Reviews
Preserving Maritime America: A Cultural History of the Nation’s Great Maritime Museums by James M. Lindgren (University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 2019, 342pp, illus, notes, index, isbn 978-1-62534-463-2; $28.95pb) From the outset, Preserving Maritime America: A Cultural History of the Nation’s Great Maritime Museums makes clear that it is not a comprehensive analysis of America’s maritime landscape. It is, in fact, a case study of how several prominent maritime organizations have sought to preserve this sometimes awkward and often underappreciated aspect of our nation’s shared historical framework. These institutions, the Marine Society of Salem (Peabody Essex Museum), the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Mystic Seaport Museum, The Mariners’ Museum, San Francisco Maritime Museum (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park), and South Street Seaport Museum have demonstrated an incredible commitment to preserving an often invisible, but arguably integral thread of our nation’s character. Apparently, this obligation has not been without considerable maneuvering, intrigue, and drastically different approaches on how to remain not only solvent but relevant decades after their founding. Mr. Lindgren’s profoundly researched account of these museums’ machinations incorporates accounts from the institu-
tional archives and weaves in personal interviews and media interpretations to provide an eye-opening explanation for why each of these organizations is where it is today—for better or for worse. It is well
lenges (crises) dominate the timelines of these museums. One can’t help but think what distress or opportunity the latest global crisis will unleash on these, and all maritime museums. Careful readers will absorb the lessons presented here when developing our courses forward. Catherine M. Green Manitowoc, Wisconsin A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes by Eric Jay Dolin (Liveright Publishing Corp., a Division of W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 2020, 392pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-1-63149-527-4; $29.95hc) There is nothing so likely to appeal to a mariner than a well-told tale. In Eric Jay Dolin’s engaging A Furious Sky, we have a compelling series of stories with the added appeal that each of them is about something that seafarers obsess about—a powerful tempest. His cast of characters: Sandy, Camille, Andrew, Katrina, and many others, from centuries past to the 21st century.
written, thoughtfully presented, and absolutely worth consideration if your career or passion intersects with maritime museums in any way. While perseverance and reinvention underlie all six of these stories, so do precariousness and uncertainty. Big personalities, big funders, and even bigger chal-
Books from the coast of Maine that celebrate the sea. The exquisite boat models crafted by John P. Gardner of Castine, Maine, have been known to bring people to tears.
More By Eye Than By Measure
The Maritime Life and Art of John Prior Gardner By Sandra Dinsmore, $22.95
Floating Palaces
America’s Queens of the Sea
More than just an ABC, this book is all about Maine lighthouses for all ages.
Maine Island Mariners and the Big Steam Yachts by William A. Haviland & Barbara L. Britton, $33.95
Maine mariners had merely to state they were from Deer Isle and they had a job.
Penobscot Books 56
Maine Lighthouse ABC By Connie and Peter Roop Illustrated by Jeremiah Savage $21.95
Stonington, Maine • Online at penbaypress.me 207-374-2341 • books@pbp.me
Dolin’s approach, however, is more ambitious than to recount a litany of spectacular storms. A Furious Sky tells both the stories of how those storms and many others have affected the history of the United States and the Caribbean, and how the science of predicting them developed from the locals’ grasp of signs they gleaned from SEA HISTORY 174, SPRING 2021