WINDJAMMERS AT PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM - Exhibit Documents Maine's Commercial Sailing Fleet

Maine's windjammers are the subject of a new exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum. Opening July 1 2010, Earning Their Keep: Maine's Windjammers will include historic photos, artifacts, ephemera, videos, schooner models and rotating exhibits by contemporary marine photographers.

"Maine's windjammers are the largest commercial sailing fleet in the world," said museum curator Ben Fuller. "They're still sailing not because of the efforts of some marine preservation society, but because their skippers are making them pay their way." Fuller added that the passenger-carrying schooners played a major role in establishing Maine's modern reputation for coastal tourism, and they continue to be an important part of the Midcoast region's economy.

The first rotating exhibit to open the show will feature the photography of Benjamin Mendlowitz of Brooklin, Maine. Mendlowitz is renowned for his work in WoodenBoat magazine and his annual Calendar of Wooden Boats. The Mendlowitz exhibit will run through August 3, followed by photographers Michael Kahn (August 5 - 24), Fred LeBlanc (August 26 through  September 14), and Neal Parent (September 17 through October 24). Historic photos, ship models and artifacts of the windjammer trade will remain on display throughout the exhibit.

Penobscot Marine Museum is Maine's oldest maritime museum and home to the state's largest display of historic boats and outstanding collections of marine art and artifacts, ship models and historic photography. Its campus – including four ship captains’ homes, two boat houses, a town hall, a carriage house and other buildings – recreates a bustling coastal village during the Age of Sail. Activities and exhibits for children and year-round adult programs make it a special place for family visits and history enthusiasts.

Admission is free for Searsport residents.

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Toy Boats.

In conjunction with the Musee Maritime, Paris. To 31 October 2010.

Key objects : Dolphin – one of the oldest clockwork ship models in the world. Crafted by a family carpenter for the Duke of Northumberland in 1822;  Hohenzollern – a clockwork-propelled replica of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s yacht which was made by Bing for the continental market around 1889 – 1909;  Italia – A magnificent steam-propelled cruiser, nearly a metre long, which was made in France in 1885;  Salamandre – a prestige toy made in France, probably used as a display model at an international exhibition. The steam-propelled battleship, 1.05 metres long and made of tinplate, copper and wood, came with a team of 32 wooden sailors and a small clockwork torpedo boat;  HMS Terrible – a large and very rare steam-propelled battleship made by German company Marklin for the British market around 1905.

FIERY POOL: THE MAYA AND THE MYTHIC SEA

Based on bold new scholarship, exhibition of ancient Maya artworks on view at the Peabody Essex Museum, 27 March 2010 – 18 July 2010

Full details (Press release - pdf)
   

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut USA.
Building America’s Canals

An interactive exhibition revealing the construction and operation of the nation’s human-built waterways, opens January 30, 2010, at Mystic Seaport.
            Organized by the National Canal Museum of Easton, PA, Building America’s Canals blends history and science through hands-on activities and encourages visitors of all ages to step into the roles of lock tender, canal engineer, crane operator and canalboat captain.  Divided into four sections relating to key canal structures – locks, masonry arches, cranes and aqueducts – each area will feature accompanying interpretive panels with photographs, diagrams and text detailing the historical context for America’s canals.
            “We’re delighted to offer this exhibit to our visitors of all ages,” said Jonathan Shay, director of exhibitions at Mystic Seaport. “Families will learn how canals work and the important role they played in the development of our nation.  The many interactive, hands-on opportunities to explore and build will be especially attractive to kids, and the show will help people connect with this fascinating part of our maritime heritage. “
            Interactive stations will allow visitors to experiment with constructing and managing a canal by "building" a canal on a tabletop surface while searching for efficient routes along rivers and across valleys; using model cranes to load and unload cargo from canal boats and experimenting with building masonry arches to learn why this 2,000-year-old technology still endures.  An interactive computer game complete with virtual dynamite will also test a player’s skill in operating a canal lock.
            Additionally, the exhibit features enlarged historic photographs from the Museum’s collections documenting canals, as well as a rare 1845 poster advertising the New Haven and Northampton Daily Canal Boat Line that once connected coastal Connecticut to central Massachusetts.
            Building America’s Canals is produced by the National Canal Museum and the Science Museum of Minnesota, with generous support from the National Science Foundation. The exhibit will remain open in the Museum’s Mallory Building through October 11, 2010. Entry is included in Museum admission.
           details
   

National Maritime Museum Cornwall
Lighthouses: Life on the Rocks.

Opens February 2010    details

Sjöhistoriska museet, the Swedish Maritime Museum.
Who is a pirate?

Open now. runs through 2010

How does piracy happen and who becomes a pirate? Follow us to the Baltic Sea of the 14th Century and to the Bay of Aden of today.

There have been pirates as long as humans have sailed the seas. Poverty, wars and political unrest have caused pirates to pop up in different places throughout the centuries. But history shows that piracy depends on geographical, political, social and economic conditions. This exhibition, Who is a pirate?, tells us about these circumstances - in historical times and today ...

details

The West Coast of Europe – a photographic journey from Skagen to Gibraltar.

An exhibition by Jens Fink Jensen - in co-operation with the Fisheries and Maritime Museum in Esbjerg, Denmark

For the first time ever the entire west coast of mainland Europe is presented in just one ex-hibition. The writer and photographer Jens Fink-Jensen has travelled along the 10,000 kilometre-long west coast of Europe from Skagen to Gibraltar and described the frontier between land and sea in words and pictures

This exhibition is available for sale at a special price for ICMM Members.
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