Category: News

Mystic Seaport will honor historian and author Nathaniel Philbrick with the 2015 America and the Sea Award. Presented annually by the Museum, the prestigious award recognizes an individual or organization whose contribution to the history, arts, business, or sciences of the sea best exemplify the American character.

Philbrick will receive the award Wednesday, October 14, at a gala held in his honor in New York City.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the award. Past recipients include oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle, historian David McCullough, legendary yacht designer Olin Stephens, President and CEO of Crowley Maritime Corporation, Thomas Crowley, philanthropist William Koch, former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, WoodenBoat founder Jon Wilson, yachtsman and author Gary Jobson, and maritime industrialist Charles A. Robertson.

“Like those recipients before him, Nat Philbrick’s work helps to elevate one’s understanding of the sea. With every work he publishes, his words speak to American history and they instruct us on our heritage in a very personal and approachable manner,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport.

Philbrick is closely linked to the island of Nantucket, where he moved with his wife, Melissa, and their two children in 1986. In 1994, he published his first book about the island’s history, Away Off Shore, followed by a study of Nantucket’s native legacy, Abram’s Eyes. He was the founding director of Nantucket’s Egan Maritime Institute and is still a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association.

In 2000, Philbrick published the New York Times bestseller, In the Heart of the Sea, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction. The book is the basis of the Warner Bros. motion picture “In Heart of the Sea,” which is directed by Ron Howard and scheduled for release in December, 2015. The book also inspired a 2001 Dateline special on NBC and the 2010 two-hour PBS American Experience film “Into the Deep” by Ric Burns.

The author’s next book, Sea of Glory, was published in 2003 and won the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize and the Albion-Monroe Award from the National Maritime Historical Society. The New York Times bestseller Mayflower, a finalist for both the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, won the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. Mayflower was named one of the ten “Best Books of 2006” by the New York Times Book Review and is currently in development as a limited series on FX.

Philbrick’s latest New York Times bestseller, Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, was published in 2013 and was awarded both the 2013 New England Book Award for nonfiction and the 2014 New England Society Book Award, as well as the 2014 Distinguished Book Award of the Society of Colonial Wars. Bunker Hill has been optioned by Warner Bros. for feature film adaptation.

Philbrick has received the Byrne Waterman Award from the Kendall Whaling Museum, the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for distinguished service from the USS Constitution Museum, the Nathaniel Bowditch Award from the American Merchant Marine Museum, the William Bradford Award from the Pilgrim Society, and the Boston History Award from the Bostonian Society. He was named the 2011 Cushing Orator by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and has an honorary doctorate from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he delivered the commencement address in 2009.

His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. He has appeared on the “Today Show”, the “Morning Show”, “Dateline”, PBS’s “American Experience”, C-SPAN, and NPR.

Philbrick grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earned a BA in English from Brown University and an MA in America Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke Fellow. He was Brown University’s first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978.

Mystic Seaport has named Angela McGhee from Winthrop STEM Elementary Magnet School in New London the recipient of the 2015 Orion Award. The Award was announced at the Museum’s annual Members’ Meeting on September 26.

The Orion Award is bestowed by Mystic Seaport on teachers who create meaningful and innovative learning experiences for their students by utilizing the Museum’s collections, programs, and learning resources. It recognizes teachers who infuse history, math, science, and literature with a maritime focus and are an inspiration to their students and their colleagues. The Museum has given the award annually since 2005.

As the Operations Manager for Winthrop STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Elementary Magnet School, McGhee’s primary responsibility is to oversee the Expanded Learning Time program. Expanded Learning Time is a national initiative designed to give students the opportunity for more quality time within the school day to experience a variety of enriching and engaging experiences. The program at Winthrop has added 300 hours to the regular school for students with help from teachers and community partners like Mystic Seaport.

With the Expanded Learning Time program students have the opportunity to develop deeper learning skills such as teamwork, public speaking, and creative problem solving. Under McGhee’s leadership, Mystic Seaport provided 92 sessions of Expanded Learning Time programs for the school’s 4th grade students over the course of 18 weeks. The programming connects to Winthrop’s focus on STEM and vocabulary development, while exploring topics that included astronomy, whaling, life in a seaport town, and the use of primary sources.

“Angela has a wonderful combination of being able to “think big” and then implement the visionary idea,” said Sarah Cahill, the director of education at Mystic Seaport. “Angela truly understands the value of experiential learning, and has worked hard to forge lasting relationships with Mystic Seaport and other community partners to provide the most engaging and impactful education to the students at Winthrop.”

