Tyler Rudd Putman sewing aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer during an Atlantic crossing in 2014. Putman will present “A complete suit of flannel underclothing for bad weather: Rediscovering and Reproducing Richard Henry Dana Jr’s Cape Horn Wardrobe.” —Ger Tysk photo
DEERFIELD, MASS. — Historic Deerfield will host the 41st meeting of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife the weekend of June 24–26. The three-day conference, titled “New England at Sea: Maritime Memory and Material Culture,” features 19 lectures on the maritime history of New England and the adjacent areas of New York and Canada from the mid-Eighteenth to the early Twentieth Century.
Focusing on how the region remembered its maritime past, the weekend begins with a keynote address by the historian W. Jeffrey Bolster on the pivotal role that Gloucester, Mass., played in the memory of its fishing industry. It continues with individual topics, such as chart making, the keeping of ship logs and ship-design technologies. Later sessions address subjects such as whaling, slaving, privateering and maritime family life; the rise of marine societies and efforts to preserve old ships; and the growth of maritime antiques businesses. The conference concludes with minorities’ experience of seafaring and maritime laboring and the material culture of sailors’ (and diplomatic) dress. An optional workshop presented on Friday afternoon will examine the history of celestial navigation, including a detailed exploration of the sextant, and Mystic Seaport’s digital resources used in genealogical and maritime-related research.
The seminar is designed for educators, historians, collectors, independent scholars, librarians, preservationists and museum curators, as well as students and the general public. A selected and edited transcript of this conference will appear as the 2016 Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, to be issued about two years after the conference. Past seminar proceedings and publications by program speakers will be available at the conference.
The lecture program will begin at 7 pm on Friday evening and will continue until approximately noon on Sunday. Lunch and dinner will be provided on Saturday, June 25; coffee and doughnuts will be served each morning. Housing is available at group rates at local hotels.
Speaker Charles Foy will use the Arnold Labourers’ Book in his seminar presentation to show how dusty account books can demonstrate the treatment of blacks in the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century. Welcome Arnold Labourers’ Books, John Carter Brown Library, author’s photograph.
For the complete conference schedule, visit www.historic-deerfield.org/dublin-seminar.
Advance registration for the conference is available online or a registration form can be downloaded at the above website. Reservations are limited and will be accepted in the order received and must arrive on or before June 20. Registrants may request complimentary lecture abstracts through email. For information and registration by telephone, contact Julie Orvis at events@historic-deerfield.org or 413-775-7179.
