Posts Tagged ‘connecticutriver’

CRM Talks – Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes
January 19, 2023

CRM Talks – Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes
Live From the Boathouse
Tuesday, April  18, 2023
6:00 – 7:00 pm
Members FREE
Non-Members $5.00

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Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes presents:
Ebb and Flow: Redefining “Maritime History” through Black and Indigenous Voices

How would we define maritime histories if those histories were told through Black and Indigenous lenses?  Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes will present an ongoing collaborative project with New England’s Black and Indigenous communities which seeks to answer the question, “How would New England’s maritime history be told if it had always been told through Black and Indigenous voices?”

Maritime museums can, through exhibitions, publications and programming, make a strong argument that the complex narratives of the modern world ARE rooted in maritime histories.  We cannot understand the development of the modern world system without understanding how waterways have shaped human interactions and human relationships. While we often hear maritime museums are THE place to tell multiracial stories and that it’s natural to tell stories of integration and freedom through maritime museums because of the inclusive nature of 19th century maritime industries, we can’t start there. We cannot just dive into telling the stories of mariners of color or Indigenous whalers without a thorough study of their maritime histories before “America.”

We have a responsibility to rethink historical narratives and foreground marginalized voices. In the Dawnland (New England), these complex narratives involve the relationship of the sea to colonialism, dispossession and racialized slavery, but maritime cultures also functioned to maintain in cultural continuity, perseverance, resistance and agency within Black and Indigenous communities up to the present.

Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes is the Senior Curator of Maritime Social Histories at Mystic Seaport Museum, she is the Director of the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies, and is a Visiting Scholar at Brown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Akeia is responsible for working on curatorial projects of race, Indigenous histories, ethnicity and diversity in New England’s Maritime activities.  She is lead curator for the 2024 Mystic Seaport exhibition, Entwined: The Sea, Sovereignty and Freedom, a multi-year Mellon Foundation-funded project that reimagines the history of the founding and development of New England through Indigenous, African, and African American maritime narratives. Dr. de Barros Gomes has engaged in archaeological fieldwork on the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Reservation in Mashantucket, CT; in the US Virgin Islands and in Newport, RI.  She has engaged in Anthropological fieldwork in the US Virgin Islands, in Benin, and in New Orleans. Akeia was professor of American Studies and Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Wheelock College from 2008 to 2017. She was Curator of Social History at the New Bedford Whaling Museum from 2017 to 2021 before taking her position at Mystic Seaport Museum.

Image Courtesy of Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes

CRM Talks 2023:
February 23, 2023: Elizabeth Normen, Venture Smith
March 21, 2023: Steve Taylor, Connecticut Valley Agriculture: A Continuum of Change
April 18, 2023: Dr. Akeia de Barros Gomes, Maritime History: Indigenous & African American
May 17, 2023: Michaelle Pearson and Jim Lampos: Remarkable Women of Old Lyme

 

The Connecticut River Museum may record this webinar, including all questions, comments, etc. by the audience. By participating, you agree to allow the recording to be posted on the Connecticut River Museum’s website, Facebook page, Instagram feed, and other media. Please consider a donation to support CRM. If you have already donated, thank you for your support.

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Erik Hesselberg – Night Boat to New York
August 31, 2022

Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Live Event and Book Signing
6:00 pm
Free for CRM Members
$5.00 for Non-Members

 

Erik Hesselberg, Author:

Night Boat to New York
Steamboats on the Connecticut, 1815–1931

 

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Join us for an entertaining conversation with Erik Hesselberg.

Night Boat to New York: Steamboats on the Connecticut, 1824-1931, is a portrait of the vanished steamboat days–when a procession of stately sidewheelers plied between Hartford and New York City, docking at Peck’s Slip on the East River in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. At one time, Hartford could boast two thousand steamboat arrivals and departures in a year. Altogether, some thirty-five large steamboats were in service on the Connecticut River in these years, largely on the Hartford to New York City route. These Long Island Sound steamers, unlike the tubby, wedding cake dowagers of Western waters, were long, sleek craft, with sharp prows cutting a neat wake as they cruised along. Departing each afternoon from State Street or Talcott Street wharf in Hartford, the “night boats” reached New York at daybreak, inaugurating a pattern of city commuting that continues to this day. Steamboating not only brought people and goods—Colt’s firearms and Essex’s pianos—down river to New York for export to world markets, but also helped America’s inland “Spa Culture” transplant itself to the seashore, making steamboating not just convenient transportation but also a social phenomenon noted by such writers as Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. No wonder crowds wept in the fall of 1931, when the last steamboats, made obsolete by the automobile, churned away from the dock and headed downriver—never to return.

