live music at 3:00 p.m. each day (included with admission):
At 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the fireboat Firefighterwill have a water display using all of the water cannons (known as monitors) on the boat.
A “Cetacean Celebration on Monday with three life-size inflatable whales and experts from the Whale & Dolphin Conservation USAavailable to answer your questions.
The Traditional Small Craft Association’s gathering of sailing and rowing boats at the Small Craft Workshop
Antique truck rides around the Village Green in a Model A Ford.
Highlights of the schedule for the summer are a dealer boat show and antique boat parade, two artists-in-residence, the annual Moby-Dick marathon, an antique marine engine exposition, an evening concert series, and the return of The WoodenBoat Show on August 20-22. Numerous additional pop-up events are in the planning stage. More details available on the Museum’s website (mysticseaport.org) and social media accounts.
A Spectacle in Motion: The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World is a collaboration between Mystic Seaport Museum and the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which owns and conserves the painting.
Media Contact
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
860.333.7155 (m) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the world. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Mystic, Conn. (April 30, 2021) — Mystic Seaport Museum announced its support for Governor Ned Lamont’s proposal to subsidize free visits to the Museum this summer for Connecticut children and an accompanying adult.
“Mystic Seaport Museum is delighted to be part of this exciting initiative. As Connecticut begins to open up we welcome all children from across the state to take this opportunity to engage free of charge with their maritime spirit, to breathe the sea air and to recharge their batteries in one of the most exciting, educational and beautiful places in the state,” said Peter Armstrong, president of Mystic Seaport Museum.
The Museum welcomes the opportunity to provide free access to those who have never visited before and never had the occasion to explore their connection to the sea in the Museum’s many historic ships and exhibits.
The free admission is part of the Governor’s spending proposal for the American Rescue Plan Act, which seeks to provide children with access to enrichment and to address the impact of the pandemic on the state’s youth due to the physical and social isolation experienced during the public health emergency.
The Museum looks forward to working with the Governor’s office and the General assembly to implement this aspect of the Act.
Media Contact
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317
860.333.7155 (m) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the world. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Mystic, Conn. (March 30, 2021) — Mystic Seaport Museum will present its 2021 America and the Sea Award to Terry Hutchinson, one of the most admired and respected sailors in the yacht racing circuit and most recently the skipper, executive director, and tactician for the New York Yacht Club American Magic campaign for the 36th America’s Cup.
The prestigious award recognizes those individuals and organizations whose extraordinary achievements in the world of maritime exploration, competition, scholarship, and design best exemplify the American character.
Hutchinson will be honored for his storied record as an outstanding yachtsman, his multiple world championship wins, his courageous America’s Cup campaigns, but most especially for the leadership, integrity, courage and humility he has demonstrated as the leader of the American Magic campaign. Hutchinson exemplifies the very pinnacle of competitive sailing, both in victory, and in defeat.
“What truly sets Hutchinson apart is his leadership. He held his team together to compete in the America’s Cup, battling COVID-19 restrictions and numerous changes in fortune, including a severely damaged boat. Hutchinson led his team with the humble charisma that has defined his entire sailing career, indicative of the American spirit that the America and the SeaAward seeks to honor,” said Mystic Seaport Museum President Peter Armstrong.
“I am incredibly humbled by this honor,” Hutchinson remarked upon receiving the invitation to accept the 2021 award. “Tom Whidden, the 2020 award recipient, has been a great mentor, friend, and leader in our sport. To follow in his footsteps and that of the other great recipients is an absolute honor.”
Hutchinson’s reputation as an outstanding sailor and teammate began with his college sailing career at Old Dominion University, where he helped lead the team to four national championships, and continued through 16 World Championship wins, and 5 America’s Cup campaigns. Hutchinson was named the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year twice, which is a testament to the respect and admiration the sailing community has for him.
Mystic Seaport Museum will recognize Hutchinson’s exceptional career by awarding him the America and the Sea Award on Tuesday, September 14, 2021. The award presentation will take place at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.
This affair is the premier fundraising event for Mystic Seaport Museum. Past recipients of the America and the Sea Award include America’s Cup Hall of Famer Tom Whidden, one of the most acclaimed sailors of all time; American businesswoman and philanthropist Wendy Schmidt, whose ocean explorations have advanced our understanding of the ocean’s biodiversity and vulnerability; groundbreaking Whitbread and America’s Cup sailor Dawn Riley and Oakcliff Sailing; philanthropist and environmentalist David Rockefeller, Jr., and his Sailors for the Sea; boat designers Rod and Bob Johnstone and their company J/Boats; author and historian Nathaniel Philbrick; maritime industrialist and NYYC Commodore Charles A. Robertson; Hall of Famer sailor and author Gary Jobson; WoodenBoat Publications founder Jon Wilson; former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman; oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle; America’s Cup sailor William Koch; President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, Thomas Crowley; historian David McCullough; and the first honoree, legendary yacht designer Olin J. Stephens, II.
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography in the world. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Mystic, Conn. (February 25, 2021) — Mystic Seaport Museum is offering free admission to health care workers, first responders, and all other essential workers on Saturdays in March.
