Introductions to finding aids

Sometimes the visitors to our library are new to research, and it's not unusual for a visitor to arrive who has never used a library before. Some aspect of maritime history has intrigued them, and they want to learn more--usually about a ship or an ancestor.

We introduce them to the concept of our library catalog--that it's a listing of materials they can have paged to use here, but that are not for sale, and that they can not take home, and although there are links in the catalog to online materials, most of the items represented in the catalog are hardcopy books that are not available online. This part of the reference interview goes quickly.

Less easy to convey is the concept of an archival finding aid, that is designed to help the researcher decide if all or part of a potentially vast amount of material would be worth paging. Barbara Aikens, at the Smithsonian, has something that might help--"What Are Finding Aids?" on their Smithsonian Collections Blog. It's one of the best introductions I've seen to what exactly a finding aid is, with links for further exploration.

Keep this post in mind for research newbies, and even for experienced researchers--if you're considering research in the vast Smithsonian Archives, give it a read.

Duham's Journal of voyages

fig. 177, "The Pirates' plan of exercising the nerves of Captives."

Journal of voyages : containing an account of the author's being twice captured by the English and once by Gibbs the pirate; his narrow escape when chased by an English war schooner; as well as his being cast away and residing with Indians, to which is added some account of the soil, products, laws and customs of Chagres, the Musquitto Shore, and St. Blas, at the Isthmus of Darien. With Illustrations, by Captain Jacob Dunham is now available at Project Gutenberg.

Life and Times of Josiah Gardener

The Friends of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library send along the following announcement:

The Life and Times of Josiah Gardener: Master Mariner
Friday, October 8, 2010, 6:00 p.m. In the Maritime Library. Donation: $7 (general public); $5 (Library Friends and SFMNPA members)

Josiah Gardener, master mariner, has been going to sea since before the Civil War—he has fished the Grand Banks, cruised San Francisco’s Barbary Coast, and faced gales and shipwreck. He is played by Dr. Glenn Gordinier, Mystic Seaport historian and former director of Mystic’s living history program. Dr. Gordinier will bring Josiah Gardener to life with exciting and humorous tales of the world of the Yankee seafarer.

For information or reservations: melani_van_petten@partner.nps.gov or 415-561-7040.

TIA: This event is sponsored by the Friends of the library where I work.

Lost libraries

The Boston Globe recently published a very interesting article, Lost libraries : the strange afterlife of authors’ book collections by Craig Fehrman. The article discusses the various fates of authors' libraries, most often after their death: rarely are they preserved intact in an institution, but are most often broken up and sold. The resources to keep an author's library intact are most often beyond even the largest institutions, but what is lost is what Fehrman calls, the author's "intellectual biography," embodied by the example of what we've learned from Melville's heavily-annotated copy of Paradise Lost, among other author's notated copies of their books.

The article also mentions what can be lost during an author's lifetime--many do not keep all of their books, or a record of their reading.

Are you an author? A researcher? Have you thought about this?

I've written before about efforts to reconstruct catalogs of broken-up libraries on LibraryThing, but since then I have learned a few things about just what a flexible tool it can be. When I had first heard of LibraryThing, I thought, "Why would anyone catalog their own books, unless they own a huge collection?" But since then, I've learned about many more of its features, that allow a person to track their reading and books--not only the ones they own, but ones they don't own, and ones yet to be read.

What makes all this possible is the Collections feature. When you set up an account on LibraryThing, which you can do for free, you have a choice: you can make your profile public or not. You can keep your profile and collections completely private, if you wish. Once you've set up your account, you can create collections, and one book can be in more than one collection. So, for example, if you are working on researching hulls, you can have a few collections such as:

• Your Library
  
• Read but unowned
  
• To read
  
• Hulls
  

And a book can be in more than one collection. So you can track your reading--your citations--by, for example, adding books you've heard about and want to read in your "To read" collection, and after you've read them, you can easily edit the collection(s) a book is in. So one book that you borrowed from a library for your project on hulls could then be put into the "Read but unowned" and "Hulls" collections, and you can note in the book's comments field your own notes about the book. A book you buy on hulls can go into "Your Library" and "Hulls." If you later sell that book, but still want to track the citation, change it to "Read but unowned" and leave it in the "Hulls" collection. Adding books is incredibly easy, with over 600 sources for importing records, easy keying and editing, and if you find you want to download your catalog, you can export it easily in multiple formats.