Erik Hesselberg has been writing about the Connecticut River for 20 years, first as an environmental reporter for the Middletown Press, and after as executive editor of Shore Line Newspapers in Guilford, where he oversaw 20 weekly newspapers from Old Lyme to Stratford, CT. He was president of the Middlesex County Historical Society and developed the award-winning exhibit “A Vanished Port,” on the Connecticut River’s ties to the slave economy of the Caribbean islands. His writings have appeared in Wesleyan Magazine, the Hartford Courant, Estuary Magazine, and on his blog, Voicesontheriver.com. He lives in Haddam, CT.

Photo Courtesy of Erik Hesselberg

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James Zug – First Descent of Connecticut River
August 31, 2022

Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Live Event with Book Signing
6:00 pm
Free for CRM Members
$5.00 for Non-Members

 

James Zug, Author, American Traveler: The Life and Adventures of John Ledyard

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CRM Talks Speaker Series: James Zug
First Descent of Connecticut River
Tuesday, October 18 |6:00—7:00 pm

First Descent of Connecticut River

Who was the first person in recorded history to descend the Connecticut River? It was a most unlikely person, a debt-ridden Dartmouth man, John Ledyard. In May 1773 Ledyard performed the feat, spending a full week canoeing the river. He didn’t do the entire Connecticut from source to sea, but rather from Hanover, NH to Hartford, CT. It wasn’t just because wanted an adventure: Ledyard, having just finished his first year as a student at Dartmouth, was fleeing the campus with unpaid tuition bills. But it became the stuff of legend, inspiring generations of Dartmouth students (including Robert Frost). For over a century, Dartmouth students have reenacted his trip, canoeing from Hanover down the river to Old Saybrook.

Ledyard went on to become America’s first famous explorer. He sailed with Captain Cook on Cook’s third and fatal voyage. Friends with Thomas Jefferson, he became the original Lewis & Clark Expedition. He traveled across Siberia. He died in Cairo in 1789 on his way to find the source of another great river, the Niger.

James Zug is an award-winning historian and journalist. He received a masters in nonfiction writing from Columbia and has written for the Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Outside and Boston Globe. He is the author of a half dozen books including a biography of John Ledyard that was named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review. He also edited John Ledyard’s collected writings, which was published by National Geographic.

Photo Courtesy of James Zug

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Ralph T. Wood, PhD – 2022 Lecture Series
April 29, 2022

Tuesday, June 14, 2022
VIRTUAL
6:00 pm
$5.00 for CRM Members
$10.00 for Non-Members

“Things You Might Not Know about Connecticut’s New National Estuarine Research Reserve”
by: Ralph T. Wood, PhD

Some facts and figures about Connecticut’s National Estuarine Research Reserve and its promise.

Join us for a brief history, with some little-known facts and figures, of the extensive effort, by teams from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the University of Connecticut, the Connecticut Audubon Society, and the Connecticut Sea Grant, that recently succeeded in the designation of a NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve in southeastern Connecticut.

With a career in industrial R&D and in business consulting, Ralph is a volunteer to several non-profits and an environmentalist, business owner, teacher/mentor and bicyclist. He is chairman emeritus of the Connecticut Audubon Society, a board member of its Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center in Old Lyme, a Board member of the Mentoring Corps for Community Development, and a member of the steering teams for the site selection and designation of Connecticut’s National Estuarine Research Reserve, which includes 52,000 acres of the Connecticut and Thames Rivers Estuaries and southeastern portions of Long Island Sound.

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Photos Courtesy of Ralph T. Wood

 

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Gary Mower: The History of Outboard Motors and Outboard Motor Racing 1900-1940
April 13, 2022

Thursday, June 30, 2022
6:00 pm
Virtual Event
$5.00 for CRM Members
$10.00 for Non-Members

Gary Mower
The History of Outboard Motors and Outboard Motor Racing 1900-1940

Come and see Speed: Hydroplane Racing on the Connecticut River on exhibit through October. Some of the engines that Gary speaks about are on display.

