In the Wake of the Whalers: American Identity and Worldview as Shaped by our Whaling Heritage

FAIN: GE-50485-11

Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT 06355-1946)
Elysa Engelman (Project Director: January 2011 to December 2012)

Planning for a long-term exhibition with traveling components to various New England ports, a website, and program activities on board a historic whaling ship.

Mystic Seaport requests a one-year (October 2011 – September 2012) “Bridging Cultures” planning grant of $74,853 from NEH to plan “In the Wake of the Whalers: American Identity and Worldview as Shaped by our Whaling Heritage.” This major national public programming initiative will revolve around the Museum’s most important artifact, the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, and the vessel’s groundbreaking “38th Voyage” to strategic ports of call along the northeastern seaboard. The NEH-funded planning phase will involve a two-day scholar charrette, front-end and formative audience surveys, and two planning charrettes with advisors from stakeholder organizations representing each of the proposed ports of call. "In the Wake of the Whalers" will develop the intellectual content and creative delivery systems to engage a national audience in exploring how American identity and worldview has been shaped by maritime endeavors.