7.23.10 Paula Romano came to the museum today to pay a visit to the ship model in our downstairs gallery. The model was whittled by her grandfather using just a small paring knife. Paula brought her husband-to-be Tony Barile with her to see the model. She & Tony are getting married tomorrow!
The couple is shown below and at left speaking with head docent and New London Maritime Society trustee Bill LaRoue.
Paula's grandfather came to the United States from Trabani, Sicily in 1885. For the grandfather, New York City was too crowded; he didn't like Boston. He was a great fisherman, Paula said, which is why he decided to settle in New London.
7.22.10 Everyone was dancing by the end of Eileen Iver's concert. There was a conga line! In New London! On the Parade!!!
But the kids danced all night in front of the stage!
7.22.10 Far left, Eileen Ivers with her husband Brian introduces members of her band Immigrant Soul.
7.22.10 We had a full house for the Eileen Ivers recpetion, with one guest, Sarah, here from Chicago!
Sarah felt that seeing Eieen in person would be a fitting ending to her step-dancing career. Her she is, near left
with our guest of honor.
7.22.10 We've been reving up the Irish at the Custom House, beginning last week with our talk on curachs by Jim Gallagher, and tonight with our reception for Nine Times All-Ireland Fiddle Champion EIleen Ivers & her band Immigrant Soul.
Our reception was held in advance of their free concert on New London's Parade Plaza, which launchesf the series of summer programs on the Parade. Eileen's concert was sponsored by the City of New London.
Our hospitality team of trustees Carolyn Leuze and Vincentia Belbruno created a healthy and beautiful repast featuring three Irish Cheddars, lots of vegetables, Irish hard cider and Scottish shortbread & chocolate.
7.15.10 This morning, Sally Myers delivered a dozen + 4 & 5-grade student projects from New London's Regional Multicultural Magnet School. They're a product of the Selborne Project - a study of the square kilometer of land around the school. Far left: Sally Myers. Near left: a model of the Garde Arts Center by Lisa Lowe. The exhibition opens on Sat., July 24, in conjunction with Fish Tales, Tugs & Sails.
7.14.10 Our Third Thursday curach discussion ended just with enough daylight remaining for a group of us to amble down to the Custom House pier, where the New London Curach Club had brought their curach up on the dock for us to examine. Here they are, just as the team rowed off into the sunset. (That's the 150-foot barquentine Peacemaker in the background.)
7.14.10 July's Third Thursday program featured local oceanographer and Irish heritage promoter Jim Gallagher giving a history of the vernacular Irish boat, the curach. Curach is Irish for canoe, and Jim explained how the small boat eveolved from the Welsh coracle--essentially a woven-twig laundry basket covered with a single cow hide. In Ireland, the keel-less boat grew longer and its frame became wood. Replacing the hide covering was canvas tarred inside & out, then wood, & more recently fiberglass.
Jim donated a book and set of DVDs from Ireland illustrating traditional curach construction to the New London Curach Club, but asked that it be held at the Frank McGuire Library at the Custom House.
Far left is Jim Gallagher with John Droney from West Hartford and the Glastonbury Irish-American Home Society
7.14.10 Thursday was what you'd call a full, hot & steamy day beginning with a private museum tour, a retreat in the library, and our friends, the Thames River Garden Club, were back holding their July meeting in the courtyard beneath our tent (near left). The meeting's program was held in the Amistad Gallery, where museum director Susan Tamulevich spoke about her research & book on the Washington, DC, garden, Dumbarton Oaks.
7.12.10 And speaking of moments of great beauty, our friend, New London photographer Gino DeMaio, just emailed us this (see left).
We have slowly been making plans for New London Harbor Light--an icon of the City, which was given to the New London Maritime Society just about one year ago. At present, the official hand-over ceremony from the US Coast Guard and the GSA to NLMS is still before us. To celebrate that event, once it happens, we will hold our first lighthouse fundraiser, possibly in October, 2010.
The first opportunities for the public to visit to the lighthouse will probably take place in Spring 2011.
Stay tuned!
To see more photos of New London Harbor Light, click>> HERE.
7.10.10 SailFest = GREAT Fireworks!
Near left is a view of the Peacemaker in the amber light of the setting sun, as seen from Bank Street.
(This entry has been added a little after the event--on July 14) And now that the tally has been taken, the Custom House, in fact, made more than $800 on its first tag sale in many years! It was a great recycling effort, with the leftovers going to a local church sale, Homewardbound Treasurers, and our next-door neighbors--the Salvation Army.
The TagSale@SailFest was an all-volunteer effort headed by the tireless Jennnifer Hillhouse, whose perserverance and organizational abilities were put to the test over the many weeks of preparation and many days of execution and clean-up. She always remained cheerful! Thank you Jennifer!
Jennifer was aided in this effort in no small part by John Desjardins, our treasurer, who, by the way, now feels it might be a good idea to have a sort of rolling tag sale throughout the summer...! Thank you John!
And there were many members & trustees who helped mightily in the tag-sale effort: David Bishop, the Pittaways, George Sprecace, Carolyn Lewes, Russ & Pauline DeMarco, Kathy Gaynor, to name just a few. Thank you all for pitching in!
7.10.10 SailFest, itself, had moments of great beauty. Friday night on the Custom House pier was one, with an amusing tall-ship brigantine to one side of the pier, and a series of Celtic acts--including the NL firemen/pipers--on stage at the pier's end.
