George Tobin Sketchbook Now Online

George Tobin (1768-1838) was third lieutenant on HMS Providence on Captain William Bligh's second voyage to obtain breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to Jamaica.  Tobin became an artist on the voyage when the official artist was too ill to join the ship. Throughout the voyage he sketched views and natural history specimens, notably birds and fish, in most of the places visited. Tobin continued to pursue both his artistic and maritime career become a renown artist.

In 1939 Mystic Seaport became the proud holders of one of Tobin's sketchbook, preserved in the Manuscripts Collection and now available online. 

Sea Music Festival ...Call For Papers

The Collections Department at Mystic Seaport is a great place to start exploring topics for music of the sea. Visit our catalogs to get an idea of the breadth of music-related subjects held in our various collections.

The annual Sea Music Festival will be held at Mystic Seaport in June, 2010. The official call for papers, submission by February 28, 2010, can be found at:

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=172410

Celebrating the End of A Season

As a great (maritime) songwriter once wrote you can't "reason with hurricane season"*,  but you can celebrate the end of yet another. Yesterday marked the official end of the 2009 season and the folks in the Collections are especially happy to have not put our emergency plan into action.  When a hurricane hits a coastal museum - there is a lot of work to do securing the site from wind and waves.

Take a stroll through our Hurricane Image Archive and I'm sure you'll join us in the Celebration.

*Jimmy Buffet, 1974.

Villiers photos showcased by National Maritime Museum

Alan John Villiers (1903-1982) was a distinguished Australian sailor, author and photographer with a passion for life at sea. His work vividly records the period of early-20th century maritime history when merchant sailing vessels or 'tall ships' were in rapid decline. The NMM Picture Library recently published a special collection of Villiers's photographs to its print sales website www.nmmprints.com. This collection, entitled 'Last of the Wind Ships', focuses on his voyages on square-rigged ships including the Joseph Conrad which is now preserved here at Mystic Seaport.

Holiday Closing and Historical Note

The Research Room will be closed Thursday and Friday 11/26 - 11/27 for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Hope your Holidays are passed in better circumstances than that of Carsten B. DeWitt, yeoman, on board the U.S.S. KEARSARGE who notes in his journal:

1863 November 26th weather fine and quite warm. This day is appointed as a day of Thanksgiving in most of the States of the United States. I would like to meet in the Family circle and see my Friends once again but circumstances does not permit and I must content my self with eating a Dinner worthy of the Day and hoping that the next one will see me free and in the enjoyment of a life of Freedom and amongst my Friends again.

Prized Logbook Now Online

In 1855 Robert Weir shipped aboard the whale ship Clara Bell. Apprehensive about the coming voyage Wier opened his journal with the hope that he'd "soon get used to it. Hurrah for hard times. At least I'd like to make myself feel so, but I scarcely dare look ahead it seems rather dark. Have great anticipation of future independence. I shall never never call on father again."

Weir's journal is both an engrossing tale of a  young man's coming of age and also one of the most visually illustrative accounts of the whaling process. The journal contains over 30 illustrations of shipboard life. Log 164 is now online.

Comer photos included in Inuit History Site

The Department of Education for the Government of Nunavut, Canada, has created a new online website “Inuit Contact and Colonization – TARURNGAQTAQ,” for use by social studies teachers, which includes a group of twenty one Mystic Seaport Comer Collection images to illustrate several sections.

For Inuit takurngaqtaq literally means encountering something for the first time.  This site is an exploration of takurngaqtaq between Inuit and First Nations, Whalers, Explorers and Traders. This journey is guided and supported by the knowledge and experiences of Inuit Elders and the exploration of history. A Historical Exploration toolkit provides context and supports for the research process as well as instructional modules for use by educators.”

Shirley Tagalik advised that if you select the Whaler section and then click on the whaler's trunk, a number of items pop out of the trunk. (The same happens if you select the Inuit pack.) When you click on an item, such as tools, a number of related artifact assets appear along the bottom of the page. You can click on each item for more information related to the item. The photo collection appears as photo assets.