The free admission is being given as part of the Museum’s Caring for Our Community program and is intended as a way to say “thank you” to those keeping the community safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Free admission will include a ticket for the essential worker. Guests accompanying the worker will receive the Museum’s discounted group rate.
Personnel in the following groups will receive free admission:
Health Care Workers
Firefighters, Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Law enforcement including local police and State Troopers.
Educators
Grocery store and food service workers
This is only a partial list of essential workers. Please reference the State of Connecticut’s definition for the complete list: https://bit.ly/2P0BMc5
Workers must present their badge or proof of employment when they arrive at the Museum. The free and discounted tickets will only be available in person and will not be available online. The Museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on those days.
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Jim Kilroy aboard Kialoa III in the Miami to Monetgo Bay race 1975, Photo by Dick Enersen.
Jim Kilroy aboard Kialoa III in the Miami to Monetgo Bay race 1975, Photo by Dick Enersen.
Kilroy-Kialoa Collection Chronicles Transformative Period in Yacht Racing
Mystic, Conn. (February 10, 2021) — Mystic Seaport Museum announces the donation of a significant collection of 20th century yachting materials related to the renowned sailor John B. “Jim” Kilroy Sr. and his yachts named Kialoa. This donation was made by Kilroy’s daughter Patrice Kilroy, who wished that the story of her father and those who sailed with him would be preserved and shared with future generations.
The materials contained in the collection include personal correspondence, design memoranda, drawings, ratings protocols, race notes, planning items, logbooks, annotated charts, photos, scrapbook clippings, movies, plaques, trophies and other materials which document 50 years of American yachting at the highest levels of competition.
“Jim Kilroy and the Kialoas were synonymous with big boat sailing during a transformative time in the sport. The best amateur sailors aspired to crew for Kilroy. Many of his crew went on to impact sailing in their own rights. Mystic Seaport Museum is the perfect place to keep the Kilroy-Kialoa Collection safe and accessible for marine historians and generations of sailors to come,” said Sheila McCurdy, Mystic Seaport Museum trustee and past commodore of the Cruising Club of America
From 1956 to 2005, Kilroy owned and raced five Maxi boats carrying the name Kialoa. The racing successes that Kilroy and his amateur crews achieved on every ocean of the world are exceptional. In 1975 alone, they won 11 major ocean races, including the Transatlantic, the Fastnet, and the Sydney-to-Hobart Races. The Hobart win in 1975 set a record time that stood for 21 years despite the advances in materials and technology that transpired during those decades. Kialoa IV won 20 out of 24 races in 1981 and held the Maxi Yacht World Champion title for five years between 1981 and 1987.
This collection is important not simply because it documents the success of the Kialoa campaigns, but because Kilroy and the Kialoa boats were at the forefront of many advances in yacht design, construction, crewing, and technology. An early Kialoa was one of the first racing yachts built of aluminum, and Kialoa IV was an early example of the use of carbon composites and Kevlar, both adopted from the aerospace industry.
Kilroy famously used computers to aid in planning, analyzing and measuring success, and his early adoption of onboard computer data collection and use of computers to assist in tactical decision-making was at the forefront of what has now become the industry standard.
Kilroy was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2014. He passed away in 2016.
Mystic Seaport Museum is excited to begin cataloguing and digitizing this collection so that it can be shared with researchers, scholars, and enthusiasts alike. This is an important acquisition for the Museum as it advances the collection into the modern era of yacht racing.
Media Contact
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.333.7155 (m)
860.572.5317 (o) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org
Image Credit
Jim Kilroy aboard Kialoa III in the Miami to Monetgo Bay race 1975, Photo by Dick Enersen.
About Mystic Seaport Museum
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
Brown University, Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum scholars will use maritime history as a basis for studying the relationship between European colonization, dispossession of Native American land, and racial slavery.
Mystic, Conn. (February 2, 2021) — A $4.9 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice will fund a partnership with Mystic Seaport Museum, and Williams College that will use maritime history as a basis for studying historical injustices and generating new insights on the relationship between European colonization in North America, the dispossession of Native American land, and racial slavery in New England.
The collaborative project, titled “Reimagining New England Histories: Historical Injustice, Sovereignty and Freedom,” will create new work and study opportunities at all three institutions, particularly for scholars, curators, and students from underrepresented groups. It will result in a new Mystic Seaport Museum exhibition on race, subjugation, and power, and a “decolonial archive” spotlighting a diverse collection of stories from several New England communities.
The grant was awarded by the Mellon Foundation as part of its Just Futures Initiative, a by-invitation competition that invited 38 colleges and universities to submit project proposals that would address the “long-existing fault lines” of racism, inequality, and injustice that challenge ideas of democracy and civil society.
“Mystic Seaport Museum is proud to collaborate with our esteemed partners in implementing an institution-wide reframing of the traditional narratives around the American maritime experience as it relates to African, African-American, and Indigenous peoples. As America’s leading maritime museum, we are uniquely positioned to be the venue for a monumental exhibition in 2023, which marks an imperative, transformative, and inclusive reflection on how America’s activities on the world’s oceans have and continue to play a part in our country’s society from the position of race and slavery,” said Christina Connett Brophy, senior director of museum galleries and senior vice president of curatorial affairs. “Working with our partners, and through the fresh lens of ships and the sea, we are excited to engage new audiences in critical conversations that have long remained unfinished.”