You may never get to the point that you've actually cataloged your library--you may simply use these features for tracking the citations of various projects, or books you'd like to read. If you've ever had a great book recommended to you and then forgotten who mentioned it, or stood at a bookstore wondering if you already own a copy of the book in your hand or not, LibraryThing may be just the thing for you.

And if you try it, check out the pirate interface, one of many languages available.

International Observe the Moon Night

This Saturday, September 18, is the first International Observe the Moon Night. Inspired by a national Observe the Moon Night in the U.S., this global event hopes to inspire interest in lunar science, exploration, and astronomy.

National Geographic has a great blog post about the history of the event, complete with lovely photos, a video, and an outline to current and future lunar missions. Rich with links, including a link to the event's main website, the post is a good place to start learning more about the moon.

If you're inspired to go further, whether or not you have a telescope, Chuck Wood's Lunar 100 presents the moon's most interesting observing targets, with instructions for those who do have binoculars and/or a telescope, and links to images for the armchair observer. From there you can follow links to LPOD (Lunar Photo of the Day), maps, and all kinds of learning resources, including recommended children's books.

National Geographic's Crittercams

I recently read the interesting article about National Geographic's Jumbo Squid Flash, Flail in First Ever Squid-cam Video, and like most of the web versions of their articles, it was loaded with interesting links, such as the one to their Crittercam site.

From there, you can explore "virtual worlds" that are all, to some extent, marine: Antarctica via a leopard seal's crittercam, the Arctic via a bearded seal, or the deep sea via a cam on a sperm whale. The site is very well organized with sections for kids, educators, & researchers, as well as interactive missions, and, of course, maps--plus much, much more.

And if you're interested in scientific papers, do follow the researchers link to Crittercam-Related Publications, a 5-page .pdf file loaded with citations to marine animal imaging.

Virtual exhibit on Zheng He's Fleet

If you missed "China's Forgotten Fleet: Voyages of Zheng He" at the National Geographic Museum in 2008, you can explore the virtual exhibit at their Flickr site.

The photos are not very large, but are a good size to balance speed of loading with ability to see the details of the exhibit. Navigating through the exhibit via the horizontal thumbnail images of the set (to the right) is very easy. Although the photos weren't taken close enough to allow one to read the panels, the exhibit contained lots of ship models which were photographed from many angles.

The concept of climate-space

The University of Stavanger in Norway has posted about new research, New ways to chart our maritime past. Meteorologist Marianne Nitter, geologist Lotte Selsing, and marine archaeologist Endre Elvestad (who is at Stavanger Maritime Museum), are combining meteorology and archeology to introduce the concept of "climate-space" to help locate maritime heritage sites:

A climate-space is an area with homogenous temperature, precipitation, wind direction and wind force, Nitter explains. Valleys, groves, mountains, lakes, fiords and slopes are all examples of local climate-spaces.

By employing this concept, it is hoped that landing sites no longer in use may be located--even prehistoric ones.

The article by Siri Pedersen is beautifully translated into English by Astri Sivertsen, and goes on to discuss preservation strategies that may be employed in the future--especially in the light of climate change.

Whales, dolphins and porpoises

"Figure 8b.—Swimming, blowing, and diving characteristics of humpback, bowhead, right, and sperm whales," from: Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises of the Western North Atlantic by Stephen Leatherwood, David Caldwell and Howard Winn (NOAA technical report NMFS CIRC-396), now available at Project Gutenberg.

Although a very detailed, scientific publication, it includes many photographic, line, and spotting silhouette illustrations, of interest to anyone learning how to identify these animals.

