Author: Sophia Matsas

FREE ADMISSION TO MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM FOR CONNECTICUT CHILDREN THIS SUMMER

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date June 30, 2022

Mystic, Conn. (June 30, 2022) – CT Summer at the Museum returns this summer and kicks off on Friday, July 1. Mystic Seaport Museum was awarded a grant from Connecticut Humanities to support the Museum’s participation in this program which invites Connecticut children ages 18 and under plus one accompanying Connecticut resident adult to visit participating museums free of charge from July 1 through September 5, 2022.

Funding for the initiative is provided by the CT General Assembly, with the support of Connecticut Humanities and the Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, which also receives support from the federal ARPA.

The Museum has committed to providing access to all children for the entire duration of this program. There will be no limit to the number of tickets available, nor will there be designated time slots for visitation. The program will run through September 5 regardless of fund availability.

“We are thrilled to participate in this program again and provide children from across Connecticut the opportunity to experience everything the Museum has to offer,” said Peter Armstrong, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “In the off season we committed to making improvements to enhance our visitor experience and we can’t wait to see children and families take advantage of those offerings.”

Some of our offerings include;

Get Out On the Water

The Museum’s location along the Mystic River allows families to get out on the water this season. Included with Museum entry, our Boathouse offers free rentals of row, pedal and sail boats. Visit here to learn more about all the ways you can get out on the water.

Fun, Experiential Learning for Children

The Susan Stucke Funk Children’s Museum provides a hands-on environment for children ages 4 to 7 to engage in such activities as swabbing the deck, moving cargo, cooking in the galley, dressing in sailors’ garb, and more.

Home Port is the Museum’s family activity center located in the P.R. Mallory Building, geared towards children ages 8-12 with a variety of crafts and amusements.

Discovery Barn is designed for families and themed around the schooner L.A. Dunton, it explores the scientific principles behind a boats sail power, stability, hull shape, and the simples machines behind running it.

Visit here to learn more about these spaces and more!

Enhanced Food Offerings

Enjoy our newly renovated spaces and updated menus at Greenman’s Landing (formerly The Galley), Propellor Cafe, Anchor Cafe or enjoy a quick bite to eat and a variety of drink options at Spouter’s Tavern while children run and play with the Charles W. Morgan as their backdrop. Explore the new menus here.

The Museum continues to offer world-class exhibitions including, Story Boats: The Tales They Tell, Figureheads and Shipcarvings, Sailor Made: Folk Art of the Sea, Sea As Muse and more. Other experiences available for an additional fee include Treworgy Planetarium, Toy Boat Building and river cruises aboard Liberty.

“There isn’t enough time in one day to see everything the Museum has to offer, and with the CT Summer at the Museum program, families can come back as they please for a unique experience each and every time,” says Armstrong.

To learn more about the CT Summer at the Museum program, visit our site here.

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Media Contact

Sophia Matsas
Director of Marketing & Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
sophia.matsas@mysticseaport.org

About Mystic Seaport Museum

Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s leading maritime Museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.” The Museum’s grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River in Mystic, CT, and include a recreated New England coastal village, a working shipyard, formal exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities. The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft, including four National Historic Landmark vessels, most notably the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan. For more information, please visit mysticseaport.org and follow the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

About Connecticut Humanities

CT Humanities (CTH) is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. CTH connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. CTH projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations, and gifts from private sources. Learn more by visiting cthumanities.org.

About Connecticut Office of the Arts

The Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) is the state agency charged with fostering the health of Connecticut’s creative economy. Part of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, the COA is funded by the State of Connecticut as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

Tags discovering amistad, Juneteenth, museum news

Press Releases

“SARGENT, WHISTLER, AND VENETIAN GLASS: AMERICAN ARTISTS AND THE MAGIC OF MURANO”

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date June 30, 2022

Jo hn Singer Sargent , A Venetian Woman , 18 82 , oil on canvas, 93 3/4 x 52 3/8 in., Cincinnati Art Museum, The Edwin and Virginia Irwin Memorial, 1972.37

