Category: News

Mystic Seaport Museum launched an initiative to work toward eliminating single-use plastics on its 19-acre site on the Mystic River.

The program is being developed and implemented through the leadership of a staff Sustainability Committee in collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md. The teams at each museum share information, resources, ideas, and results of implementation efforts, and will be giving a joint presentation at the 2019 Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Conference in Manitowoc, Wis., this coming April.

“Both of our museums are situated on estuaries, which brings with it the responsibility to be stewards of the water and shoreline that provide so much for our institutions,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “We recognize the gravity of our role in shedding light on the human impact on ocean health, and we believe in doing our part to help change that impact in a positive direction and to set a standard among maritime museums and surrounding communities.”

The Sustainability Committee at Mystic Seaport Museum began meeting in early 2018 at the direction of White, who encouraged the committee to make recommendations for financially sustainable, positive changes to the Museum’s impact on the environment that also will inspire and energize the public to adopt similar practices.

“In searching the web for information on plastic pollution, it is very easy to become overwhelmed with all the organizations, the photos, the news stories, and the tips, which can lead paralysis because it’s too hard, it is too vast a problem,” said Sherri Ramella, who leads the committee. “But we have to start somewhere and focus on what can be accomplished with each tiny step.”

In conjunction with the Museum’s food-service partners Coastal Gourmet and Event Network, the following changes replacing single-use plastic products have been implemented:

• Paper shopping bags instead of plastic
• Nautical-themed reusable shopping bags made from 100-percent recycled plastic water bottles are available for purchase
• Plant-based straws and pasta stir sticks
• Plastic lids and straws are available upon request only
• To-go containers and serving ware have been switched to paper rather than plastic or foam
• Catered events are using wooden utensils, and plant-based cups, or rented china, glasses, and cutlery.

Moving forward, the Museum will continue to investigate ways to reduce single-use plastic consumption, while keeping in mind that alternatives used must be ecofriendly, and will focus on making changes across the Museum grounds to enable visitors to reduce plastic consumption and recycle more effectively.

Ramella observed that plastic is a product designed to last forever and In the first 10 years of this century the world economy produced more plastic than in the entire 100 years of the  20th century.

“This is not a problem we can ignore,” she said. “Habits are hard to change, but once they’re changed, the new habits are just as strong.”

Mystic Seaport Museum has named Daniel McKenzie captain of the schooner Brilliant.

The 61-foot schooner is the platform for one of the oldest youth sail training programs in the country. Designed by legendary naval architect Olin Stephens II and launched in 1932, Brilliant operates a busy schedule of summer youth programs and spring and fall adult programs on multi-day cruises throughout New England and beyond. McKenzie will be responsible for all aspects of the vessel’s operation.

“Being captain of Brilliant requires someone who is not just an outstanding mariner, but someone who understands the special role the schooner plays in introducing young and adult sailors to the joys and life lessons of sailing,” said Mystic Seaport president Steve White. “Brilliant is a public ambassador for the Museum and everything that makes sailing special. We are confident Dan is the right person to be at Brilliant’s helm.

McKenzie brings extensive experience in sail training and education with billets on numerous sailing vessels, including the Los Angeles Maritime Institute’s 110-foot brigantine Exy Johnson, the clipper Stad Amsterdam, Pride of Baltimore II, and most recently completing three trans-Atlantic voyages on the SeaMester vessel Argo.

“My emphasis in sail training is definitely to make sure that the students have a strong foundation and support net where they feel comfortable challenging themselves–and being challenged,” said McKenzie. “I expect that for a lot of these people maybe they’ve been on boats before, but not a sailboat, and certainly not on such a large boat that requires so much work.”

For high school students, getting beyond peer approval and instilling self-confidence is a key goal for McKenzie.

“They are at a time in their lives when the approval of their friends matters a lot to them—and that’s OK—but  they need to know that none of it matters if they don’t have confidence in themselves,” he said. “I think that is part of the reason why I enjoy challenging students so much on these boats. It’s an important lesson for everyone.”

A native of New Jersey, McKenzie has a B.S. from Warren Wilson College and is presently completing a M.S. ExEd from Minnesota State University. He holds a USCG 500 tons Ocean Masters License and is a resident of Mystic, Conn.

When asked what is he looking forward to most in his new post, McKenzie had a quick answer: “Sailing that beautiful boat!”

