A Message from the President

Welcome to our spring edition of the Museum magazine. Like the Museum, the pages are packed with maritime stories that are diverse and as broad as the oceans themselves. From glass models to galas, from plankton to the stars, the Museum by its very nature has something for everyone. I remember on my first day asking about the collection and being told we are interested in collecting anything connected with the sea and therefore we are interested in everything.

Where else would I have witnessed the 131-foot wooden-hull schooner, Coronet, being lifted by a giant crane from the land to the sea and then 10 days later witness two giant cranes lift the 123-foot L.A. Dunton from the sea to the land? And where else could you and I observe them both being restored “up close and personal” by some of the finest shipwrights in the world?

Important work that preserves our knowledge of the past is performed here, and as a museum, we will undoubtedly always be perceived as keepers of that past; something in which we take great pride, particularly the maintaining of our historic vessels. But we are a maritime museum, not strictly a maritime “history” museum, and we also take the same amount of pride in educating our audience about the new “blue economy” and the exploitation of our seas today and in the future.

Our newest exhibition, Alexis Rockman: Oceanus, opening this month in the Collins Gallery does just that. This exhibition is comprised of vast paintings that show the effects of maritime activities on our waters today and focus our attention on tomorrow.

Please enjoy looking through these pages and keep at the back of your mind how the past and the present come together both below and above the water. It is no surprise to me that the word “astronaut” is derived from the Greek words for “star” and “sailor.” From the seas to the stars, the past informs the present and the future, and we must take note.