Approachable astronomy books

The Guardian has published another interesting Top 10 reading list, Stuart Clark's top 10 approachable astronomy books. I'm delighted to see the second and third books on the list, Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel, author of Longitude, and The Book Nobody Read : chasing the revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicusby Owen Gingerich.

I found both books thoroughly engaging through their approaches to their subjects: Galileo's story through his relationship with his daughter, and Copernicus' through Gingerich's study of the history of his famous book. Besides enjoying such well-written history, I was reminded of the methods we use to construct history--how talented authors turn the evidence of letters, books, etc., into these stories of our past.

As much as the study of astronomy helps us discern our position in the universe, these well-written histories help us discern our position in time. I'm looking forward to reading more of the books on this list.

Go for the brewing objects, stay for the canoe

The small but dense exhibit, "99 Bottles of Beer: Global Brewing Traditions 2500 B.C. – Present" brought me to the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, and it's a wonderful museum to visit. (The objects in the beer exhibit are fascinating--everything from ancient brewing devices to modern cap lifters, from all over the world.) The museum is small, admission is free, and it's packed with exhibits, including "The Conservator’s Art: Preserving Egypt’s Past" which explains in detail differing conservation treatments, how they conserve objects, and just how much such operations cost.

A real treat, though, is a Yurok canoe from 1902 in the California gallery. Surrounded by photographs and explanatory text about the canoe, it's lovely to see in person. Since the museum is so small, there's a limited amount of interpretation, however UC Berkeley's Calisphere offers a lot of history, and the culture section of the official Yurok Tribe website provides more cultural context--worth reading before making a visit.

Calisphere

The University of California's Calisphere describes itself as, "A world of primary sources and more." If you're looking for specific, primary resources, the search box (on the upper right of the site) returns easily navigated results under a button bar that lets you choose images, texts, or websites, with an additional "search within results" box for easy limiting. And although the site is sponsored by the University of California, it includes resources from many repositories, large and small, and the resources are not limited to those relating to California history--for example, the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, UCLA Hammer Museum, has contributed images from Hiroshige's Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji.

A great strength of the site, though, are the collections for educators which lead to sites external to Calisphere, such as UC San Diego's California Explores the Oceans--Expeditions site, as well as Calisphere sites on topics like Richmond Shipyards.

As for maritime resources, the site contains thousands of items related to boats, ships, shipbuilding, etc. And although the site is rich, it's not comprehensive--it doesn't contain all of the resources from the contributing repositories--it's a curated collection, and a great place to start one's research.

Thinking about time and space

The Wall Street Journal recently published a fascinating article, Lost in Translation, by Lera Boroditsky. A professor of psychology at Stanford University and editor in chief of Frontiers in Cultural Psychology, her article discusses recent research in how language influences our concepts of space of time.

Some research examines language's influence on its speakers' ability to perform "navigational feats scientists once thought were beyond human capabilities," and links between concepts of space and time.

Also of interest is how learning another language actually changes one's thinking: "If people learn another language, they inadvertently also learn a new way of looking at the world."

U.S. copyright registry of vessel hull designs

I recently stumbled across the U.S. Copyright Office's Registration of Vessel Hull Designs, and it could be a valuable resource for certain researchers. The Vessel Hull Design Registrations list seems to extend back only about a year, and has a lot of entries that indicate changes to existing designs, so the number of designs in the registry seems very small at this point, but shows a variety of vessel types--inflatable boats, many fishing boats, a racing kayak, sail training craft, even a "pleasure mega yacht." The certificate of registration as well as any accompanying drawings or photographs are available as Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files, which are often quite large, but very interesting once downloaded and opened. In this respect, the database resembles Google patents, since the accompanying visual materials are available.