For more information about the Brilliant and her sail training programs, please visit the Brilliant webpage.

Within Mystic Seaport Museum’s exhibition Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, is a reproduction of one of two sledges used by the crew of the HMS Terror when they abandoned their ship trapped in ice in the Arctic, sometime in the spring of 1848.

The sledges were built by the crew using planks from the trapped ship. Each sledge held a ship’s boat, which was in turn packed tight with food and equipment needed to survive the fierce Arctic weather. A team of eight men, wearing leather “bridles” across their torsos and attached to the sledge with heavy rope, would haul the vehicle across the snow and ice. The sledge itself could weigh 700 pounds, the dory another 700, plus all the food and equipment packed in it. In total, the weight to be hauled could reach more than 1 ton.

Spending time in the Death in the Ice exhibition, one can imagine the growing desperation of the men on the trapped ships, as they cannibalized their vessels to build what they hoped would be their means of escaping the elements and finding rescue in the third year of their ordeal.

As part of the Museum’s first-ever Ice Festival on Presidents Day weekend (February 16-18), a team of volunteers with the Gung Ho Squad designed and built a replica sledge for visitors at the Festival to try and haul. The modern-day sledge is already easier to haul than the original, as it is made from lighter weight fir as opposed to the heavy oak planks of the Terror and Erebus. In all, the reproduction weighs 150 pounds, not including the dory. It has similar dimensions to the originals, but this version has a flat top to accommodate the Museum’s dory while the Franklin crew’s sledge would have had a top to hold dories with curved bottoms.

Museum volunteer RJ Lavallee, who is volunteer coordinator of the Gung Ho Squad, designed the sledge from photos of a sledge created for filming of the 2018 AMC television series, “The Terror.” Museum Rigger Sarah Clement created the bridles. Lavallee and fellow volunteer Bill Salancy worked with Shipyard Maintenance Foreman Scott Noseworthy on the project in the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard.

Visitors to Ice Festival can show off their sledge pulling talents on the Village Green at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

Mystic Seaport Museum Opens ‘When This You See, Remember Me,’ a deep dive into 19th century photography on Saturday, January 19

Local photographers Everett Scholfield and George Tingley took thousands of photos during their careers, which spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They took portraits, landscapes, business photos, artistic works, and pictures of local interest. And Tingley’s connection to the Museum goes back to its founding days 90 years ago.

The two men’s overlapping careers spanned the years 1865-1930. Scholfield was an itinerant businessman and frequently moved to different locations around southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island, although he eventually settled in New London. Tingley spent the bulk of his career in Mystic. Over the years beginning in the 1970s, photographs taken by both Scholfield and Tingley, as well as their original backdrops, cameras, coupons, and ads were donated to the Museum, ultimately resulting in an extensive collection.

In fact, in 1930 George Tingley presented two of his photographs – depicting a battleship and a tow boat – to Dr. Charles Stillman, one of the men who had founded Mystic Seaport Museum a year earlier. These were the first two photographs in the museum’s collections. Over time, Tingley’s two photographs were joined by many others and today the photographic collection – one of the most important in the United States – includes more than 1 million images.

The show, which opens Saturday, January 19 at 10 a.m., explores advances in photographic technology and techniques in late 1800s studio photography from the perspective of both the sitter and the photographer. Scholfield and Tingley worked with bulky and complicated equipment. They captured images on glass and then had to mix and work with chemicals to create photographs. Color photographs did not exist and they could not make enlargements; to make a large photo they had to make a very large glass negative.

Portrait photography in those days could be a tortured process. Photographers had to make sure cameras, negatives, and equipment were in place, as well as any desired furniture, backdrops, or props. They also needed sufficient lighting; a frequent challenge in the days before electricity. Those sitting for the portrait had to be posed, and then sit still for many minutes while the photograph was being taken. Any movement would result in a blurry picture. This was particularly challenging when children and/or pets were involved. Added to all that stress, the image the photographer saw through the lens was upside down.

Using a recreated set based upon artifacts from Scholfield’s studio, visitors to the exhibition will be able to take their own 19th century-style portrait. They can practice composing a scene viewed upside down through a period camera, learn about the darkroom process, and experiment with props and poses. They then can take their own photo with their camera or smartphone.

Visitors will be encouraged to share their picture on social media with #MSMRememberMe and an Instagram feed of the resulting images will be streamed as part of the exhibition.