Gary Mower is a retired Mechanical Engineer with experience in aerospace, automotive, and consumer products. A graduate of Northeastern University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he has a lifelong interest in antique marine, automotive, and mechanical hobbies.

A prolific collector, Mower owns sixty antique outboard motors dating from 1911-1940. He has rebuilt and run antique outboard motors at various Northeast meets and was recognized as an antique outboard motor collector in the July 2021 issue of Soundings Magazine. Mower has been an active member of Antique Outboard Motor Club since 1975. He also works as Advisor to the Mystic Seaport for their annual Antique Marine Engine Exposition for the last 30 years.

Mower also rebuilt a 1925 Model T Ford Coupe and is a member of the Model T Ford Club of America.

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Photo Courtesy of Gary Mower

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Lucianne Lavin – 2022 Lecture Series
March 3, 2022

Tuesday, May 17, 2022
VIRTUAL
6:00 pm
$5.00 for CRM Members
$10.00 for Non-Members

 

Lucianne Lavin, Director of Research and Collections Emeritus,
The Institute for American Indian Studies

Dutch-Native American Relationships in Eastern New Netherland (That’s Connecticut, Folks!)

Examine the significant impact of Dutch traders and settlers on the history of the colony and state of Connecticut, and their relationships with its Indigenous peoples.

What is now the state of Connecticut was once part of the 17th century Dutch Empire. New Netherland extended from Cape Cod west to Delaware Bay from 1614 to 1650. At that time, the Dutch gave up much of their claim to Connecticut to the English at the Treaty of Hartford, but retained control of its southwestern portion. Dutch families continued to live in other parts of Connecticut as well.

Connecticut’s first documented European explorers AND settlers were the Dutch. The aim of this presentation is to introduce the audience to their significant impacts on our history, including the continuing strong Dutch presence in western Connecticut, Dutch relationships with local Indigenous communities, and the noteworthy, often long-term effects of those relationships on our state and regional histories. The Dutch deserve a more prominent position in future Connecticut history books and museum exhibits. Dutch-American history and Dutch contributions to American culture should be mandated topics in Connecticut’s school curriculum.

Lucianne Lavin is Director of Research and Collections at the Institute for American Indian Studies, a research museum and educational center in Washington, CT. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from New York University. Lavin is an archaeologist who has over 30 years of research and field experience in Northeastern archaeology and anthropology, including teaching, museum exhibits and curatorial work, cultural resource management, editorial work, and public relations.

Dr. Lavin has written over 100 professional publications and technical reports on the archaeology and ethnohistory of the Northeast. She was awarded the Russell award by the Archaeological Society of Connecticut and elected Fellow of the New York State Archaeological Association for exemplary archaeology work in their respective states.

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Photo Courtesy of Lucianne Lavin

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Kelsey Wentling – 2022 Lecture Series
December 30, 2021

Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Virtual Lecture
6:00 pm
$5.00 for CRM Members
$10.00 for Non-Members

 

Kelsey Wentling, River Steward, Connecticut River Conservancy
Water Quality in the CT River: what is it and how is it measured?

 

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The Connecticut River has a reputation for poor water quality —  does that still hold true?

Once known as the most beautifully landscaped sewer in America, the Connecticut River has been burdened by a reputation of poor water quality for decades. While the Connecticut was the archetypal polluted river of the time, much has changed in the 60 years since it was dubbed with this undesirable title. This lecture focuses on the basics of what good water quality means and how we measure it in the Connecticut River. We discuss what has changed in the last 60 years and the progress still to be made in the next 60 years.

Kelsey got started with CRC in 2019 as a volunteer and then as staff assisting with Source to Sea Cleanup. Prior to joining CRC, Kelsey analyzed how emerging markets might influence Massachusetts’ climate goals, taught a course on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and worked as an AmeriCorps volunteer and outdoor science educator. Kelsey holds an M.S. in Environmental Conservation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explored the interface of science and policy in transboundary river basins, using case studies to identify ways to promote the use of science in management decisions.

Photo Courtesy of Kelsey Wentling

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