Category: Press Releases

Mystic, Conn. (March 7, 2022) – Researchers, historians, and genealogy enthusiasts now have an expanded resource to explore the history of the whaling industry and the individuals who were part of the global enterprise, with recent additions to the Whaling History website (WhalingHistory.org), a joint project of Mystic Seaport Museum and the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The data presented combines many sources including logbooks, journals, ship registers, newspapers, business papers, and custom house records. Users can find and trace whaling voyages and ships to specific logbooks, as well as the list of crew members aboard many of the voyages.

A popular feature of the site is a dialog where users can search crew lists to discover if they have a relative who shipped out on a whaling voyage.

The foundational fabric of Whaling History features three databases that have been stitched together – the American Offshore Whaling Voyage (AOWV) database, the American Offshore Whaling Log database, and an extensive whaling crew list database. All data is open to the public and is downloadable for any researcher to use with other tools and systems.

The site has been expanded recently with the addition of 370 new whaling voyages to the AOWV database, most from the 18th century, and the integration of the Dennis Wood Abstracts of Whaling Voyages. The latter are brief handwritten summaries of whaling voyages compiled over more than forty years (1830–1874) by Dennis Wood, a merchant and whaling agent in New Bedford. The abstracts were drawn from news reported in the Whalemen’s Shipping List and Merchants’ Transcript, and from letters, telegrams, and reports brought back by vessels. The New Bedford Free Public Library scanned the four volumes from its collection, containing more than 2,300 pages, and placed them on the Internet Archive.

“These new additions to the world’s most comprehensive whaling history database enhance the site’s scope and, most important, make it available for all to use,” said Paul O’Pecko, Vice President of Research Collections at Mystic Seaport Museum. “Researchers, genealogists, students, teachers, and history buffs alike will find it to be the most robust and useful repository of whaling history documentation and scholarship.”

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 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. At Mystic Seaport Museum, we strive to create an environment where visitors not only learn from us, but we learn from them. The concept is called Public History and it allows our visitors to experience history in ways they have not before. For more information, please visit mysticseaport.org and follow the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Mystic, Conn. (February 22, 2022) — Mystic Seaport Museum will present its 2022 America and the Sea Award to Captain William “Bill” Pinkney, former Mystic Seaport Museum trustee, U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman, sailor, educator, author, and adventurer. 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. As a former trustee of Mystic Seaport Museum, Pinkney and his work to open the maritime world to inner-city youth and others around the United States embody the Museum’s mission to inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.

Museum President Peter Armstrong said, “Captain Pinkney expertly and professionally unwraps the stories of the sea, from circumnavigation to the history of the triangle trade, for a wide and diverse audience. An ambassador to those who believe the maritime world is not their world, he has proven adept in showing everyone that the sea connects us all.”

Pinkney has been drawn to the sea from a very young age and has worked to sustain a personal connection as well as provide opportunities for others to learn the important history of people and the sea and the resulting influence on American culture. His work as the first captain of the freedom schooner Amistad – the first vessel constructed from the keel up at Mystic Seaport Museum – and his journey through the Middle Passage on The Sortilege, shared with educators and classrooms across the country, brought to life personal connections to the history of slavery and the crucial role that seafaring played. His solo circumnavigation on his 47-foot cutter, aptly named The Commitment, from Boston around the five southern capes and back to Boston, spanning 27,000 miles and 22 months, grew into an educational opportunity for so many children via video diaries, phone conversations, opportunities to track his progress through satellite technology and lesson plans that included nautical calculations and the influence of faraway cultures. All of this incredible work, born from a desire to leave a legacy for his grandchildren, speaks to the mission of Mystic Seaport Museum.

The Museum will recognize Pinkney’s exceptional life by awarding him the America and the Sea Award on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. 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 outstanding yachtsman Terry Hutchinson; 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 Charles A. Robertson; America’s Cup Hall of Famer 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.

Individuals interested in an invitation can email advancement@mysticseaport.org.

Pinkney’s full biography can be read at mysticseaport.org/gala.

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, and Instagram.

Mystic, Conn. (January 27, 2022) – In honor of Black History Month, Mystic Seaport Museum will introduce several programs celebrating important and often under-recognized figures that have changed the course of history. The programs are part of an ongoing initiative at the Museum to incorporate a more diverse range of voices in its programming and exhibits about American maritime history.

All month, visitors to the Museum can hear a talk aboard the whaleship Charles W. Morgan about Lewis Temple. Temple was an African American blacksmith, abolitionist, and inventor born in Virginia around 1800, who found his way to the whaling port of New Bedford. He is best known for the development of the Temple Toggle Iron, an iron harpoon design that featured a pivoting head that would not slip out of the whale. The invention, similar to harpoons used by Native Americans and Inuit to catch fish and seals, revolutionized the whaling industry.

Visitors are further invited to explore an outdoor exhibit, The Sea Connects Us, a series of panels highlighting the achievements of African American and Indigenous people who made significant contributions to U.S. maritime history.

Collaboration with Discovering Amistad

In addition, Mystic Seaport Museum and Discovering Amistad are embarking on a new collaboration with the shared mission of furthering racial justice. The ongoing initiative will promote learning and exposure to contributions made by African Americans in U.S. maritime history.