Mystic Seaport Museum will mark the opening of its newest exhibition, Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, with a public ceremony beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday, December 1.

The event will take place in the River Room in Latitude 41° Restaurant & Tavern, 105 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT. It is free and open to the public. If you are unable to attend in person, it will be livestreamed on YouTube. You can bookmark the livestream here.

Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, explores the fate of the Franklin Expedition, a tragic story of Arctic exploration and death and one of the most enduring mysteries of maritime history – a mystery that remains unsolved to this day. Setting sail from London on May 19, 1845, Sir John Franklin and his 128-man crew, aboard Erebus and Terror, were the British nation’s biggest hope of finally traversing the Northwest Passage – the much desired, possibly faster, trade route from Europe to Asia.

Franklin and his men were last seen by Europeans in Baffin Bay in July 1845. Two years would pass with nothing heard from the men, prompting the first of a series of expeditions to be sent into the Arctic in an attempt to find them and the reasons why they had not been in touch with the Admiralty or loved ones at home. In all, 36 expeditions would set out in search of the lost ships and their crew.

The exhibition includes more than 200 objects from the collections of the National Maritime Museum in London (NMM) and the Canadian Museum of History (CMH), alongside finds recovered by Parks Canada from Franklin’s ship HMS Erebus. The artifacts from Erebus – the vessel was discovered underwater in 2014 – will be on display for the first time in the United States. The exhibition promises to advance our understanding of the expedition and the fate of Franklin and his men.

The exhibition will emphasize the significant role of Inuit in uncovering the fate of the Franklin Expedition, showcasing Inuit oral histories relating to the European exploration of the Arctic Archipelago. Numerous Inuit artifacts, including some incorporating materials of European origin, which were traded from explorers or retrieved from abandoned ships, will also be on display in the exhibition, highlighting the interactions between the search expeditions and the Inuit.

The exhibition was developed by the Canadian Mu­seum of History (Gatineau, Canada), in partnership with Parks Canada Agency and with the National Maritime Museum (Lon­don, UK), and in collaboration with the Govern­ment of Nunavut and the Inuit Heritage Trust.

In attendance at the public opening will be Steve White, President of Mystic Seaport Museum; Nicholas Bell, Senio Vice President for Curatorial Affairs at Mystic Seaport Museum; Mike Hudner, Mystic Seaport Museum Trustee; members of the Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, and Inuit tribes; Jean-Marc Blais, Director General of the Canadian Museum of History; Marc-Andre Bernier, Manager of Underwater Archaeology for Parks Canada; Phyllis Yaffe, Canadian Consul General in New York; Alex Stubbing, Director of Heritage for the Government of Nunavut, and a representative of the Inuit Heritage Trust.

An American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter will be at the ceremony for the hearing impaired.

Death in the Ice will run December 1, 2018-April 28, 2019, in the Collins Gallery of the Thompson Exhibition Building. It is included in museum admission. Mystic Seaport Museum’s winter hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday-Sunday. Visit our website for more information.

New exhibition at Mystic Seaport Museum explores what happened to the Franklin Expedition, two ships and 129 men that disappeared in the Arctic in 1845.

The Franklin Expedition is a tragic story of Arctic exploration and death and one of the most enduring mysteries of maritime history – a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition will display more than 200 objects from the collections of the National Maritime Museum in London (NMM) and the Canadian Museum of History (CMH), alongside finds recovered by Parks Canada from Franklin’s ship HMS Erebus. The artifacts from Erebus – the vessel was discovered under water in 2014 – will be on show for the first time in the United States. The exhibition promises to advance our understanding of the expedition and the fate of Franklin and his men. Death in the Ice will also explore both the Eu­ropean and Inuit perspectives, including the importance of the Inuit to those searching for the remains of the expedition.

“We are very pleased to be presenting this compelling and mystifying story, which has had a hold on the imaginations of so many since the ships disappeared into the Arctic,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “We are particularly pleased to highlight the critical role Inuit have played in the Franklin story, from the years immediately following the expedition’s loss to the recent discoveries of the ships. Though much of what happened to the expedition remains a mystery, what we do know is largely thanks to Inuit oral history and underwater archaeology.”

Setting sail from London on May 19, 1845, Sir John Franklin and his 128-man crew, aboard Erebus and Terror, were the British nation’s biggest hope of finally traversing the Northwest Passage – the much desired, possibly faster, trade route from Europe to Asia.

