.NMHSNEWS 35th Annual Meeting of NMHS in Mystic Seaport NMHS members and trustees came to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut from as far away as Florida, Maryland and California to join regional members for the Society ' s 35th Annual Meeting on 25 April. We heard good news on all fronts from trustees, officers and project leaders and learned of new challenges before us, particularly as we look forward to the year 2000 and the maritime events surrounding Operation Sail. More Programs Reaching More People Treasurer Bradford Smith reported a 30 percent gain in income levels as the Society achieved $747 ,958 in 1997 , breaking through the $5-600,000 level of the past few years. Income from grants and contributions, advertis ing, and special events was up significantly. A full Annual Report is available upon request. As Smith observed , thi s advance
strengthened the balance sheet and enabled us to launch "more effective programs, reaching more people. " This included our larger 64-page Sea History, up from 48 pages, and a larger press run , increasing to40,000copies from 25,000. The additional copies are sent to specially selected mailing lists or distributed by maritime organizations-Sea History 84, for example, was sent to Mystic Seaport' s membership of24,000 individuals , accompan ied by a letter from Mystic's President, J. Revell Carr. In 1997, we also took the Mari ti me Education Initiative, launched by Walter Cronkite in 1992, into a third stage. In its first years, we sought out effective programs in the field and presented the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education. In 1996 , through a grant from the
At the Annual Meeting , artist Bill Muller (at lefi , with trustees Howard Slotnick, Craig A. C. Reynolds, and Marshall Streibert) gave us a pre view of his painting of USCG Bark Eagle in New York Harbor (belo w). Th e coffee break gave members and trustees time to mingle. NMHS trustees (bottom , fro m left) Richardo Lopes, Capt. Jean Wort and Harry Vinall , chatted with Intrepid Museum Senior Curator Jerry Roberts (second from left).
David M. Milton Trust, we started our own program taking young New Yorkers to interesting corners of New York Harbor to learn how seafaring and the generation of capital built the modern city. This year we are continuing to develop educational programs. We took over 200 New York youngsters on a National Maritime Day sail up the Hudson River, led by USCG BarkEagle, and have arranged to take 60 young New Yorkers and Bostonians on passages between the two cities aboard the frigate Rose, as part of a rigorous program tied into the challenge of sail training under the redoubtable Capt. Richard Bailey. The Power of Our Membership Our service to the field took two outstanding form s, both stemming from our members' commitment. NMHS President Peter Sta nford reported that, through a mailing to our members, Project Liberty Ship- the restorers and sailors of the Liberty sh iplohn W. Brown- gained more than 400 members. And through a similar appeal , the scholarly journal American N eptune, published by the Peabody Essex Museum, increased their subscriptions by 33 percent. We now face the challenge of building our NMHS membership. We have maintainedabaseofabout 15,000members for the last three years. Today it numbers 16,136. An increased membership will make us more effective in the fie ld and will demonstrate our strengths to funding sources. We hope to reach 20,000 by year ' s end and achieve 50,000 in 2000, through investment in growth . At the meeting, NMHS welcomed aboard new trustee Steven Warren Jones, a financial analyst, student of history and devotee of sai l training for innercity youth. He first was introduced to the Society when he found a copy of Sea
NMHS Trustee Warren Marr was spontaneously honored by the assembly at the Annual Meeting. In 1996 he received the Karl Kortum American Ship Trust Award for his work to bring the Amistad to reality (left).
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SEA HISTORY 85 , SUMMER 1998