Charleston Museum to Focus on British Siege
As part of a series of original exhibitions presented in association with other museums, The Charleston Museum—the oldest museum in the United States, founded in 1773—in Charleston, South Carolina, is presenting a new exhibit entitled “Redcoats, Hessians and Tories: The British Siege and Occupation of Charleston, 1780-1782.”
The exhibit, focusing on one of the great sieges of the Revolutionary War and the ensuing occupation of one of the era’s most important cities, will run from 4 June through 14 December 2003. To tell this story, “Redcoats, Hessians and Tories” will feature a rich array of artifacts and images from museums and archives in England, Scotland, Canada, Germany, and the United States. Many of the objects and documents on display were used by British forces in the Charleston area.
“Appearances in this province are certainly very favourable,” wrote British Lord Charles Cornwallis on 2 June 1780 to his commander, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, three weeks after the British Army had forced the surrender of Charleston. The British had landed 7,500 troops on nearby James Island and then invested the American force of 6,000, which soon was trapped in the city. Charleston fell after a siege of six weeks. The victory was the most impressive of the war for the British, and the worst surrender of American forces until the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in 1942. Success at Charleston, however, set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to Yorktown and total defeat in America. Departing Charleston in December 1782 after an occupation of 19 months, the British left not as conquerors, but as a vanquished army. “Redcoats, Hessians and Tories” seeks to explore this chapter in South Carolina and Charleston history.
“Visitors will see rare maps of British generals,” says Carl Borick, exhibit curator and museum assistant director, “and the original articles of capitulation for the surrender of Charleston, ‘Brown Bess’ muskets from the Royal Armouries Museum in England, and logbooks of Royal Navy warships which participated in the siege.” Also of special interest will be camp equipment and a drum used by Loyalist forces, accoutrements and tools from archaeological excavations of British encampment sites throughout South Carolina, and the original breechloading “Ferguson Rifle” invented and owned by Major Patrick Ferguson, who served in Charleston and throughout the state. Visitors will be introduced to the British, Hessian, and Loyalist soldiers who made up the King’s army, and they will learn what 18th-century life was like for both combatants and noncombatants.
The Charleston Museum will offer a wide variety of programs to accompany the exhibit. The Redcoats Lecture Series will feature top U.S. and British military historians, including Mark Murray-Flutter (3 June), Dr. Don Higginbotham (8 September), Dr. Ira Gruber (13 October), and Dr. Clive Wilkinson (17 November). The Patriot Lecture Series will cover a variety of topics, including colonial clothing, politics, the role of women, and the African-American experience (dates to be announced). Carl Borick will lead a South Carolina Revolutionary battlefield trip on the weekend of 24-26 October.
For more information, visit www.charlestonmuseum.org/ or call (843) 722-2996.
Newport Museum Hosts New Maritime Exhibit
The Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island is venturing into new territory with the opening on 27 April 2003 of an exhibition of books, maps, and manuscripts relating to maritime history. The exhibition will feature classic texts and cartographic works, from the era of Columbus to the time of Captain Cook and beyond. Entitled ‘“The Boundless Deep . . The European Conquest of the Oceans, 1450 to 1840,” the objects to be displayed are entirely from the holdings of the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island. The library is an independently funded and administered institution, located on the campus of Brown University since 1901. Its collection of maritime books from this early modern era—in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, English, German, and Italian—has few rivals in the world.
The exhibition, which will remain open through 27 July, addresses the epic story of the European expansion across the oceans, beginning with the Portuguese voyages down the west coast of Africa in the middle of the 15th century and culminating in the great scientific expeditions of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
From a printed exhibition catalogue of approximately 215 items, more than 130 pieces have been selected for the show. The exhibition will be accompanied by a six-part lecture series. Speakers and their topics are: John B. Hattendorf, Naval War College professor and historian, ‘“Sailing on a Sea of Ink’: History of the Maritime Book”; John Rousmaniere, yachting historian, “The Re-discovery of the Sea: The Early Days of Pleasure Sailing”; Lincoln P. Paine, maritime historian, “Orientations: Asian Maritime Ambition in the 15th and 16th Centuries”; Joseph F. Cullon, maritime historian, “Shipbuilding by the Book: New England Artisans and the Maritime Arts”; Nathaniel D. Philbrick, author, “The Wilkes Expedition”; and Edward J. Lefkowicz, rare book dealer, “An Illustrated Talk on the Printed Sources for Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin Novels and the Books Jack Aubrey Used.” For more information on the lecture series as well as the exhibit, visit www.newportartmuseum.com/ index.html or call (401) 848-8200.