30 years of clues

Franklin and his men were last seen in Baffin Bay in July 1845. Two years would pass with nothing heard from the men, prompting the first of a series of expeditions to be sent into the Arctic in an attempt to find them and the reasons why they had not been in touch with the Admiralty or loved ones at home. Over the course of the next 30 years, news and relics, such as snow goggles, cutlery, and a portable stove – examples of which can be seen in Death in the Ice – filtered back out of the Arctic and spoke to what had happened: the deaths of the entire crew through a combination of factors including scurvy and starvation, speculation of cannibalism, and potential madness brought on by lead poisoning. It was not until 1859 that a sole piece of paper, often known as the Victory Point Note (and on display as part of the exhibition), was found and revealed anything about what happened, including the date of Sir John Franklin’s death – June 11, 1847.

However, Erebus, Terror, and the bodies of Franklin and most of his crew were still nowhere to be found (three bodies were found buried on Beechey Island and two skeletons were returned to Britain during the 19th century).

That was until 2014, when the wreck of Erebus was discovered by Parks Canada, as part of a multi-faceted partnership that included government, private, and non-profit groups. This was followed by the discovery of Terror in 2016, marking two of the most important archaeological finds in recent history. As Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeology Team begins to bring to light the ships and their contents, Death in the Ice will see objects relating to the expedition and the subsequent search parties, including personal items, clothing, and components of the ship. Furthermore, finds from Erebus itself will be on display, including the ship’s bell.

The role of the Inuit

The exhibition will emphasize the significant role of Inuit in uncovering the fate of the Franklin Expedition, showcasing Inuit oral histories relating to the European exploration of the Arctic Archipelago. Numerous Inuit artifacts, including some incorporating materials of European origin that were traded from explorers or retrieved from abandoned ships, will also be on display in the exhibition, highlighting the interactions between the search expeditions and the Inuit.

Also featured will be the work of Dr. Owen Beattie of the Franklin Expedition Forensic Anthropology Project, who has used forensic techniques to examine human remains recovered from Beechey Island. Examination of tissues collected from the men’s bodies found that the amount of lead in the bones of some of the men that had been found was exponentially high, leading to the theory that lead poisoning may have been one of the factors contributing to the expedition’s demise.

In conjunction with new research from Parks Canada and the collections of CMH and NMM, the exhibition will further understanding of the expedition and reveal what life was like for the men aboard the ships, explore the Victorian obsession with the Arctic, and seek to answer questions about what exactly may have happened to those men on their fateful journey to chart the Northwest Passage all those years ago.

The exhibition will run December 1, 2018-April 28, 2019, in the Collins Gallery of the Thompson Exhibition Building.

Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition is a traveling exhibition developed by the Canadian Mu­seum of History (Gatineau, Canada), in partnership with Parks Canada Agency and with the National Maritime Museum (Lon­don, UK), and in collaboration with the Govern­ment of Nunavut and the Inuit Heritage Trust.

Mystic Seaport Museum, in partnership with Tate, London, will host a major monographic exhibition devoted to the watercolors of one Britain’s greatest painters: J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Mystic Seaport Museum will be the only North American venue for the exhibition, which will be on display October 2019-February 2020.

The exhibition – curated by David Blayney Brown, Tate’s Manton Senior Curator of British Art 1790-1850 – will provide an exceptional opportunity to see key works spanning the entire career of the famous artist. A unique collection of about 90 works, the selection will provide a view into the evolution of the artist’s vision and creative process.

“Few artists have captured the beauty and majesty of the sea as J.M.W. Turner. Anyone who has sought art that accurately represents their personal experience of the sea has had to contend with the sheer genius of his lifelong look at that subject,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “This is not an exhibition of the sea, but Turner represents for so many the most sublime representation of that feeling in art, and this remarkable exhibition is a unique opportunity to step into his world and view in this country some of the riches he left his nation upon his death.”

The exhibition at the Museum – divided into six thematic sections – focuses on the critical role played by watercolors in defining Turner’s deeply personal style.

The works have been selected from the vast legacy that comprises more than 30,000 works on paper, 300 oil paintings, and 280 sketchbooks, known as the “Turner Bequest,” donated to Great Britain after the artist’s death in 1851 and mostly conserved at Tate Britain. The bequest includes the entire body of works housed in the artist’s personal studio and produced over the years for his “own pleasure,” to cite the words used by the critic John Ruskin.

