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.

Major Exhibition Explores One of the Sea’s Most Enduring Puzzles: The Fate of 129 Men Who Disappeared in the Arctic in 1845

Mystic, Conn. (November 2, 2018) – Mystic Seaport Museum will host a major exhibition opening December 1, 2018, that 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.

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 out looking 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 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.

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. 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, and 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, 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 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.

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.

Images for Media Use

High-resolution images are available for download from the Mystic Seaport Museum website.

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 is a state-of-the-art space that will host Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition, a major exhibition of one of seafaring’s most mysterious tragedies December 1, 2018, 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.

Canadian Museum of History

Located on the shores of the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Quebec, the Canadian Museum of History attracts over 1.2 million visitors each year. The Museum’s principal role is to enhance Canadians’ knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the events, experiences, people and objects that have shaped Canada’s history and identity, as well as to enhance Canadians’ awareness of world history and culture. Work of the Canadian Museum of History is made possible in part through financial support of the Government of Canada.

National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum holds the world’s largest maritime collection, housed in the historic buildings that form part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. The National Maritime Museum is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, which also incorporates the Royal Observatory Greenwich, the 17th-century Queen’s House and the Cutty Sark. Royal Museums Greenwich works to illustrate, for everyone, the importance of the sea, ships, time and the stars, and their relationships to people. This unique collection of museums and heritage buildings, which form a key part of the Maritime Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site, welcomes more than 2.5 million British and international visitors a year, and is one of the Top 10 most-visited UK attractions (ALVA). Royal Museums Greenwich is also a major center of education and research.

Parks Canada

Parks Canada manages one of the finest and most extensive systems of protected natural and cultural areas in the world, including 46 national parks, four national marine conservation areas, 171 national historic sites and one national urban park. Parks Canada works to ensure that Canada’s historical and natural heritage is presented and protected for the enjoyment, education and appreciation of Canadians and visitors from around the world, today and in the future.

Government of Nunavut

Established in 1999, the Government of Nunavut represents more than 40,000 Nunavummiut living sparsely on a land nearly two million square kilometers in size. Nunavut is Canada’s largest territory and the newest member of the Canadian Confederation. Nunavut (Inuktitut for “Our Land”) has a rich and complex human history spanning nearly 5,000 years, highlighted by the remarkable ability of Inuit and their predecessors to adapt and to thrive in one of the world’s harshest and most challenging environments.

Inuit Heritage Trust

The Inuit Heritage Trust is dedicated to the preservation, enrichment and protection of the Inuit cultural heritage and identity embodied in Nunavut’s archaeological sites, ethnographic resources, and traditional place names. Its activities are based on the principle of respect for the traditional knowledge and wisdom of Inuit Elders. The Trust receives its mandate directly from the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.