Mystic Seaport Museum or Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in Mystic, Connecticut is the largest maritime museum in the United States. It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for the re-creation of the crafts and fabric of an entire 19th-century seafaring village. It consists of more than 60 historic buildings, most of them rare commercial structures moved to the site and meticulously restored.

Overview

The museum was established in 1929 as the "Marine Historical Association". Its fame came with the acquisition of the '' Charles W. Morgan'' in 1941, the only surviving wooden sailing whaler. The Seaport was one of the first living history museums in the United States, with a collection of buildings and craftsmen to show how people lived; it now receives about 250,000 visitors each year. The Seaport supports research via an extensive library and runs the Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies, a summer graduate-level academic program established in 1955 by maritime historian Professor Robert G. Albion of Harvard University. The museum also hosts

Williams–Mystic Williams–Mystic, the Ocean and Coastal Studies Semester of Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum, is an interdisciplinary semester program based at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut Mystic is a village and census-designated ...

in conjunction with

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...

, an undergraduate program in maritime studies. Outreach includes sailing and history classes for area children.

National Historic Landmarks

Four vessels at Mystic Seaport have been recognized by the United States Government as

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

Other vessels

Grounds and programs

The Preservation Shipyard is an important part of the museum, where traditional tools and techniques are used to preserve the Museum's collection of historic vessels, including the 1841 whaleship ''Charles W. Morgan.'' A replica of the slave ship '' La Amistad'' was constructed in the shipyard and launched in 2000. ''Amistad'' departed from New Haven on June 21, 2007 on a transatlantic voyage to Great Britain, Lisbon, West Africa, and the Caribbean, marking the Atlantic trade and slave route to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the end of the slave trade in Great Britain. The 19th-century seafaring village contains nearly all the types of general and specialized trades associated with building and operating a sailing fleet. They include a

chandlery A chandlery was originally the office in a wealthy medieval household responsible for wax and candles, as well as the room in which the candles were kept. It could be headed by a chandler. The office was subordinated to the kitchen, and only exist ...

, sail loft, ropewalk, cooperage, shipping agent's office, printing office, bank, and others. Also included is The Spouter Tavern, which is open seasonally and serving "travelers' fare". Each building is used to show the original activity and also to display examples of what was sold or constructed; the nautical instrument shop, for example, displays

sextant A sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of ce ...

s, nautical timepieces, and so forth, while demonstrations at the cooperage show how casks are assembled. File:MysticModel.jpg, Scale model of Mystic, Connecticut as it was about 1870 File:MysticSeaportCatboats.JPG, Children learning to sail in JY15s and Dyer Dhows Additional buildings house more exhibits. One is a scale model of the entire Mystic River area as it appeared around 1870, complete down to the outhouse that was located behind every residence; the model is long. Another contains a collection of carved ship figureheads. Also among the museum's buildings is a planetarium which demonstrates how seamen used stars for navigation. Sailing instruction is also offered, as well as tourist rides in various historical small craft. Such tours give a good overview of historic ships at their moorings. Mystic Seaport's music program is unusual, as it prominently features

sea shanties A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a specific ...

in their original contexts as work songs. The Mystic Seaport Sea Music Festival is held annually in June and is among the oldest and largest in the United States.Sea Music Festival at Mystic Seaport
– mysticseaport.org. Accessed 22 May 20022.

Gallery

File:Mystic Seaport Light 2008.jpg, Mystic Seaport Light File:I Mystic Seaport, CT, USA (2).jpg, Collection of historic buildings File:Mystic ropewalk.jpg, 1824 ropewalk File:Mystic_oyster.jpg, 1874 oyster house File:Mystic figureheads.jpg, Carved vessel figureheads

References

Notes Bibliography * Bray, Maynard; Fuller, Benjamin; and Vermilya, Peter (2002) ''Mystic Seaport Watercraft''.

External links

Mystic Seaport homepage

Mystic Seaport Podcast

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