While Turner is perhaps better known for his oil paintings, he was a lifelong watercolorist and fundamentally shaped what was understood to be possible within the medium during his lifetime and after. An inveterate traveler, Turner rarely left home without a rolled-up, loose-bound sketchbook, pencils, and a small traveling case of watercolors. These memories of journeys, emotions, and fragments of landscapes seen during his long stays abroad illustrate the development of Turner’s stylistic language focused on experimenting with the expressive potential of light and color.

The intimate and personal character of the works on display will also provide an opportunity to explore the man himself, gaining an understanding of how the radical developments in Turner’s style anticipated trends of the late 19th century. From his love of seaside towns to his interest in depicting atmospheric English and Alpine landscapes, and his detailed study of domestic interiors and architectural reliefs, the artist devoted himself tirelessly to experimentation, particularly in watercolors, with a compositional and stylistic freedom and an innovative and surprising use of colors that led his peers to believe that Turner “appeared to paint with his eyes and nose as well as his hand.”

Deemed to be an extraordinary artist ever since his own time, Turner has had a profound and continuing influence on artists that continues to this day.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a major new publication edited by Nicholas Bell, the Museum’s senior vice president for Curatorial Affairs. Titled Conversations with Turner: The Watercolors, the book will bring together scholars of Turner’s art from around the world to engage with each other about the force of his paintings and why they continue to serve as a touchstone for Western culture.

This exhibition is made possible by the generous support of:

Leadership Circle

Alexander and Amanda Bulazel
Charles and Irene Hamm
Ken and Dina Siegel
Chubb, the global insurance company, in honor of Robert G. Stone, Jr.

Patron Circle

Grant and Peggy Cambridge
Cape Branch Foundation

Mystic Seaport Museum honored Dawn Riley and Oakcliff Sailing with its 2018 America and the Sea Award. 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. The award was presented at a gala fundraiser at the Metropolitan Club in New York City October 3.

Riley stands alone as the first woman to compete in both the America’s Cup and in the Whitbread Round the World Race, two of the pinnacles in the sport of sailing that prior to her had been all but closed to women sailors. Riley also went on to become the first American, male or female, to sail in three America’s Cups and two Whitbread Round the World Races.

“Dawn Riley has blazed the trail for women in sailing over the course of nearly three decades, and has had a tremendous impact on the sport, both as a competitor and as a teacher,” said Steve White, President of Mystic Seaport Museum. “She is in a class by herself, serving as an inspirational role model for young women and all sailors.”

[embedit snippet=”dawn-riley”] 

Riley trains premier-level American sailors for future Olympic, America’s Cup, and other world-class level sailing competitions, and leads a movement to reinvigorate the sport in this country. One nexus of this movement is Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, N.Y., where she serves as Executive Director. A high-performance training center for sailors who have progressed beyond traditional coaching methods, Oakcliff’s vision is to “Build American Leaders through Sailing.” Riley’s leadership and the quality of the programs she oversees were recognized recently by New York Yacht Club’s American Magic, which is currently preparing a challenge for the 36th America’s Cup. This syndicate partnered with Oakcliff to recruit and train members for their America’s Cup Team.

Riley pursued an impressive racing career on the water punctuated by unprecedented accomplishments such as her role as the watch captain/engineer on Maiden, the first all-women’s team in the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race; pit person for America³, winner of the 1992 America’s Cup and first woman to have an active role on an America’s Cup team; skipper of Heineken, the only all-women’s entry in the 1993-94 Whitbread Race; team captain of America³, the women’s team in the 1995 America’s Cup; 1999 US Sailing’s Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year; America True CEO and Captain in the 2000 America’s Cup; and winning skipper at the 2002 IC45 World Championships.

Past recipients of the America and the Sea Award include philanthropist and environmentalist David Rockefeller, Jr. ; 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 Publications founder Jon Wilson; yachtsman and author Gary Jobson; maritime industrialist Charles A. Robertson; author Nathaniel Philbrick; and Rod and Bob Johnstone and their company J/Boats.

Mystic Seaport Museum today announced it is the recipient of $736,167 in Save America’s Treasures grants to support the restoration of the L.A. Dunton fishing schooner and critical preservation work for the Rosenfeld Collection of Maritime Photography.

The National Park Service, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts, awarded $4.8 million in Save America’s Treasures grants to help fund 16 projects in 12 states. The funds will support the preservation of nationally significant historic properties and collections throughout the country. Mystic Seaport Museum received two separate grants under the program.