Opens at Mystic Seaport Museum October 15, 2022

With more than 115 works from over 40 institutions and private collections, the exhibition is one of the Museum’s most ambitious to date

John Singer Sargent, A Venetian Woman, 1882, oil on canvas, 93 3/4 x 52 3/8 in., Cincinnati Art Museum,The Edwin and Virginia Irwin Memorial, 1972.37

Mystic, Conn. (July 7, 2022) – The exhibition Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano is the first comprehensive examination of American artmaking, tourism, and art collecting in Venice, bringing to life the Venetian glass revival of the late 19th century as well as the artistic experimentation the city inspired for visiting artists. On view at the Mystic Seaport Museum from October 15, 2022 through February 27, 2023, the exhibition is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where it was originally on view. Christina Connett Brophy, Senior Vice President of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Director of Museum Galleries at Mystic Seaport Museum, has expanded and tailored the exhibition for its Mystic iteration. This presentation considers the work through the lens of another vibrant port city which saw a heyday during the period covered by the collection: Mystic, Connecticut and greater New England. In Mystic, the exhibition adds new objects, displays, and pedagogical tools and experiences drawing from the Museum’s own collection and expertise.

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano brings together more than 115 artworks, including rare etchings by James McNeill Whistler and major oil paintings by John Singer Sargent. More than a quarter of the objects on display are from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection, joining loans from more than 40 institutions—such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago—as well as private collections. Paintings and prints intermingle among rarely seen Venetian glass mosaic portraits and glass cups, vases, and urns by the leading glassmakers of Murano, including members of the Seguso and Barovier families. Several artworks were conserved by the Smithsonian specifically for inclusion in the exhibition, including an ornate Byzantine revival gold and glass mosaic necklace.

“Venice has long captivated American artists and collectors who have been inspired by the creative talents of Venetians in glassmaking and other disciplines,” said Peter Armstrong, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “Presenting the exhibition, Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano, gives us the opportunity to draw on Mystic Seaport Museum’s unique insight into this same period of time, and expand the understanding of the show’s original thesis.”

Between 1860 and 1915, the renowned glassmaking industry on the Venetian island of Murano experienced intense growth. Cross-cultural connections were paved between Italy and the United States via ocean pathways and easier travel. This Venetian glass revival coincided with a surge in Venice’s popularity as a destination for Americans, many of whom visited the glass furnaces and eagerly collected ornate hand-blown goblets decorated with floral and animal motifs. Collector interest led to frequent depictions of Italian glassmakers and glass objects by prominent American artists of that era, including not only Sargent and Whistler, but the likes of Robert Frederick Blum, Frank Duveneck, Ellen Day Hale, Bertha Evelyn Jaques, Thomas Moran, and Walter Launt Palmer. During the same time, Venice’s other decorative arts industries–most notably mosaics, lace, and jewelry–saw a renaissance, in part through American patronage. The collection presents Venetian works in conversation with paintings, watercolors, and prints by American artists who found inspiration in Venice.

At Mystic Seaport Museum, object, pedagogical, and experiential additions to the exhibition draw on the port city of Mystic’s own heritage in parallel to that of Venice. New to the Mystic exhibition, visitors will see contemporary glass and lace work that shows the continued impact of Venetian-imported craft today and the associated tools for making such work. Additionally, photographs printed from glass plate negatives taken in Venice at the time, and a gondola on loan from La Gondola Providence, Inc. will be on display.

Drawing further on Mystic Seaport Museum’s curatorial and community knowledge, the show will also explore related anthropological questions, such as the relationship between these transatlantic cultural exchanges and local, exploitative trade with American indigenous populations. Mystic, similarly to Venice, exists as a port city battling sea level rises, creating challenges to historic buildings and artifacts.

“Bringing The Magic of Murano to Mystic Seaport Museum not only leverages our unique ability to add the rich viewpoint gained by adding physical objects in our collection and craft expertise to the exhibition,” says Brophy, “but it also gives us an important opportunity to directly add a broader range of voices to our understanding of the exchange that is explored in the Smithsonian’s incredible exhibition.”