Mystic Seaport is proud to announce the release of its latest book, L. Francis Herreshoff: Yacht Designer by Roger C. Taylor. The book is the first of two volumes to chronicle the life and work of the most remarkable yacht designer of his time.

Francis Herreshoff lived from 1890 to 1972, and, though not prolific, he designed yachts that will always be considered classics. Beginning his career in the shadow of his famous father, Nathanael G. Herreshoff, he emerged to become a designer who would come close to the perfection of form in yacht design. Despite his exquisite designs and wise, published writings on the subject, L. Francis never achieved the popularity of a John Alden or an Olin Stephens, yet his influence on yachting, now and in the future, deserves its place alongside those leaders. It is a purpose of this book to allow that possibility by presenting evidence of Francis Herreshoff’s genius for public judgment.

 As a young man, Mr. Taylor was acquainted with Mr. Herreshoff. As the founder of International Marine Publishing Company, he published Herreshoff’s Sensible Cruising Designs and An L. Francis Herreshoff Reader. Taylor is a professional mariner with unusually wide experience, including a working familiarity with boats built to many of Herreshoff’s designs. He is the author of seven books on yacht design and seamanship.

Mystic Seaport commissioned Taylor to write Herreshoff’s biography and made available to him the L. Francis Herreshoff Collection at the Museum. Taylor’s research has been painstaking and thorough. He has studied the entire collection of plans and letters, has conducted dozens of in-depth interviews with Herreshoff’s relatives and friends and with owners of Herreshoff boats, and has consulted published yachting books and magazines.

“I feel so privileged to be given the time and space to develop a detailed biography of L. Francis Herrehoff. Getting to know him and his designs in depth has been a most rewarding experience, an experience I am delighted to share,” said Taylor.

In the book, Taylor brings Herreshoff’s personality to life, with its artistic and scientific genius, prejudices, omniscience, shyness, quiet friendliness, inward pain, and generosity. He presents a gallery of plans and photographs of Herreshoff’s  yachts, with expert descriptions and commentary on the details of his designs. He shows how Herreshoff went about his work, what his daily life was like. He portrays Herreshoff  as collector of fine art and antiques, as a master craftsman who made for his friends myriad distinctive objects in wood and metal. Taylor weaves into the story Herreshoff’s complex relationship with his famous father, based on the surviving correspondence between them, as well as interviews with the handful of Herreshoff’s friends who were close enough to him to be privy to his own account of that relationship. Taylor tells of Herreshoff’s many friendships with young and old of both sexes.

Because of the desirability of presenting plans, photographs, and detailed text on each one of Herreshoff’s complete designs, as well as telling a comprehensive story of his life, Taylor has broken the work into two volumes. Volume 1 takes the story up through the design of the J-boat Whirlwind, a contender for the defense of the America’s Cup in 1930, a definite turning point in Herreshoff’s life and work. Volume 2 will complete the story and will be ready for publication two years after Volume 1.

“We are very pleased to be able to help Roger bring this book to reality, and we believe L. Francis Herreshoff: Yacht Designer will be an important addition to yachting history and will be a fine exposition of one the primary collections of Mystic Seaport,” said Mary Anne Stets, the Director of Intellectual Property and Business Development for the Museum.

Mystic Seaport officially opened its newest exhibit, “Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude” with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, September 19. Museum staff and dignitaries gathered in front of the R.J. Schaefer Building to offer some brief comments and declare the exhibit open to the public.

The exhibit, on loan from the National Maritime Museum in London, was created to commemorate the tercentennial anniversary of the passing of the 1714 Longitude Act, which offered a prize to anyone who could demonstrate a reliable and accurate method to determine longitude at sea. It chronicles how some of the leading minds of the 17th and 18th centuries applied astronomy, horology, the study of the earth’s magnetism, and other disciplines in their quest to discover a way for mariners to know where they were at sea. Some highlights of the exhibit include four of John Harrison’s timekeepers, one of the earliest sextants ever constructed, the sea watches Captain James Cook and Lt. William Bligh carried on their Pacific voyages, and a pamphlet from the library of Sir. Isaac Newton.

“We are very proud and excited to be able to bring this remarkable exhibit to Mystic Seaport,” said Museum President Steve White. “It demonstrates a sincere collaboration between two of the leading maritime museums in the world, and also the high quality of exhibition visitors can expect from us as we move into a new era for Mystic Seaport with the completion next year of the new Thompson Exhibition Building.”

