A new museum in Boston, built around our most famous fighting ship
The USS Constitution Museum By Rear Admiral J.C. Wylie, USN (ret.)
In the late 1960s and early 70s, with the National Bicentennial looming ahead, thought was given to the role "Old Ironsides," the frigate Constitution of 1797, should play in this grand birthday. Over $4 million was appropriated, and the first complete restoration since the 1920s was taken in hand. Much of the framing, hull planking and copper sheathing was renewed. She was restored, as best as could be determined, to the configuration of 1812. About this time it began to be recognized that, if she were to be fitted as though she were ready for sea, the belowdecks displays and ancillary artifacts -musty uniforms, paintings, and incredible jumble-must come out. And this led to realization that a supporting museum was needed-to tell her story and to support the ship in her task of bringing to visitors an awareness of her role in the times in which she served. So, in 1972, a small group of men incorporated the USS Constitution Museum Foundation as a private, non-profit, non-governmental, educational (and tax exempt) foundation. Then, in February 1973, it became publicly known that the Boston Navy Yard was to be closed. So Plan "B" was put in operation. Trustees of the Foundation approached the National Park Service to interest them in taking over the thirty acres of the original Navy Yard in order to provide a home berth for the ship and a site for the planned museum. The National Park Service was interested, and Speaker John W. McCormack, by then retired, welcomed the idea and agreed to get the necessary legislation through the Congress. Fundraising began. Five Boston firms-the Boston Globe, The Raytheon Company, New England Mutual Life Insurance, Prudential Insurance, and Gillette-pledged $50,000 each. Then other contributions came in and work was started on the old granite building. In the spring of 1975, the Trustees had to make a basic decision. Should the pace
of the restoration of Building 22 be geared to the actual income of contributions? Or should the Museum Foundation go into debt in order to complete the work and open the museum in time for the Bicentennial? The Trustees bit the bullet and borrowed the money. The Museum was opened on April 8, 1976, when Samuel Eliot Morison, in his last public appearance before his death, cut the rope and the first visitors entered the Museum. The resulting legislation created the Boston National Historical Park consisting of seven sites including the "old thirty acres" of the Navy Yard. There was one critically important phrase in the legislation. The Department of the Interior (the Park Service) was authorized to enter into "cooperative agreements" with state and local governments and private organizations. That provision made it possible for the Foundation to plan for a museum close by the ship in the Navy Yard Site of the National Park. The overt reason for these "cooperative agreements" was to ensure local cooperation and participation, and this has been effective and successful. The un~poken added reason for the cooperative agreements, in which the nongovernmental organizations operate the several sites, is that this takes a large load off the taxpayer's back. This, too, has been successful; costs to the federal government are minimal, and vastly less than they would be if the government ran everything. The Trustees of the Museum Foundation made their cooperative agreement with the National Park Service (which, as it has turned out, is an uncommonly able and understanding agency). Building 22, which originally in 1832 housed the machinery for the old drydock, was made available. The Museum Foundation was to bear the cost of restoring the building and adapting it to museum use. The changes from the original configuration were minimal-climate control to protect artifacts and documents, an inconspic-
The "fighting top" exhibit (left) allows visitors a close up look at a pan of the ship normally visible only from the deck-a considerable distance
uous elevator, fire and theft protection and the like. At that time the debt was about $800,000. By the end of 1979, alt the commercial debt had been paid off; plans are in hand for 1980 to pay the remaining few thousand dollars loaned (in addition to gifts) by trustees; and the Museum is operating in the black. As the Museum became a going concern, artifacts and documents have been given or loaned, including some unexpected treasures. One such is a diary kept by the Captain's Clerk in the 1840s, donated by a woman in Maine whose family had providentially preserved it over the years. This diary gives long forgotten information on Constitution's role in the suppression of the slave trade along the African Coast, both afloat and ashore. The Museum's recently opened Samuel Eliot Morison Library makes available both volumes and microfilm and has an impressive list of archival material, including the oldest known log of the USS Constitution dating from 1798. The first-floor exhibit space is now being modified to show an entire full-size cross-section of the lower portion of the ship with its heavy keel and keelson and ribs. There is already a companion exhibit to show woodworking tools and techniques of the times. There is a rigger's model used for years in the Navy Yard, which enabled the riggers to work out in advance the actual placement of the running and standing rigging. Last year there were over 100,000 visitors to the Museum. It has built up its own style and following, serving well that most famous of American ships, the oldest man-of-war in the world still afloat and in commission, most famous of all our famous ships, the United States Frigate Constitution. w
Admiral Wylie has served as President of the USS Constitution Museum, and is Chairman of the American Sail Training Association.
on /he Constitution. Here /wo boys scramble up !he rigging. At righl, note size of /he people on deck and the distance from /hem lo /he lops.