Mystic, Conn. (March 8, 2019) — Mystic Seaport Museum announced today 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 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.

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. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that is showing Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, a major exhibition of one of seafaring’s most mysterious tragedies through April 28, 2019. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, Conn. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Mystic, Conn. (January 24, 2019) — Mystic Seaport Museum will hold an Ice Festival Presidents Day weekend, February 16-18. The event will be three days of winter activities in conjunction with the exhibition Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, now on display in the Museum’s Collins Gallery.

Families are invited to enjoy games, activities, music, and entertainment throughout the Museum’s grounds:

• Live Music
• Working dog demonstrations
• Winter crafts for children
• Indoor Sock Skating Rink
• Winter survival skills workshops
• Winter Games on the Green
• Special Planetarium show Aurora Borealis: The Northern Lights
• Learn about Pemmican, the ultimate survival food
• Sledge pulls
• Make a Toy Boat
• Bonfire on the Village Green
• Victorian Selfie Station
• Franklin Expedition-related talks

The festival kicks off with an ice sculpture carving 10:30 a.m., Saturday, and free horse-and-carriage rides will be available 12 to 4 p.m., Monday.

Live music will be provided by the band Sharks Come Cruisin’, Saturday and Sunday at 12 and 3:30 p.m., and Sea Tea Improv will perform two shows on Monday.

On Saturday and Sunday, winter working dog demonstrations will take place. The Museum welcomes the Newfoundland Club of New England from 1 to 4 p.m., Sunday. The Connecticut Valley Siberian Husky Club will bring their teams to the festival from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the New England Saint Bernard Club will be featured.

Also here for Saturday and Sunday is Steve Lancia, owner of Northcamp Wilderness Survival School, who will do a presentation on winter survival skills. A professional with the National Ski Patrol, Lancia is a licensed New York state guide, an American Red Cross instructor and a licensed emergency medical technician, and wilderness technician.

Included in the weekend is a special show in the Planetarium, Aurora Borealis: The Northern Lights. The Northern Lights are a breathtaking phenomenon — a natural wonder that illuminates the night sky with magnificent colors! In addition to the visual beauty, there is also some fun and quirky science behind this event. the show will explain what causes the Aurora Borealis, and simulate the shimmering curtains of light projected onto the Planetarium dome. There is an extra fee for the show: $4 ($3 for Museum members), ages 3 and younger are free.

The new exhibition Death in the Ice explores the fate of the Franklin Expedition, a tragic story of 19th-century Arctic exploration and death and one of the most enduring mysteries of maritime history. Displaying more than 200 objects from the collections of the National Maritime Museum in London and the Canadian Museum of History, alongside finds recovered by Parks Canada from the underwater wreck of Sir John Franklin’s ship HMS Erebus, the exhibition tells the story of the 1845 Royal Navy expedition to find the elusive Northwest passage to Asia and offers clues to the unknown fate of Franklin and his 128 men, none of whom survived.

Admission tickets purchased online will be valid for all three days of the festival. The Ice Festival is included in the cost of general admission. The Planetarium shows and toy boat building require an additional fee.

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.

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. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that is showing Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, a major exhibition of one of seafaring’s most mysterious tragedies through April 28, 2019. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Mystic, Conn. (January 15, 2019) — Mystic Seaport Museum is offering free admission to all federal workers who are affected by the government shutdown (plus one additional guest) as long as the impasse lasts.

“We want federal workers to feel appreciated during this difficult period and this is our small way of ensuring we contribute positively by providing access to family activities,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport Museum. “We look forward to welcoming them to our Museum.”

In order to receive free admission, federal employees must bring a government identification card and present it at the admission desk upon entering the Museum.

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. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that is showing Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, a major exhibition of one of seafaring’s most mysterious tragedies through April 28, 2019. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

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Exhibition Invites Visitors to Explore and Experience Portrait Photography of the Late 1800s

Mystic, Conn. (January 10, 2019) — Mystic Seaport Museum will open its latest exhibition, When This You See, Remember Me, Saturday, on January 19, 2019. The show explores advances in photographic technology and techniques in late 1800s studio photography from the perspective of both the sitter and the photographer.

Based on thousands of portraits in the Museum’s collection by local Connecticut photographers Everett Scholfield and George Tingley, the exhibition also features their original backdrops, cameras, coupons, and ads. Scholfield and Tingley worked with bulky and often-complicated equipment. They captured images on fragile pieces of 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.

“In this age of smartphones and selfies, when everyone has a camera in their pocket, it is hard to imagine what it was like when photography was new and sitting for a formal portrait was a big deal,” said Elysa Engelman, director of Exhibits at Mystic Seaport Museum. “This exhibition returns the visitor to that time and asks them to consider the ways in which photography has changed and ways in which it has stayed the same.”

Using a recreated set based upon artifacts from Scholfield’s studio, visitors will be able to take their own 19^th 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.

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. Framed photographs and an extensive slideshow brings visitors face-to-face with a diverse selection of people from those areas, including people of different backgrounds – African American, Asian, Native American – various occupations – woodcutter, postal worker, musician – and of all life stages, from infants to elders. Most of the subjects are not identified and visitors with local ancestors are invited to see if they can spot a relative in the show. Museum curators are hopeful the collection catalog can be expanded through the public exposure in the exhibition.

When This You See, Remember Me, will be located in the Museum’s R.J. Schaefer Building. It runs through April 28, 2019.

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. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that is showing Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, a major exhibition of one of seafaring’s most mysterious tragedies through April 28, 2019. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Mystic, Conn. (December 20, 2018) — Mystic Seaport Museum will expand its operating hours January 1, 2019, to provide the public greater opportunity to visit the traveling exhibition Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition  now open in the Museum’s Thompson Exhibition Building.

The exhibition explores the fate of the Franklin Expedition, which set sail from London in 1845 in an attempt to find the elusive Northwest Passage across the Arctic to Asia. Sir John Franklin and his 128-man crew, aboard the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, all perished. The exact nature of their fate is one of the most enduring mysteries of maritime history.

Beginning January 1, the exhibition will be open daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The show will be exclusively open Monday-Wednesday for a flat admission rate of $10 per person.

The Museum has a wider offering Thursday-Sunday that includes Death in the Ice, plus the indoor exhibition galleries, Planetarium, Children’s Museum, historic Buckingham-Hall House, and the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan. Highlights of the current exhibition slate include Monument Man: Kevin Sampson in Residence and When This You See, Remember Me, a new exhibition opening January 19 that explores late 19^th– and early 20th-century portrait photography through the work of local photographers Scholfield and Tingley. Visitors will be able to step back in time to experience what it was like to take a formal portrait in that era and stage their own photograph with their smartphones.

Admission rates Thursday-Sunday through February 15 are Adults $19, Senior (ages 65+) $19, and Youth (ages 3-14) $12. Children (2 and younger) are admitted free.

The Museum’s Village and Shipyard will be closed to the public until February 16.

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.

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. The new Thompson Exhibition Building houses a state-of-the-art gallery that is showing Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, a major exhibition of one of seafaring’s most mysterious tragedies through April 28, 2019. Mystic Seaport Museum is located one mile south of Exit 90 off I-95 in Mystic, CT. For more information, please visit https://mysticseaport.wpengine.com/ and follow Mystic Seaport Museum on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.