BOOK

The 335-page, fully-illustrated catalog provides the first survey of the American grand tour to Venice combining fine and decorative arts. The book features five new essays from experts in the history of American art and Venetian glass including Sheldon Barr, independent scholar of Venetian revival glass; Melody Barnett Deusner, associate professor of art history at Indiana University Bloomington; Diana Jocelyn Greenwold, Lunder Curator of American Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art; Stephanie Mayer Heydt, the Margaret and Terry Stent Curator of American Art at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; and Alex Mann, former Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Brittany Emens Strupp, curatorial assistant and doctoral candidate in art history at Temple University contributed to the artist biographies. Co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in association with Princeton University Press, is available for purchase ($65).

CREDIT

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support has been provided by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Embassy of Italy in Washington, D.C., Chris G. Harris, the Raymond J. and Margaret Horowitz Endowment, Janet and William Ellery James, William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund, Maureen and Gene Kim, the Lunder Foundation—Peter and Paula Lunder Family, Lucy S. Rhame, Holly and Nick Ruffin, the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Awards, Rick and Lucille Spagnuolo, and Myra and Harold Weiss.

The accompanying catalog is supported in part by Jane Joel Knox.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

In-kind support has been provided by Christie’s.

Upgrades to the exhibition at the Mystic Seaport Museum are supported by DEAI/Mellon and other partners.

Events

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano will be accompanied by a robust program of events and public programming to be announced this Summer.

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About Mystic Seaport Museum

Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s leading maritime Museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.” The Museum’s grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River and include a recreated New England coastal village, a working shipyard, formal exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities. The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft, including four National Historic Landmark vessels, most notably the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan. For more information, please visit mysticseaport.org and follow the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Contact:

Lourdes Miller
Account Coordinator, Visual Arts
Blue Medium
T: +1 212-675-1800
lourdes@bluemedium.com

Sophia Matsas
Director of Marketing & Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
sophia.matsas@mysticseaport.org

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Tags exhibition, saam, sargent, venetian glass, whistler

News

Public Parking & Shuttle to Downtown Mystic at Mystic Seaport Museum

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date June 21, 2022

Everything You Need To Know About The Public Parking & Shuttle Service at the Museum

Parking in downtown Mystic has been a growing challenge and the Museum is now working Laz Parking to alleviate traffic and parking issues during the peak tourist season. The south half of the Museum’s South Lot, located along Route 27 will be available to downtown visitors for $10 per day (Museum members and visitors will continue to enjoy free parking).

This fee includes a free shuttle bus service to downtown Mystic which will run from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and may be adjusted as demand is established over the course of the season. Downtown Mystic visitors will be prompted through parking lot signage to pay via the Laz Parking App or through Text to Donate. Proof of payment will be required to gain shuttle access.

Parking for Museum members and visitors will remain free in the north half of the south lot as well as the in the North Parking lot, located across from the Thompson Exhibition Building. Guests of Latitude 41 will also continue to benefit from free parking in the North Parking Lot.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why paid parking at Mystic Seaport Museum?

In partnership with the Town of Stonington, Mystic Seaport Museum is working as a community partner to alleviate traffic congestion and lack of parking options in downtown Mystic.

Laz Parking will provide a paid parking option and shuttle bus to downtown.

Where do I park if I want to visit downtown Mystic?

Paid parking for downtown Mystic is available in the southern half of the south lot at Mystic Seaport Museum. Follow street signs for Laz Parking and take the traffic light at the tug boat. When you enter the parking lot, follow signs and turn to the right for paid parking.

Do I need to pay to park if I am visiting the Museum?

Parking for Museum visitors and members is free!

If you are visiting the Museum as a member or visitor, please park in the north lot, or the northern half of the south lot (follow signs).

Only the southern half of the South Lot is reserved for paid parking for those visiting downtown Mystic.

What is the cost?

The fee is $10/day which allows you access to the shuttle bus.

How do I pay?

Signage in the lot will provide a QR code to scan for payment. Signage will also provide information on a text to pay option. If you are a frequent user, you can download the Laz Parking app.

What time does the shuttle bus run?