The two organizations are partnering to offer a new joint program for schools that tells the story of the ship Amistad and how it serves as an example of how citizens and communities, working together, can bring about meaningful change. Students will be able to board the Amistad at the Museum and learn about the vessel, the story of the 1839 Amistad Uprising, and the landmark Supreme Court case that freed the Mende captives who were facing slavery or execution. The program also includes a segment in the Museum’s planetarium that highlights the role celestial navigation played in the story. Using the legacy of the uprising, the program bridges history and the challenges of that time to present-day issues of inequity. This program is a permanent offering by the two organizations.

The Museum is also supporting a Discovering Amistad program to engage middle school students in Connecticut to research and become involved in Black maritime history. Ten schools will be invited to participate in the program, in which students will create an art project on figures from Black maritime history. The top submission from each school will receive a prize including the opportunity to participate in a Discovering Amistad art exhibit and free admission to Mystic Seaport Museum with a special behind-the-scenes tour. Awards will made by April 1.

African Americans in Astronomy

On Wednesday, February 23, the Museum will present a program as part of its AARP Webinar Wednesday: African Americans in Astronomy. Brian Koehler, the supervisor of the Museum’s Treworgy Planetarium, will discuss the groundbreaking achievements by African Americans in the fields of Astronomy and space exploration.  Despite hundreds of years of discrimination and prejudicial treatment, these pioneers achieved remarkable accomplishments that changed and shaped the present understanding of the cosmos. This virtual program is from 7 to 8 p.m. EST and is free for AARP and Mystic Seaport Museum members (non-members may attend for a $15 admission fee). AARP CT is the sponsor of this program. People should visit www.mysticseaport.org/calendar/ to register for this event.

Media Contact

Dan McFaddenDirector of Communications
Mystic Seaport Museum
860.572.5317 (o)
860.333.7155 (m)
dan.mcfadden@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.

 

 

 

 

Mystic, Conn. (January 13, 2022) – Connecticut Humanities, the statewide, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), has awarded Mystic Seaport Museum $519,999 in three separate grants.

The first is an award of $500,000 for a CT Cultural Fund Operating Support Grant. Administered in partnership with the Connecticut State Department of Economic Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts, with funds from the Connecticut State Legislature, the operating grants assist organizations as they recover from the pandemic and maintain and grow their ability to serve their community and the public. The Museum will use the funds in part to improve accessibility and wayfinding on the grounds, enhance online content and access for remote learning, and support the expansion and merging of its educational offerings under the umbrella of the soon-to-launch Center for Experiential Education (CEE). The CEE represents a commitment by the Museum to serve youth in a more holistic and comprehensive manner by engaging young people at critical junctures of their lives through experiential maritime education.

The second award is a $10,000 grant from the Sustaining Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) Capacity Grants, funded by the NEH and the federal American Rescue Plan (ARP). The Museum will use the funds to support diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) training across all departments. The firm Lord Cultural Resources — a global practice leader in bringing DEAI principles to the museum field — has been engaged to guide this work.

The final award of $9,999 is a Capacity Building Grant to cover Lord’s external information gathering and reporting in order to help the Museum better understand and engage with a more diverse public.

“As we continue to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic we are working hard towards positioning the Museum as a more sustainable and culturally relevant institution to as broad an audience as possible,” said Peter Armstrong, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “This generous support from Connecticut Humanities will help the Museum, working in partnership with other community organizations, to emphasize the diversity of the maritime story to a much wider public.”

The Museum was one of 624 organizations in Connecticut that received CT Cultural Fund support totaling $16M from CT Humanities. The operating grants are part of $30.7M of support allocated to arts, humanities, and cultural nonprofits through CTH over the next two years by the CT General Assembly and approved by Governor Ned Lamont. Funds were provided through the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development and its Connecticut Office of the Arts.

Mystic Seaport Museum was one of 69 organizations in Connecticut that was awarded ARP funding totaling $640,192 from CT Humanities. CTH SHARP Capacity Grants provide organizations funding for projects including building their information technology infrastructure, making their collections more accessible, conducting strategic planning, and undertaking inclusivity, diversity, equity, and access work.

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 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.

Mystic, Conn. (December 22, 2021) – NASA has selected Mystic Seaport Museum as one of a diverse group of Museums, science centers, libraries, and other informal education organizations from around the country designated as a NASA Informal Education Community Anchor.

The designation recognizes the Museum and its Treworgy Planetarium as a community resource and provides a $24,266 grant to bring space exploration to traditionally underserved areas and broaden student participation in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The Museum will address the local needs of middle school students in Eastern and Southern Connecticut by using and sharing NASA STEM engagement learning resources and opportunities.

“We are grateful to NASA for selecting our Museum to participate in this program, which will enable us to further our institutional goal of increasing outreach to underserved communities and diverse audiences,” said Brian Koehler, supervisor of the Treworgy Planetarium at Mystic Seaport Museum. “We are excited to create new opportunities where students can experience the feelings of discovery and confidence that space exploration and STEM engagement is all about.”

The grant will enable Planetarium educators:

• To develop new hands-on STEM programs for middle school students in three formats: virtual, in-school, and on-site
• To purchase the equipment and supplies needed to deliver these programs to students
• To provide a series of these programs at no cost to select underserved community partners

Mystic Seaport Museum is one of only 21 recipients selected from across the United States. It is one of only two Community Anchors in New England.

The new programs will be rolled out in fall 2022.

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 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, exhibit galleries, 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. The Museum strives to create an environment where visitors experience history in ways they have not before. For more information, please visit mysticseaport.org and follow the Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.