Deeply Mystic — For the whole month of February, the Mystic Seaport Museum will host events in honour of Black History Month that pay tribute to “important and sometimes under-recognized persons that have impacted the course of history,” as stated in a statement issued by the institution.
The museum has made a concerted effort, as stated in the statement, “to integrate a more broad variety of voices in its programming and displays about American maritime history,” which these activities help to further.
The museum will be hosting a presentation about Lewis Temple onboard the whaleship Charles W. Morgan throughout the month of February. African American Temple, an abolitionist, inventor, and blacksmith, was born in Virginia in 1800 and eventually settled in New Bedford, a major whaling centre.
The Temple toggle iron, a design for an iron harpoon with a revolving head that would not slip out of the whale, is mostly credited to him. The new device, which worked in a way similar to the harpoons used by Native Americans and the Inuit to take fish and seals, completely changed the way whales were hunted.
Additionally, visitors are encouraged to peruse “The Sea Connects Us,” an outdoor exhibit comprised of panels that commemorate the contributions made by African Americans and Indigenous people to maritime history in the United States.
And the museum and Discovering Amistad are starting a new partnership to help advance racial justice. This continuing project will increase awareness and understanding of the role that African Americans had in shaping the development of the United States maritime industry.
Together, the two groups will provide a new curriculum for schools that uses the Amistad’s voyage as an example of the power of individuals and communities to effect positive change.
In the museum, visitors may see a recreation of the 1839 Amistad rebellion and hear the tale of the momentous Supreme Court decision that led to the release of the Mende prisoners from slavery or execution.
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A portion of the museum’s planetarium will also be featured in the presentation to further emphasise the significance of celestial navigation to the plot.
The programme connects the uprising’s memory to contemporary concerns of inequality by drawing parallels between the uprising’s challenges and those of today. Both groups want this to be an ongoing service they provide to the community.
The museum is also backing “Discovering Amistad,” a programme that encourages middle school students in Connecticut to study Black maritime history. Students from ten selected schools will be asked to participate in an art project based on people from Black maritime history.
In addition to having their work shown in the Discovering Amistad art exhibit, the winning entry from each school will also get free entrance to the Mystic Seaport Museum and a guided tour of the museum’s inner workings. By April 1st, winners will be announced.
As part of its AARP Webinar Wednesdays series, the museum will host “Webinar Wednesday: African Americans in Astronomy” on February 23. The Treworgy Planetarium’s supervisor, Brian Koehler, will speak about the contributions of African Americans to astronomy and space exploration.
After being marginalised for centuries, these trailblazers “achieved amazing feats that transformed and influenced the contemporary view of the cosmos,” as the statement puts it.