Library of the HMS Beagle

A while ago I posted about the library catalog of the ship's and crew's libraries, reconstructed on LibraryThing. Another Legacy Library of note is cataloged there as well, that of the HMS Beagle. From the "About my Library" section of the Library Profile Page:

This library is based on the Darwin Project's Books on the Beagle reconstruction of the library aboard the HMS Beagle complied "from the Beagle correspondence, CD’s diary, field notebooks, and the extensive zoological and geological notes."

The "Books on the Beagle" article includes the regulations for the library in eight short points, the second of which instructs the user to create a temporary cover for the book being used. I learned about making these in elementary school for my school textbooks, and still make them occasionally--it's surprising how much protection just a sheet of paper can give. I'm not sure how they make them in Darwin's day, but this is the technique that I learned.

Voyage accounts

The Smithsonian's SIRIS Blog featured excerpts from a newly donated voyage account this past Sunday. The post features Benjamin S. Buckley's diary entries concerning the 4th of July celebrations aboard the Capitol during the voyage from Boston to San Francisco via Cape Horn in 1849. Four pages of the diary are reproduced on the blog, and readers can click through to enlarged versions that will zoom one step further for easy reading.

Last Sunday also saw the release of another voyage account, the complete text of Eleonora Hunt's My Trip Around the World on Project Gutenberg, reproduced from the privately printed edition of 1902. Rather than a diary, this book was prepared later, telling the story of her trip from August 1895 to May 1896, from her home in Chicago, traveling aboard the steamer Empress of Japan, P&O steamers, as well as via other modes through Japan, China, India, Egypt and Europe.

London Lives from Straddling the World of the Written Word

Joan Druett has featured yet another wonderful resource on her blog, Straddling the World of the Written Word, in her post, Handwritten Records of 18th century London Online. The site, London Lives, contains some maritime treasure.

The search box on the home page seeks name or reference ID, but if you select More Search Options (below the black Search button), you can then select Keyword search on the next screen (to the right of the green Search button). Here is the Keyword Search screen where you can search by occupations, such as sailor, seaman, captain or such words as frigate.

To browse tags, be sure to select the Lives link (on the left navigation pane), and you will see the fascinating tag cloud on the lower right of the screen, as well as a list of people, whose biographies have been written.

Genealogists may wish to consult the FAQ (located in the navigation pane on the left under "About This Project"), and historians may want to consult the Copyright and Citation Guide.

The site also reveals a wealth of information under About This Project, including their technical methods, which is fascinating for those considering or involved with similar digitization projects.

Crosscurrents on sea level rise, part 2

If you enjoyed KALW's Crosscurrents story on how Treasure Island's community's are planning on facing sea level rise, you may want to listen to their continuing coverage, Building by the Bay: Sea level rise shapes the Bay Area’s future. In this follow-up story, they explore Cargill’s Redwood City Saltworks site on San Francisco Bay, and the issues facing its future.

It's a short segment, and as usual, in addition to the audio, a full transcript is available on their website, heavy with links to related information.

Crosscurrents on Sea Level Rise & Treasure Island

Our wonderful local news show, Crosscurrents (from KALW News), recently aired a very interesting show, Sea level rise is a future challenge for Treasure Island. Treasure Island, which was built in San Francisco Bay as a WPA project, is now home to around 1400 people, and doesn't rise very high above the Bay--according the news story, one corner of the island is regularly flooded by winter waves.

The issue is not a new one for communities in and around San Francisco Bay; a SPUR report, Sea level rise and the future of the Bay Area : How will we adapt to rising tides? from Nov/Dec 2009 is but one publication on the issue. But the Crosscurrents site offers a detailed look at how one, small community is confronting the issue, with very helpful links, and a choice--you can listen to the audio, or read the entire transcript.

I found the story engaging and thought-provoking, and well worth a listen.

Anne-Emmanuelle Marpeau at Penobscot

Bob Holtzman has kindly written to alert us to a new exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum, Inside the Box -- The Marine Art of Anne-Emmanuelle Marpeau, on exhibit through Sept. 10. Unfortunately, there's not much on their site about the exhibit, but The Gleason Fine Art website has a short article about Marpeau, mentioning the inspiration she finds in a line by Thoreau, "And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew."