Right now, the plan is to run 10am-6pm and we will announce extended hours if we see that there is later demand. Shuttle wait time is less than 15 minutes, depending on traffic. Board at the shuttle bus stop in the South Lot. The shuttle run is about 2 minutes and drops off near the flagpole in downtown Mystic. You can pick it up in the same location to return to the Museum. You can leave your car in the lot past 6pm, but you will need to walk back from downtown Mystic once the shuttle bus stops running. It is less than half a mile from the Museum’s parking lot to downtown Mystic.

Is the shuttle bus handicapped accessible?

Yes!

Do I need to display my payment receipt?

No, when you register, you enter your license plate which can be checked for payment verification.

You need to show proof of payment on your mobile device to board the shuttle bus.

Tags downtown mystic, laz parking, shuttle service

Press Releases

MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM AND DISCOVERING AMISTAD COLLABORATING FOR THE THIRD YEAR TO BRING JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date June 10, 2022

Mystic, Conn. (June 2, 2022) – Mystic Seaport Museum and Discovering Amistad are collaborating for the third year to bring a Juneteenth recognition event to the Museum on June 19. The 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. The day was recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.

A special program – including a panel discussion, a “Harambee” reflection, live music, and tours of the 128-foot flagship of Connecticut, the Amistad – is designed to honor African-American culture, to increase awareness and to highlight the roles that we all can play to dismantle racism.

The program begins at 3 p.m. and is sponsored by the Community Foundation of Eastern CT and Chelsea Groton Bank. Admission to Mystic Seaport Museum is free after 2:30 on June 19.

“Juneteenth is a historic day that marks the ending of human chattel slavery in the United States. On this day, we reflect on the struggles and triumphs of the African American community; both historically and today. It is also a day for America to acknowledge the horrific institution of slavery, and its generational, systemic impacts. Juneteenth is a day to recommit ourselves to addressing racism and promoting social justice. Discovering Amistad is thrilled to partner with the Mystic Seaport Museum to offer a series of activities to commemorate Juneteenth, to increase awareness and to highlight the opportunities that ‘each of us’ can play to dismantle racism,” states Paula Mann-Agnew LMSW, CSW, Executive Director of Discovering Amistad.

For more details on the Juneteenth Celebration, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/events/juneteenth.

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Media Contact

Sophia Matsas
Director of Marketing & Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
sophia.matsas@mysticseaport.org

About Mystic Seaport Museum

About Discovering Amistad

Discovering Amistad teaches the lessons of the 1839 Amistad Uprising to advance human rights today. Our schooner, The Amistad, is Connecticut’s flagship and serves as a floating classroom to supplement our proprietary in-class and on-line curriculum. For more information go to www.discoveringamistad.org

Tags discovering amistad, Juneteenth, museum news

Press Releases

MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM UPDATES CRUISING CLUB OF AMERICA DOCK WITH FLOATING DOCKS OFFERING GREATER ACCESSIBLITY

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date June 3, 2022

Mystic, Conn. (June 2, 2022) – Mystic Seaport Museum recently completed the renovation of its Cruising Club of America (CCA) Dock. The new docks will be more user friendly and provide enhanced electrical supply while also addressing the challenges presented by rising sea levels.

In 1948, CCA Commodore Thorvald Ross joined Museum Chairman P.R. Mallory in dedicating the Cruising Club of America Dock at Mystic Seaport Museum. In the last 75 years, tens of thousands of boaters have visited by boat and tied up to enjoy the Museum by day and night. As we celebrate our 75-year relationship with CCA, we are unveiling these new docks to commemorate their Centennial and our shared appreciation of America and the sea.

The CCA is an exclusive collection of passionate, seriously accomplished, ocean sailors making adventurous use of the seas. All members have extensive offshore boat handling, seamanship, and command experience honed over many years. Founded in 1922 the club has more than 1,400 members.

The replacement dock is not a fixed pier, but rather concrete floating docks, which are more stable and conducive to a wider range of boaters who may have mobility challenges. Additionally, the floating docks will enable the Museum to keep pace with the environmental changes well into the future.

Learn more about the new docks and the Museum’s partnership with CCA here.

Reservations for the new docks can be made here.