White was joined at the ribbon cutting by Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-2); Dava Sobel, author of the bestselling book Longitude; Will Andrewes, a consultant and horology expert who was instrumental in creating the exhibit; and Connecticut state Sen. Andrew Maynard. Once the ribbon was cut, the assembled crowd was invited in to view the exhibit for the first time.

“Ships, Clocks & Stars” will run through March 28, 2016, after which time it will move to the Australian Maritime Museum in Sydney.

Construction on the new Thompson Exhibition Building continued throughout the summer with the excavation of the site and the pouring of the concrete foundation. In the end, a total of 6,450 cubic yards of dirt fill will be required to raise the grade above the level required for flood and storm protection.

The building’s systems infrastructure–water and sewer lines, electrical, IT, and the pipes for the network of geothermal wells–will be installed within the fill. Once in place, the sub-grade will be covered with crushed stone and a layer of foam insulation and a concrete pad will then be poured for the finished floor.

Beginning in early October, the 105-foot glued-laminate beams that support the arched roof will begin to be erected. They will arrive in sections from the factory in Quebec and be hoisted into position and assembled on site. Once the first three of the beams are in place, separate teams will follow and install the building’s sheathing and roofing. The goal is to have the structure weather-tight by winter.

Click on the image to begin a slide show of the recent work.

As part of the Museum’s digital education initiative, six high school students from St. Scholastica’s College in Glebe, Australia joined Mystic Seaport this week via remote video to learn about public history and American maritime heritage.

This was the first international virtual education program for the Museum.

Their teacher said the students were nearing the end of their term and had exams on their minds, but this break from the normal school day gave them a chance to learn about the role that museums play when it comes to teaching the public about history, science, and other subjects.

Krystal Rose, Manager of Digital Education Initiatives at Mystic Seaport, conducted the virtual class from the video studio in the Museum’s Collections Research Center. She explained the practice of public history through the many activities and programs that the Museum engages in, including the 38th Voyage of the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in the world.

The students were particularly intrigued by how a vessel that was once used to kill and process whales for oil and baleen could also be used to bring awareness to the conservation of marine mammals. They learned about the Museum’s partnership with the scientists of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries during the voyage, and about the 85 “38th Voyagers” who traveled on the ship. Comprised of a diverse group, including scientists, poets, artists, historians, teachers and other scholars, they interpreted and shared the Morgan’s message through their own projects—a great example of public history. In addition, the students also learned about how museums gather and use artifacts in different ways from exhibition to publication.

“It was very exciting to be able to share our work with students so far away, and to see their curiosity and enthusiasm for the material,” said Rose.

From August 5-7, Mystic Seaport, with support from the Connecticut Teacher of the Year Council, hosted the second-annual summer institute for this year’s Teachers of the Year.This professional development opportunity at the Museum enabled 14 educators to spend three days learning about maritime history and science from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Participants learned how to utilize the Museum and its collections in their classrooms through active participation and interaction with a variety of staff members, hands-on activities, primary source workshops, and guided exploration of the exhibits and grounds of Mystic Seaport.

“This institute is a great way for us to connect educators with the resources of the Museum and our collections and help all of us figure out new ways to incorporate maritime heritage into their lesson plans,” said Sarah Cahill, the Director of Education at Mystic Seaport.

The Connecticut Teacher of the Year Program began in 1952, sponsored by the Connecticut Department of Education (CSDE) as a way to recognize and honor teacher excellence. According to the Department, this award does not attempt to identify the “best” teacher, but rather an educator who will “serve as a visible and vocal representative of what is best in the profession.”

Cara Quinn, a sixth-grade teacher at Sunset Ridge School in East Hartford, is the recipient of the 2015 Connecticut Teacher of Year Award. Through a rigorous selection process, Quinn was selected from among four finalists, 15 semifinalists, and over 100 district-level Teachers of the Year to represent the State of Connecticut’s educational system on a national level. Quinn has distinguished herself as an educator who strives to help children in need, committing herself to closing the achievement gap.

“I draw my inspiration for teaching by watching my students embrace these concepts and ideas. Their enthusiasm for learning, care for one another and quest to maximize their potential is what invigorates me and solidifies my commitment to teaching,” Mrs. Quinn said in a CSDE press release. “I am grateful to have the opportunity to make a positive contribution in our world each day through the work that I so dearly love.”

Quinn, along with 13 other finalists who were invited to attend the institute, will be using the vibrant history of Mystic Seaport as a means to expand their horizons as educators, and the minds of their students. Through the Museum’s two-million historical artifacts, programs, and educational opportunities, Mystic Seaport is pleased to help foster education and growth in Connecticut’s schools.