This is from a poem called "The Fisher's Boy," which is available on the Thoreau Reader site:

The Fisher's Boy
by Henry David Thoreau

My life is like a stroll upon the beach,
As near the ocean's edge as I can go;
My tardy steps its waves sometimes o'erreach,
Sometimes I stay to let them overflow.

My sole employment is, and scrupulous care,
To place my gains beyond the reach of tides, —
Each smoother pebble, and each shell more rare,
Which Ocean kindly to my hand confides.

I have but few companions on the shore:
They scorn the strand who sail upon the sea;
Yet oft I think the ocean they've sailed o'er
Is deeper known upon the strand to me.

The middle sea contains no crimson dulse,
Its deeper waves cast up no pearls to view;
Along the shore my hand is on its pulse,
And I converse with many a shipwrecked crew.

Lovely thoughts to take along to a maritime museum--to keep in mind when engaging with the items on exhibit.

Astrodene's HNF Blog

There's a new blog in our list, Astrodene's HNF Blog, part of the large Astrodene's Historic Naval Fiction site. Although a commercial site, there is a lot of good information organized creatively. For example, with the books timeline you can browse titles by time period, going back to 1571. When you select a title, the site's commercial aspects are obvious with prominent Amazon buttons, but don't forget--your local maritime museum book store or independent book seller may offer these titles for sale as well, and titles may also be available used via sites such as ABEBooks or TomFolio.

The HNF Blog also points to another resource of interest, the free magazine, Chronicles, the eMagazine of History, which now contains a new column by Astrodene's David Hayes beginning with the June issue, and the issue before that starts out with two naval history articles. Chronicles has one of the best online flip-book features I've seen, loading quickly with a pleasant on-screen reading experience, yet also provides a free .pdf download for portability. And, authors, do check out their information for writers because they're actively seeking nonfiction submissions, and they pay.

Hard Luck Coast

The second book in JoAnn Semones' trilogy about shipwrecks along the California coast has been published, Hard Luck Coast: The Perilous Reefs of Point Montara." JoAnn tells us:

California writer John Steinbeck referred to the treacherous strip of shore between
Montara and Half Moon Bay as “the hard luck coast.” Along this foggy, final approach to San Francisco, vessels were forced to hug the shoreline, putting them in danger of its rocky outcroppings and unruly seas. Each shipwreck represents a separate, yet integrated piece of history, linking us to the past.

She also mentions that the lighthouse pictured on the book cover is only thirty feet tall, and is America's only "sentinel to have witnessed shipwrecks on two shores," apparently after a sojourn on Yerba Buena Island. A California State Park Property, the lighthouse houses a hostel where you can stay and contemplate this hard luck coast.

The Bleached Reef at the Cooper-Hewitt

""The Bleached Reef" at the Chicago Cultural Center. Oct 2007," photo copyright The IFF by Margaret Wertheim, source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/84445194@N00/1806457035/

The Institute for Figuring's Bleached Reef is now on exhibit in New York at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in the Why Design Now? National Design Triennial.

Similar to the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef, the Bleached Reef is a delicate creation designed to raise awareness of effects of climate change and ocean acidification upon coral reefs--the beauty of the handcrafted reef vividly embodies the impact of humanity upon a marine ecosystem that we can't normally visit.

And if you can't visit the exhibit in New York, stay tuned to Margaret Wertheim's photostream on Flickr where she often posts photos from reef exhibits.

Lost at sea : daring fiber artists delve into the deep

If you can't make it to New York to visit gallery hanahou to see Lost at sea, you can check out and even purchase items from the exhibit via their online shop. There's a wonderful variety of techniques and forms--embroidered ships, three-dimensional creatures (real and imaginary)--even plankton and mixed-media assemblages.

I heard of the exhibit from the blog of one of the participating artists, Jenny Hart, Embroidery as Art, which doesn't have a lot of maritime content, but is worth checking out if you're interested in, or intrigued by, embroidery as an art form.