About Mystic Seaport Museum

Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s leading maritime Museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.” The Museum’s grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River in Mystic, CT, and include a recreated New England coastal village, a working shipyard, formal exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities. The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft, including four National Historic Landmark vessels, most notably the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan. For more information, please visit mysticseaport.org and follow the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

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Tags cca, floating docks, museum news

Press Releases

Museum Working In Partnership with Laz Parking to Alleviate Downtown Parking Challenges

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date May 16, 2022

Mystic, Conn. (May 16, 2022) – Mystic Seaport Museum is collaborating with Stonington officials and Laz Parking to alleviate traffic and parking issues in downtown Mystic during the peak tourist season. Through this partnership, the south half of the Museum’s South Lot, located along Route 27 will be available to downtown visitors for $10 per day (Museum visitors will continue to enjoy free parking).

Parking for Museum visitors and members will remain free in the north half of the south lot as well as the in the North Parking lot, located across from the Thompson Exhibition Building. Guests of Latitude 41 will also continue to benefit from free parking in the North Parking Lot.

Mystic Seaport Museum is excited to be collaborating with the town of Stonington and Laz Parking to provide this service and alleviate traffic concerns during the busy summer season. Service is expected to begin by Memorial Day Weekend.

Media Contact

Sophia Matsas
Director of Marketing & Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
sophia.matsas@mysticseaport.org

About Mystic Seaport Museum

Tags laz parking, museum news, paid parking

News

Mystic Seaport Museum Magazine: Spring/Summer 2022

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date May 6, 2022

In this Issue

Get the latest news from exciting upcoming exhibitions, Brilliant turning 90, this year’s America and the Sea Award Recipient, and our commitment to the visitor experience!

Tags Museum magazine, mystic, mystic seaport

Press Releases

Mystic Seaport Museum Names Maggie Dolan Vice President of Finance

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date April 28, 2022

Mystic, Conn. (April 28, 2022) – Mystic Seaport announces the appointment of Maggie Dolan as its Vice President of Finance, effective immediately.

Reporting to the President, Maggie will drive the development and implementation of Mystic Seaport Museum’s strategic financial plan as well as annual operating and capital budgets and investments. A strategic thinker and problem solver, she brings 30 years of experience in nonprofit financial management to her new role, with a focus on educational institutions. Her first such position was at Yale University, followed by Director of Finance/CFO roles at a number of independent schools, including The Williams School in New London, The Rectory School in Pomfret, and most recently at The Independent Day School in Middlefield.

Maggie is an avid reader, enjoys hiking with her chocolate Lab, Oliver, watching college basketball, Premier League soccer, and playing in a competitive trivia league. She lives in Old Lyme with her daughter, a college freshman, and has two sons living in New York.

Media Contact

Sophia Matsas
Director of Marketing & Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
sophia.matsas@mysticseaport.org

About Mystic Seaport Museum

Tags museum news, vp of finance

Press Releases

“Story Boats: The Tales They Tell” Opens at Mystic Seaport Museum May 28

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date April 6, 2022

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s yacht VIREO.

Mystic, Conn. (April 6, 2022) – The exhibition “Story Boats: The Tales They Tell” gathers a diverse selection of boats, large and small, to offer a fresh and exciting view into the American maritime experience. Drawn from the Museum’s extensive watercraft collection (including some that are being shown to the public for the very first time) the boats in the show bring to life remarkable stories of humanity’s connection to the sea.

“Story Boats: The Tales They Tell” will be on view in the Collins Gallery at Mystic Seaport Museum from May 28 through August 14, 2022. It was curated by Quentin Snediker, the Museum’s Clark Senior Curator for Watercraft and Krystal Rose, Curator of Collections.

“While many visitors and field experts are interested in the technical and material aspects of the collection, what resonates with a broader audience are the diverse personal stories that are inherently tied to those boats and how these stories connect with our visitors’ own journeys,” said Christina Brophy, Senior Vice President of Curatorial Affairs and Senior Director of Museum Galleries at Mystic Seaport Museum. “What ties these boats together thematically, and is the inspiration for the exhibition ‘Story Boats: The Tales They Tell,’ is the remarkable richness of human-interest stories behind them, which include themes of hope, exploration, survival, joy, adventure, sport, immigration, and many others.”