The planned exhibition at Mystic Seaport Museum will run from Fall 2023 to Summer 2024 and will juxtapose traditional narratives about early New England with engaging artifacts that tell a different story about the past — from archaeological materials to documents and literature to music and oral histories
“A myth in the founding narrative of the United States is the idea of New England as a ‘city on the hill,’ a place founded on the idea of liberty for all,” said Anthony Bogues, director of Brown’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. “But it is important to consider that this site of America’s founding was also a site of Native dispossession as well as racial slavery. Brown and Williams have told stories about both of those histories, but rarely have we explored the relationship between the two.”
Since its founding in 2012, the CSSJ has explored the history and legacies of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and racial slavery through research, study, public conversations, exhibitions and more. The groundbreaking work of the center’s researchers has catalyzed international scholarly conversations and inspired similar work at colleges and universities across the country.
But Bogues, who will oversee the grant-funded project, said that in recent months, he and his colleagues felt their mission must expand to include the investigation of New England’s role in displacing Native Americans — something he believes is as foundational a part of American history as racial slavery.
To help draw connections between racial slavery and Native American dispossession, Brown reached out to scholars at Williams College in Massachusetts — a growing group of whom focus on Indigenous peoples and racial slavery in early America — and Mystic Seaport Museum, which for more than 40 years has worked with Williams to offer the program Williams-Mystic, a unique liberal arts-focused semester at sea for undergraduates on its museum campus. The Museum also conducts the Frank C. Munson Institute for American Maritime History, a graduate-level program accredited by the University of Connecticut. Together, the three institutions devised a plan for a three-year partnership that will draw on each institution’s strengths to generate new scholarship, student experiences, public events, and more. Some K-12 educational programs will also be developed with support from other sources.
“We chose Williams as a partner because they have some very fine young historians who are thinking critically about Indigenous dispossession,” Bogues said. “The college has made it very clear that they sit on Indigenous land, and they are convening courses and programs that reckon with that. As well, we have wanted to partner with Mystic Seaport Museum on an exhibit that touches on racial slavery and the sea for quite some time. This is an opportunity for our three institutions to come together and think hard about the links between two major historical injustices in our country.”
The project has four major components: a new research cluster at the CSSJ, an online “decolonial archive,” a major exhibition at Mystic Seaport Museum, and expanded courses on historical injustice in early America for students at Williams, Brown, and Mystic Seaport Museum.
The new research cluster, housed at the CSSJ, will focus on how societies founded on historical forms of injustice can become more inclusive and just. Faculty, staff and students from Brown and Williams will collaborate on scholarly projects, sometimes engaging in research work as part of joint Brown-Williams courses.
To create an online “decolonial archive,” the three partners will work with leaders in New England’s Black and Indigenous communities, Brown’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative, the John Carter Brown Library and staff at the John Hay Library to gather oral histories of New Englanders who have experienced the effects of centuries of institutional racism and dispossession. Part of the archive will consist of recorded community conversations organized by Brown and Williams, which will help ensure stories are gathered and shared in ways that reflect community desires, rather than in an exploitative, extractive manner.
The large exhibition at Mystic Seaport Museum will draw upon its vast collections of maritime artifacts as well as those of other lending museums, library, and archival collections. The exhibition will map a more complex historical framework engaging with questions of race and sovereignty, weaving a new narrative with a creative juxtaposition of visual and material culture, archaeology, oral traditions, and songs and performance. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of interactive interpretive programs – both virtual and in-person at the Museum’s riverside campus – to engage the general public and underserved communities.
Over the next three years, all three partners will also offer a wide variety of learning opportunities for students of all ages. Brown and Williams will develop several cross-disciplinary courses focused on colonialism and historical injustices. Mystic Seaport Museum will develop a new curriculum for its Munson Institute and conduct a summer museum-studies internship for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students with an emphasis on issues of race and inequality in the museum profession.
The research undertaken at the Museum by the exhibition curators, Munson fellows, and summer interns will not only add greatly to the body of knowledge about the African American and Native American facets of the Museum’s permanent collection, but also influence the scope and tenor of future museum collecting by identifying gaps to fill. It will allow the Museum to address critical histories that reflect the history of the region and the sea.
“This is just the beginning of what we hope will become a sustained conversation about the inequities of the nation’s founding,” said Brophy. “It is only by facing the past with an honest and truthful understanding of the forces that shaped the development of our nation that we can hope to become a truly just society.”
Media Contact:
Dan McFadden
Director of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
860.333.7155 (m) dan.mcfadden@mysticseaport.org/
About Mystic Seaport Museum:
Mystic Seaport Museum, founded in 1929, is the nation’s leading maritime museum. In addition to providing a multitude of immersive experiences, the Museum also houses a collection of more than two million artifacts that include more than 500 historic vessels and one of the largest collections of maritime photography. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit www.mysticseaport.org/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