And if you want to explore more works by the participating artists, at the exhibition website, you can scroll down (inside the frame) for links to artists' sites.

The Wailing Octopus

The Wailing Octopus by John Blaine, "A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story," has recently been released by Project Gutenberg.

Some of the chapter titles are irresistible: "The Fancy Frogmen," "Wreck of the 'Maiden Hand,'" "How Sings the Gay Sardine?"

At the end of the eBook is a brief description of the hero:

Rick Brant is the boy who with his pal Scotty lives on an island called Spindrift and takes part in so many thrilling adventures and baffling mysteries involving science and electronics.

Science and electronics are definitely two important ingredients for maritime adventure!

Tom Crean—Sailor On Ice

Our friends group, Friends of the
San Francisco Maritime Museum Library, sends along this announcement:

Tom Crean—Sailor On Ice
Saturday, May 8, 2010, 6:00 p.m. In the Maritime Library. Donation: $5 (general public); $4 (Library Friends and SFMNPA members)

David Hirzel, author of the forthcoming book, Tom Crean—Sailor On Ice, will tell the story of the Antarctic adventures of Irish sailor and explorer Tom Crean. There are more famous names than Crean’s from the “heroic age” of Antarctic exploration, but there are few stories as compelling as his. Time and again he was one of three, at times the only one, whose courage in the face of insurmountable odds saved the lives of his companions. The three parts to the story of Crean’s adventures with Scott and Shackleton are told in the names the ships—Discovery, Terra Nova, Endurance.

Dave originally came to SF Maritime to do research for this book and became a volunteer. He now runs the Park's Living History program.

If you can't make it to San Francisco for the event, you can check out the audio drama & visual companion, or David Hirzel's other writings.

Sea Rose fits in your pocket

Tomorrow is the Academy of American Poets' Poem in Your Pocket Day. To celebrate, select a poem, pocket it, carry it, and share it throughout the day.

I'll be carrying one of my favorites, H.D.'s "Sea Rose," from the collection Sea Garden:

Sea Rose

Rose, harsh rose,
marred and with stint of petals,
meagre flower, thin,
sparse of leaf,

more precious
than a wet rose
single on a stem—
you are caught in the drift.

Stunted, with small leaf,
you are flung on the sand,
you are lifted
in the crisp sand
that drives in the wind.

Can the spice-rose
drip such acrid fragrance
hardened in a leaf?

The geometry of rope

Ever wonder about the physical rules behind a good rope? Intrigued by the phrase, "zero-twist point?" Then you would enjoy Alexandra Witze's article in ScienceNews, Physicists untangle the geometry of rope.

Her article gives a basic, brief overview of the mathematics behind the process of turning strands into rope, as revealed in Jakob Bohr & Kasper Olsen's article, The ancient art of laying rope.

How did the researchers come to work on rope winding? From their work on DNA, of course!

On a few of Carsten Jensen's top 10 seafaring tales

Today the Guardian posted Carsten Jensen's top 10 seafaring tales. It's a wonderful list--I've read many of the titles, and am looking forward to reading many more.

He doesn't mention specific editions, so here are some of my favorite editions of a few of his top seafaring titles:

• The Odyssey of Homer. Translated, with an introduction, by Richmond Lattimore. Lattimore's translations are are just beautiful, and have become the standard texts for students and pleasure readers alike. The Internet Archive has archived a biographical sketch by Deborah E. Kamen which includes a complete bibliography of his works, including his translations and poetry, if you want to read more.
  
  
• Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, published by the University of California Press. This is a reduced, trade version of the Arion Press Moby-Dick, which was published in 1979 in a limited edition of 250 copies. If a library near you has the Arion Press edition, go see it--it's gorgeous. The paper is the most delicate watery blue, and the Barry Moser engravings seem alive. The typeface, in both editions is easy on the eyes, and the UC Press edition is large enough for comfortable reading, yet small enough to carry around in a satchel.
  