Naval War College Offers Fellowship
The Naval War College Foundation is accepting applications for its Edward S. Miller Research Fellowship in Naval History. The foundation will award one grant of $1,000 to the researcher who has the greatest need and who can make the optimum use of research materials for naval history located in the Naval War College’s archives, Naval Historical Collection, and Henry E. Eccles Library. A guide to the college’s manuscript, archival, and oral history collections may be found on the Naval War College’s web site at www.nwc.navy.mil. Further information and copies of the registers for specific collections are available on request from the head of the Naval Historical Collection at [email protected].
The recipient will be a research fellow in the Naval War College’s Maritime History Department, which will provide administrative support. Submit a detailed research proposal, curriculum vita, one letter of recommendation, and relevant background information to Miller Naval History Fellowship Committee, Naval War College Foundation, 686 Cushing Road, Newport, R1 02841-1207, by 1 August 2003. Employees of the U.S. Naval War College or the Department of Defense are not eligible for consideration.
Famine Ship Sails for United States
A replica of a 19th-century Irish “famine ship,” the Jeanie Johnston, is planning a series of port visits along the U.S. east coast throughout 2003, commencing with West Palm Beach, Florida, on 17 April. The original Jeanie Johnston, built at Quebec in 1847, carried a total of more than 2,500 Irish emigrants to North America on 16 voyages from 1848 to 1855. She had the enviable distinction—for a 19th-century vessel—of never having lost a single passenger during any of her voyages. Her human cargo consisted of only a fraction of the estimated two million Irish who escaped the crushing potato blight of the 1840s that left perhaps a million of their countrymen dead from starvation and disease.
The re-created Jeanie Johnston, a three-masted barque, began as a project in the early 1990s to build a replica vessel to commemorate the Irish Potato Famine. She was completed in 2002 in County Kerry in the south of Ireland. She departed Ireland on her first transatlantic voyage on 16 February 2003. After visiting West Palm Beach from 17-28 April, she is scheduled to sail up the east coast to make port calls at Savannah, Georgia, from 2-12 May; Charleston, South Carolina, from 15-19 May; Washington, DC, from 28 May to 2 June; Baltimore, Maryland, from 4-9 June; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 12-23 June; Trenton, New Jersey, from 23-26 June; Bristol, Pennsylvania, from 26-30 June; New York City, from 3-14 July; Port Jefferson, Long Island, from 14-17 July; Providence, Rhode Island, from 18-21 July; and Boston, from 24 July to 4 August. Organizers have yet to confirm planned visits to other ports in New England and Canada.
The ship was designed by Fred M. Walker, chief naval architect with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. He was the supervising architect for the re-creation of Captain James Cook’s ship, the Endeavour II. The Jeanie Johnston project was modeled closely on the restoration of the 17th- century Dutch East India ship, the Batavia, in Lelystad, Holland.
Sailing opportunities remain for those who wish to join the Jeanie Johnston during her between-port voyages on the east coast. Those interested in sailing on her can contact the Jeanie Johnston Company’s head office by calling (011) 353 66 7129999 or by e-mail at [email protected]. For more information about the Jeanie Johnston, go to www.jeaniejohnston.ie/.
Mariners’ Museum Unveils Two New Exhibits
On 8 March 2003, the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, unveiled two new temporary exhibitions: “Battle of the Ironclads: Eyewitness to History,” detailing the events that took place during the historic Civil War Battle of Hampton Roads on 8-9 March 1862; and “Reflections of the Sea: Paintings from The Mariners’ Museum,” featuring some of the best of the many paintings in the museum’s collection.
“Battle of the Ironclads” uses engravings, paintings, lithographs, blueprints, newspapers, and first-hand accounts to tell the story of the historic fight between the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, a naval battle that changed the face of naval warfare forever.
“Photography was in use by the time of the Civil War, but unfortunately no cameras were on hand to record this phenomenal two-day battle,” said Mariners’ Museum president and CEO John Hightower. “The images in this temporary exhibition are among the only visual records of what happened during the Battle of Hampton Roads.”
A highlight of the exhibit is the story of the Monitor’s First Assistant Engineer, Isaac Newton. Pieces from the museum’s Newton collection are on display for the first time, revealing the human side of the Monitor. Newton’s engineer certificate and protection papers are shown alongside a recommendation letter written for Newton by the Monitor’s captain, John S. Worden. Also displayed is a letter written to Newton from Chief Engineer Alban C. Stimers in which Stimers reveals a conversation he had with former Virginia officer, Commander Catesby Jones, where he says, “I think there can be no harm in my saying to you that if you had hit us twice more as well as you did the last few shots you fired, you would have sunk us.”