“We are very grateful for this support because these generous awards recognize the importance of maritime history to the American story and the value the L.A. Dunton and the Rosenfeld Collection have in that narrative,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “These funds will save important pieces of history that are truly American treasures and which have a positive impact on the surrounding community.”

Built in 1921 in Essex, Mass., the 123-foot-long L.A. Dunton is one of the last surviving examples of the Grand Banks fishing schooners, once one of New England’s most common fishing vessels in the beginning of the 20th century. The Dunton was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994. The grant of $491,750 will support the acquisition of rare shipbuilding timber and other materials for the planned restoration of the vessel.

The second grant of $244,417 will fund the restoration, digitization, and rehousing of selected cellulose diacetate negatives from the Museum’s Rosenfeld Collection of Maritime Photography, which have been affected by a form of acetate film base deterioration. The Rosenfeld Collection, acquired by the Museum in 1984, is built on the inventory of the Morris Rosenfeld & Sons photographic business and is the largest archive of maritime photographs in the United States.

Diacetate negatives are subject to a natural process of degradation as the diacetate plastic mounts give off acetic acid in the presence of humidity and/or other environmental factors. The plastic mount shrinks and partially separates from the base, resulting in the formation of channels in the film. The resulting condition, “vinegar syndrome,” renders the negatives unusable. The grant will enable the Museum to preserve 3,500 affected negatives.

Congress appropriates funding for the Save America’s Treasures grants from the Historic Preservation Fund, which uses revenue from federal oil leases to provide a range of preservation assistance without expending tax dollars. The program requires applicants to match the grant money dollar-for-dollar with funds from non-federal sources. This award of $4.8 million will leverage more than $10 million in private and public investment.

The federal Save America’s Treasures program, established in 1998, is managed by the National Park Service in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, with the objective of preserving nationally significant historic properties and museum collections for future generations of Americans.

Examples of other funded projects are a restoration of  Lake View Cemetery’s James A. Garfield Memorial in Ohio, conservation of the decorative paintings in Victoria Mansion’s parlor in Maine, and restoration of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s Taliesin-Hillside Theater in Wisconsin.

The Save America’s Treasures program has provided $315 million to more than 1,300 projects to provide preservation and conservation work on nationally significant collections, artifacts, structures, and sites. Requiring a dollar-for-dollar private match, these grants have leveraged more than $377 million in private investment, and contributed more than 16,000 jobs to local and state economies.

For a list of all previously funded Save America’s Treasures projects, please view the American Architectural Foundation’s Treasure Map. 

Each year at Mystic Seaport Museum’s Antique and Classic Boat Rendezvous an awards competition recognizes excellence in restoration, authenticity, and workmanship.

Here are the 2018 recipients:

Small Powerboats

Runabout

Satin Doll –  For ongoing excellence in a local favorite.

Power Boats

Nisca – Most original and best maintained yacht.

(tie) Sea Rebel and Corsair – Best owner maintained and operated vessels with an equal amount of determined effort in keeping their vessels to the highest standard.

Driftwood – Special Citation for best owner reconstructive  restoration.

Annie Laurie – Special Citation for ongoing and active participation in and strong support of the Mystic Seaport ACBR.  Additional recognition for Best in Show Boat Category.

Small Sail

Indian Summer – For the impressive tenacity of a young owner finding a boat and getting it ready in just two weeks- while working on the Mayflower- and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time…

Christmas –  Best originality and great owner maintenance of originally fitted equipment.  Special Judges recognition of counter tops and spreader tips.

Large Sail

Malabar II – For best restoration and dedication to owner maintenance for over 40 years.

Half Moon – For impeccable attention to detail and  innovative and functional interior redesign.

Phra Luang – Amazing owner builder- dedication to detail of project from construction to maintenance.

Judge Emeritus Award

Violet – For an amazing mesh between owner and boat- they simply belong together.  There is nothing like Violet, she is unique and has style of all her own.

Scott Kraft on Bounding Home – Special Citation Award for dedication and support of the 2018 ACBR and bringing such a great collection of Aldens to the Mystic Seaport Waterfront.

Head Judge’s Special Citation

Bantam – For ongoing preservation of an Alden-designed historic sailing yacht and continued participation in the Mystic Seaport Museum Antique & Classic Boat Rendezvous.