  
• "The Little Mermaid," in: The annotated Hans Christian Andersen translated by Maria Tatar. I haven't yet read this edition, so I'm going out on a limb by recommending it, but I do so without hesitation having enjoyed Tatar's other translations immensely. Her list of publications includes academic titles as well as her beautiful editions of folk and fairy tales.
  

Seized by Max Hardberger

Michael Bono has written in about a new book by Max Hardberger, Seized! A Sea Captain's Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters. Available in hardback in the U.S. on April 6, 2010 and in the U.K. in paperback on June 13, 2010, the author:

... recounts his adventures repossessing ships and sneaking them out of lawless, third-world countries, often under threat of death or imprisonment. His journeys lead him from corrupt ports in the Caribbean to the ice-bound docks of Vladivostok. His adventures in rescuing ships pit him against a rogue’s gallery of antagonists, including Haitian rebels, modern-day Caribbean pirates, and Russian mobsters.

--from the author's website.

Want to learn even more? Check out the author's newsletter!

Stack fever

The following will be featured in the upcoming newsletter of the Friends of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library, Relative Bearings. The discovery of this text was a happy coincidence, as librarians everywhere have been gearing up to celebrate National Poetry Month. It was decided to share it here, also, along with an editorial comment, in the hope of reaching a wide audience:

Stack Fever
by A. Poppet-Turning

I must go down to the Stacks again,
To the lonely shelves and bays,
And must take along some sustenance,
'Cause I could be lost for days.

I must go down to the Stacks again,
To page requested books,
That have been shelved hither and yon,
In overfull shelves and nooks.

Oh, I must go down to the Stacks again,
Where the light bulbs go to die,
And all I ask is an empty cart,
And a torch to steer her by.

------

A typescript copy of the above poem was found tucked into the Library's copy of English maritime books printed before 1801, apparently used as a bookmark. Examination of the Library's records failed to reveal either a staff member or volunteer bearing the name A. Poppet Turning, and further research yielded no fruitful results, although it is wondered, perhaps, if the author is related to the South Kensington Poppet-Turnings. (The use of the word "torch" for "flashlight" seems to indicate the author's mother tongue may have been British English.) It is hoped that further research may be illuminating. --Ed.

This is, of course, a parody of John Masefield's "Sea Fever," but that's about as much as is known. If any readers have any information on either A. Poppet-Turning, or his (or her) works, do get in touch--our researchers would be grateful for any leads.

Your Old Books

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of ALA's Association of College and Research Libraries has a wonderful resource called, Your Old Books. Organized as a FAQ, the questions they answer include:

1. What makes a book rare?
2. What makes a book important?
3. Does scarcity imply rarity?
4. Are all old books rare?
5. Where are rare books found?
6. What is the difference between a rare book and a second-hand book?
7. What is meant by a book's condition and how does it affect its value?
8. What kinds of books are usually not rare?
9. What is the difference between a first and limited edition?
10. Is a book signed or marked up by a previous owner, or autographed by the author, more valuable?
11. Are old letters, scrapbooks, and documents valuable?
12. Might someone want my single volume to complete a set?
13. How can I keep my books in good condition?
14. Should I have my books rebound before selling them?
15. Do I need to insure my books?
16. How do I describe my books?
17. Do I need to have my books appraised?
18. Where can I find an appraiser?
19. How can I sell my books?
20. How can I be sure that I will get a fair price?
21. Can I sell or give my old books to a library?
22. Who else might accept my old books as a donation?
23. Where can I go for more information on old and rare books, book collecting and evaluating books?

Originally published as a pamphlet in 1989, and revised and updated in 2005, the topics are addressed so beautifully that the novice as well as the expert will find some useful information. Embedded in the text are links to authoritative, and some of my favorite, resources--and I even found a few that were new to me. Maritime researchers and historians, and anyone who has wondered about an old book (or books) on their own shelves, should definitely take the time to read through it.

The rest of the RBMS website is mostly of interest to specialists such as rare books librarians, but Your Old Books is so well done, that I hope they provide more information of general interest in the future.