What can we say, but it was another terriffic evening on New London's waterfront!
That is the Custom House at the back, visible from Waterfront Park in the photo near left.
7.9.10 SailFest is here! At the Custom House, that meant it was the occasion of our first annual (???) TagSale@SailFest, the brain child of NLMS trustees Jennifer Hillhouse and John Desjardins.
The sale, held Saturday & Sunday, brought in a good income while making us all proud of the major recycling effort! Far left are trustees/salespersons Carolyn Lewes and John Desjardins during a lull in the afternoon visitation.
7.9.10 It has been a long couple of weeks leading up to SailFest 2010 for TagSale@SailFest organizer and NLMS trustee Jennifer Hillhouse. There were weeks of collecting objects, then this past week spent sorting, pricing & assembling the gatheres objects beneath the Custom House tent.
At left, Jennifer and NLMS trustee & head docent William LaRoue cover the object-laden tag sale tables the night before the sale begins.
7.3.10 The museum closed today for a special performance: Rendezvous with Treason, a dramatic interpretation of the lives of Benedict Arnold, our nation's most notorious traitor, and his accomplice in treason, Major John Andre--the men who tried to bring down the cause for American independence & burned New London to the ground in the process!
At left actors Sean Grady portrays Andre and Gary Pentagine, standing, Benedict Arnold.
7.3.10 We like to do things a little differently here at the Custom House. While 'round about the 4th of July, everyone else thinks about the heroes of the revolution: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Ben Franklin, we decided to look in the opposite direction--at the ultimate anti-hero: Benedict Arnold.
It is not a new stance. The museum's founder, Lucile Showalter, was an Arnold advocate. In fact, our very museum is a result of Benedict Arnold's infamous burning of New London 229 years ago. The memory of that fire--and others--inspired city leaders to demand a new, fire-proof custom house be constructed in 1832. The most-famous local advocate of Benedict Arnold, however, was the late William B. Stanley, who died earlier this year. When we were presented with the opportunity to have actors, Gary Petagine and Sean Grady bring Arnold and Major Andre to life in a dramatic program, we decided to dedicate the performance to his memory.
We were honored today to have William Stanley's son Bill with us at the performance.
Bill Stanley told the audience about his father's high school assignment--to write about a hero of the Revolution, and that when he handed in a paper about Benedict Arnold, he was given a suspension! (Benedict, Bill and the school were all native to Norwich, by the way.) Bill, senior, never denied that Arnold was a traitor, but spent the rest of his life defending his belief that Arnold was a hero, in fact, perhaps the revolution's greatest hero, without whom the cause would have been lost.
Far left, Bill Stanley addresses the audience. Center left, NLMS president George Sprecace with Benedict Arnold.
7.3.10 Graphic novelist & illustrator Jon Buller is back with another series of cartooning classes. The class is shown, at left, meeting this morning in the Frank McGuire Maritime Research Library.
7.1.10 This week, we're still reacting to the galvanizing effect the new pennant is having upon the general public's awareness of our existence. So, in an atttempt to make the Custom House even more visable, trustee Rob Pittaway dug up an old Custom House banner and hung it out the second-floor level of the museum! The banner is visable--and readable--from the waterfront and passing trains.
Near left, Archie Chester has been researching the America's Cup and its New London connections.
From the museum's archives he brought out pennants and signal flags belonging to Andrew Jackson Comstock of New London, the skipper of the Magic--the first defender of the America's Cup.
These flags and other items were donated to the museum by a descendant of A. J. Comstock.
6.26.10 It took a day to get the hardware, but by Saturday morning, John Desjardins had raised the new NLMS Museum pennant high above the Custom House. The pennant is three feet wide and twenty feet long!
The new flag is a gift from trustee Alice Houston, who'd seen paintings of 19-century whaling ships, with their signal flags and pennants identifying the various whaling companies.
Alice thought such a historical-yet- flamboyant identifier might be just the thing for the museum.
In fact, Saturday regulars to the Custom House, when asked, actually had failed to notice the new pennant.
But, within an hour of its appearance, a pair of curious visitors from Waterfront Park showed up at the door wondering what exciting things were going on inside!
6.26.10 Far left, John Desjardins launches the pennant on the Custom House flagpole.
Near left, this week, The Tag Sale at Sailfest co-chairs, John Desjardins and Jennifer Hillhouse, began accepting goods for the event, which takes place in two weeks.
6.25.10 We'd been admiring artist Lynda McLaughlin's work--on a ladder, in the heat--these past weeks as she painted the frieze at 12 Golden Street, but hadn't had a chance to stop and really LOOK.
Today we did. Her four vignettes are lyric sepia-toned scenes of New London's waterfront from 150+ years ago. There are ships, sculls, a horse... and, of course, the lighthouse!
6.24.10 NLMS trustee Alice Houston, far left, unveils her gift (see below) to president George Sprecace at the June meeting of the NLMS board of trustees.
6.24.10 It's past time to renew your membership in the New London Maritime Society! As we figure it, the new year starts May 1 and concludes on April 30.
Near left, trustees Jennifer Hillhouse & William LaRoue congratulate Ronald Bernoudy on renewing his membership.
6.24.10 NLMS trustee Alice Houston had a great idea, acted on it, and here it is (see below)!
She unveiled her gift at the June trustees' meeting. Watch the skies about the Custom House...
THANK YOU ALICE!