The stories and artifacts in “Battle of the Ironclads” are some of the many that will be displayed in the planned USS Monitor Center at the museum. A $30- million national capital campaign is under way to develop the center, which eventually will include the ironclad’s turret, raised from her wreck site off the coast of North Carolina in August 2002, as well as other artifacts raised from the site. With adequate funding from both the public and private sector, the center will open in 2007, serving as home to the priceless artifacts recovered from the historic ship.
Another temporary exhibition, “Reflections of the Sea,” features renowned maritime artists such as Fitz Hugh Lane, Antonio Jacobsen, John and James Bard, and James Buttersworth.
“This exhibition gives the museum an opportunity to show off its world-class collection of marine paintings,” said museum president Hightower. “It is a shameless display by some of the greatest marine artists of all time. From scenes of Nelson’s famous battles to the tranquility of Gloucester’s Inner Harbor by Fitz Hugh Lane, the range and energy of these paintings is not unlike the sea itself.”
“Reflections of the Sea” focuses on three major styles of marine painting: ship portraiture, narrative painting, and seascapes. “We want visitors to this exhibition to realize the diversity and depth of the Mariners’ Museum’s paintings collection,” said museum curator Lyles Forbes. “This exhibition is designed so that anyone can enjoy these paintings and gain an understanding and appreciation for the stories and artists behind them.”
For more information about these exhibits and the museum, visit www.marinersmuseum.org or call (757) 596-2222.
Search Ends for General Belgrano
In mid-March 2003, after a search of several weeks in the tumultuous waters of the South Atlantic, a National Geographic expedition ended its search for the wreck of the Argentine warship General Belgrano. The cruiser, once the pride of the Argentine Navy, was sunk by Britain's Royal Navy during the 1982 Malvinas/Falklands War.
The expedition, which received cooperation from the Argentine Navy, was unable to find the ship, believed to be located about 100 nautical miles off the coast of Tierra del Fuego in 13,800 feet of water. Thirty-foot seas and 60-knot winds hampered the search effort; organizers had set a target area of about 300 square miles.
Some 323 Argentine lives were lost (accounting for about half of all Argentines killed during the war) out of a crew of 1,093 when the General Belgrano was torpedoed by the nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror on 2 May 1982. Veterans from both ships accompanied the expedition.
The expedition will be included in a National Geographic documentary, The Sinking of the Belgrano, that will premiere on the National Geographic Channel in the United Kingdom and Argentina in late May. The film will premiere on the National Geographic Channel worldwide in June. In the United States, it will premiere on PBS in July.
Pacific War Museum to Commemorate Memorial Day
The National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to telling story of the war in the Pacific during World War II, will commemorate Memorial Day 2003 with a number of special events. On 24-25 May, the museum will conduct “Island Assault: 1944,” a living history program that uses objects from the museum’s education collection to bring World War II to life. Visitors can follow authentically dressed and equipped World War II Marines on a tour of a re-created Pacific War battlefield and experience a combined-arms attack on a Japanese pillbox. In the attack, volunteers will use the only operational World War II flamethrower in Texas. Demonstrations will be presented at the Pacific Combat Zone at 1030, 1230, 1430, and 1600 each day.
On 26 May, veterans and their families will be honored at the museum’s Memorial Wall. Members of the museum’s Memorial Wall Wreath Endowment Fund will place memorial wreaths of red, white, and blue flowers along the wall honoring men and women who died in World War II. The day’s keynote speaker will be Joe Galloway, a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report and coauthor of the best-selling We Were Soldiers Once and Young (New York: Random House, 1992), the story of the first major clash between U.S. and North Vietnamese regular troops in November 1965.
The ceremony, at 1000 in the Nimitz Memorial Courtyard, is free and open to the public. For additional information, go to www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/nimitz or www.nimitz-museum.org, or phone (830) 997-4379.
End of Korean War to Be Remembered
In July 2003, the 50th anniversary of the end of the Korean War will be commemorated in Washington, D.C., with three days of events—marking the end of three years of Department of Defense “Forgotten War” commemorations.
The “National Salute to Korean War Veterans,” 25-27 July, will bring veterans, their families, and the public together with an event at the MCI Center, a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, and a ceremony at the Korean War Memorial on the National Mall.
For more information about these events visit www.korea50.mil/, or call (866) 567- 3250.