R EVELL C ARR
and the Museum of America and the Sea by Peter Stanford
Revell, retiring as president after thirtyone years at Mystic, says it is "People, people, people" that make Mystic the Museum ofAmerica and the Sea. Here we take a look at the accomplishments of one of those people-Revell Carr.
Revell stands before the new "Voyages" exhibit, presenting five major themes of America and the Sea. (ALL photos courtesy Mystic Seaport, Inc.)
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While these solid achi evements were abuilding, Revell took the Seaport's message to others, servin g as president of the International Congress ofMaritime Museums and trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation- just two examples of Revell's outreach, which also extended to humbler organizations across America and indeed abroad, as occasion demanded. The seamanlike co ncept of bearing a hand when called on has characterized Revell's practice, and has become a hallmark of M ys tic's style. The dollars raised, the collections, the ships themselves, mean far more, and work more effectively, because of this anim ating spirit of outreach. A person who valued Revell's dedication and abi liti es was Mystic trustee (later chairman), the late C lifford Mallory, Jr. The two worked together as Revell moved up the ladder from Research Associate to Chief Curator in 1970, then to Director and ultimately President of Mystic Seaport. Both men knew that ships were at the heart of Mystic's story, and they hammered out a policy of going unapologetically for first-class restoration of the aging fleetto get results worth the high costs involved. Ships had retired to Mystic as to a maritime Val halla. But they would be put to work in active programs! The greatest physical asse t was of course the whaleship Charles W Morgan. She had been brought into the Seaport in 1941 at age 100, and was laid up in a sandbank. There, as yea rs passed, thi s great asset became the greatest problem. Rot was spreading, and there was talk of sawing off her bottom and putting her upper hull in a house ashore. Bur after study and debate, a different course was chosen . Build a shipyard to
When CliffMallory spoke, Revell (and others) Listened! These quite different Leaders made a dynamic duo, teaming poetry and pragmatism.
rebuild the ship! This was done, and she was then set afloat to conduct sail handling alofr and launch her boats to show the ship 's gear in action. The same problems afflicted o ther vessels at Mystic, like the gal lant fi shing schooner L.A. Dunton. Launched from Story's yard in Essex in 1921 , she had long outlived her wo rking life expectancy. She got new timbers, skilfully fitted into the old structure. And she also got new interpretive program to help her catch up people in the story of the New England fisheries-an extension of her career catching fish. The far-traveled J oseph Conrad of 1882 was brought up to standard just in time for the visit of Alan Villiers to his old ship 30 years ago. Villi ers, who had taken the ship through a Cape Horn snorter with yo ung people in crew, appreciated the vessel's use for school groups learning the ropes and sleeping over aboard the ship that had sailed for far hori zons. A h um bier vessel, the fishing sloop Emma C. Berry, built at nearby Noank in 1866, needed to have her yacht rig and cabins torn out and her fishing configuration restoredso this was done, fit to go to work again.
n a career packed with achievements, Revell started out quietly enough, securi ng his BA at Rutgers in 1962 with a seemingly innocuous specialty in art and history. We next find him steering a hellfor- leather destroyer in the Pacific, as Lieutenant, USN . T hat was followed by two years propounding naval histo ry and the law to yo ung innocents at officers candidate school. T hen he picked up an MA in Am erica n Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, with some archaeological co nsultancy thrown in. This variegated background served as grist for the mill of hi s driving sense of purpose, and that backgro und helps explain the extraordinary diversity of interests that came to make up the Museum of America and the Sea. M ys tic Seaport's record sin ce Revell succeeded Waldo C. M . Johnston as Executive Director in 1978 is impressive. Membership has nearly doubled, to more than 27,000 dedicated supporters of th e mu- The far-traveled Joseph Co nrad (J 882), at Left, joined the C harles W. Morgan (J 841) to seum and participants in its programs. T he make a strong square-rig presence. Ships ' boats and sails are regularly exercised to the delight annual budget has doubled too, as the Seaand edification of visitors to Mystic, no Longer so quiet a backwater as it once had been. port has strived to do more, and do what it does in greater depth , with the maximum authenticity, as illustrated, for example, in the resto ration and continuing maintenance and public program of the ships, led by the whaleship Charles W Morgan. T here have been tense moments, but always the resources have been fo und to do what was needed. The fact that what was don e was always solid value has much to do with that resul t.
SEA HISTORY 96, SPRING 200 I
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