One of the Museum’s greatest assets is its collection of small watercraft, which is arguably the largest of its type and the best in the country. Mystic Seaport Museum has more than 450 small boats as well as a fleet of larger historic vessels moored on its waterfront along the Mystic River. Four of these vessels are designated National Historic Landmarks. As a whole, they represent an extraordinary array of design, purpose, and materials beginning in the early 19th century to the present, from dugout canoes to duck boats to recreational Boston Whalers and everything in between and beyond.

Senior Curator for Watercraft, Quentin Snediker and Curator of Collections, Krystal Rose, along with the Museum’s exhibits team consulted with a diverse pool of experts and lay people to distill a list of boats from the collection that have these outstanding stories to tell. The exhibition installation in the Thompson Building Collins Gallery and Pilalas Lobby will fully utilize the grand volume of the space to advantage, where some of the lighter vessels will “fly” suspended from the ceiling, while others will be mounted on the gallery floor. Each vessel will be exhibited with an iconic object that alludes to its story.

A few highlights from the exhibit include:

Franklin D Roosevelt’s Vireo

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1914 knockabout sloop Vireo (from our collection) will be displayed alongside his wheelchair (on loan from the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites). Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 shortly before a family trip and was aboard the vessel on the last day he walked without assistance.

Steven Callahan’s 76 Days Adrift

Mystic Seaport Museum recently received a collection of material from Steven Callahan, author of “Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea,” the true story of his survival of being lost at sea in a rubber life raft after his solo sailing trip across the Atlantic met with disaster. His sketches and some of the survival tools he created from his scant supplies will be on display with a similar model of the raft from which he found rescue off Guadeloupe. Callahan’s recent oral histories recorded by Mystic Seaport Museum will also be available in the exhibition.

Escape from Cuba Aboard Analuisa

The Analuisa is a 20-foot fishing vessel built by Luciano Cuadras Fernández, launched from Mariel, Cuba, in 1994 with 19 people aboard bound for Florida. Partway across, they were picked up by a passing cruise ship, abadoning the Analuisa. A very fortunate group of four on a totally different, floundering vessel (also out of Cuba) happened upon the abandoned Analuisa and navigated her safely to Key West. The sturdy Analuisa was a success story for two immigrant groups in one voyage. These are just a few of the hundreds of amazing stories that are tied to our Gallery collection.

To complement the main exhibition, other watercraft will be mounted on the deck surrounding the Thompson Exhibition Building and on the surrounding grounds, including Tango, a bright orange foot-pedal powered craft designed by the legendary naval architect Bruce Kirby. In 1992, Dwight Collins pedaled the boat from Newfoundland to England in 41 days, the fastest human-powered crossing in known history. In addition to these displays, visitors can explore our grounds to floating Story Boats vessels that carry their own powerful tales, including the Gerda III, which is on long-term loan from the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. In 1943, a courageous 22-year-old woman named Henny Sinding organized a resistance team to carry more than 300 Jews from Nazi-occupied Denmark to safety in Sweden aboard the Gerda III.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a souvenir book, “Story Boats,” to be published by Mystic Seaport Museum.

Media Contact:
Sophia Matsas
Director of Marketing & Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
sophia.matsas@mysticseaport.org

About Mystic Seaport Museum

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Tags Exhibit, exhibition, story boats

News

Mayflower II Departs the Museum

Post author By Sophia Matsas
Post date April 5, 2022

On Monday, April 11, 2022, Plimoth Patuxet’s Mayflower II departs from the Museum at approximately 3 p.m. The 65-year-old wooden vessel spent the winter months in dry dock at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard for routine maintenance and painting. The ship’s travel schedule is entirely dependent on tide, weather conditions, and other factors, and therefore subject to change without notice.

We look forward to welcoming visitors as The Mayflower II departs. For those who cannot view the launch in person you are able to track the ships journey here.

Read the press release here.

Enjoy this gallery of images from its time at the Museum this winter.