Empires of the Wind: Exploration of the United States Pacific West Coast

FAIN: BH-50424-11

Maritime Museum Association of San Diego (San Diego, CA 92101-3309)
Raymond Ashley (Project Director: March 2011 to July 2016)

Two one-week Landmarks workshops for eighty school teachers on Pacific exploration and the colonization of the American west coast, held at sites in San Diego, California.

"Empires of the Wind: Exploration of the United States Pacific West Coast" consists of two one-week NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops held during summer 2012 for eighty school teachers on Pacific exploration and the colonization of the American west coast, held at sites in San Diego, California. The program uses resources at the San Diego Maritime Museum, the Cabrillo National Monument, Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, and San Diego Mission de Alcala. Sessions consider early European voyages and mapping; Spanish interactions with Native Americans in Mexico and the southwest; the role of scientific discoveries in exploration; Spanish, British, and Russian imperial rivalries; the Spanish in California; and Americans in the Pacific from the beginnings of the China trade to the Civil War. Primary sources include maps, European accounts of exploration, and native responses; secondary sources mentioned include works by J.C. Beaglehole, William Schurtz, Lynn Withey, and Richard Johnson. In addition to project director Raymond Ashley (Maritime Museum of San Diego), visiting scholar presenters include Stephen Collston (San Diego State University), Jim Cassidy (U.S. Navy Southwest Cultural Resources Program Manager), Stan Rodriguez (Kumeyaay College), Iris Engstrand (University of San Diego), David Ringrose (University of California, San Diego), and Bruce Linder (independent scholar); Maritime Museum of San Diego staff, site specialists, and curriculum experts are also on hand to assist participants.

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