Library of the U.S.S. California

Ever wonder what books were in the library of an early 20th century warship? Now you need wonder no longer: the March "Legacy Mob" cataloging project was the library of the U.S.S. California.

As reported on LibraryThing's Thing-ology Blog, they've made mob cataloging of a legacy library a monthly project, and for March they concentrated on scanned books mentioned in the Catalogue of ship's and crew's libraries of the U.S.S. California (1905).

And now you can go the LibraryThing U.S.S. California member page, and select Ship's Library, Crew's Library, or the entire collection to virtually browse the books that went to sea.

Boatswains and bacteremia

Astute visitors will notice a new blog in our list, Boatswains and bacteremia. Its author, Jared Wasser, is a medical student and budding maritime historian. Having known a few medical students, I wonder when he gets the time to write, let alone write so well--but I'm glad he does. His blog makes a great read, and as it's just started, it's worth beginning with the first post, My introduction to the Wooden World. And don't miss the comments--"Tigone" offers great reading recommendations.

I'm glad Jared has decided to dive in to the world of maritime blogging, because his thoughtful meditations on maritime history and medicine (together, and separately) remind me that these vessels contained humanity that had to be kept healthy--and alive--often during the most extreme of circumstances.

As they still do.

Scrap Vessel, a film by Jason Byrne

Scrap Vessel, made at CalArts in 2009, documents the last voyage of the Hari Funafuti (ex Bulk Promotor, ex Hupohai), from China to its breaking in Bangladesh. The filmmakers boarded in Singapore and joined the crew in exploring the ship and the mementos of its past that former crewmembers left behind, before filming its dismantling on the beach. The journey didn't end there--they followed the pieces to the Ali Rolling Mill, where the scraps were melted down, bringing the story of the Hari Funafuti's life as a vessel to an end.

The film has begun to tour, and will be shown at the 2010 Asian American Film Festival on Monday, Mar. 15 and Wednesday, Mar. 17. Upcoming screenings will be announced in the screenings section of their website.

And if you're at a venue that would like to screen the film, contact the crew--the director would like to bring the film, vessel plans, and various artifacts, and take the time for a Q&A with your audience.

And if you can't make it to a screening, stay tuned--a DVD version is expected to be ready later this year or early next, and its availability will be announced on their site.

Image property of Scrap Vessel

National Geo's Ultimate Travel Library

National Geographic's Traveler site has a great bibliography, The Ultimate Travel Library. The list is compiled from recommendations by "travelers"--writers, photographers, explorers, etc.--and that says to me that these books are recommended by people to whom not only the destination is important, but perhaps also the journey. Follow the geographic links on the left to the books lists--Australia and the Pacific lists some great maritime titles. Don't miss the "Continue" link at the bottom of the page--the lists go on and on by geographic area--some are long and some short--and it's a pleasure to meander through the titles. But if you're in a hurry, pay attention to the geographic navigation on the left--narrower selections appear under the larger headings.

Deep in the introduction, and mentioned in a small link on the left, is a link to a great article, Around the World in 80+ Books by George W. Stone, that includes titles which touch on places that can't be considered separate from their maritime connections, such as Galapagos: Islands Born of Fire, photographs and text by Tui De Roy (1998), and London: The Biography, by Peter Ackroyd (2000).

The best part of this collection, though, is the fact that they'd like your input and suggestions to keep the content fresh:

Did we omit your favorite travel book or praise a title you detest? Send your thoughts to travelbooks@ngs.org. We'll add books to our library on a regular basis, so keep checking back.

So send in your suggestions!

Forum on Plastiki and the America's Cup

Once again, KQED's Forum has aired programs of interest to the maritime community: from 10:00 to 10:30 today, they discussed the Plastiki expedition with David de Rothschild, creator of Plastiki & founder of Adventure Ecology, Jo Royle, skipper of the Plastiki, and Matthew Grey, project director for Adventure Ecology.

Then the next half hour was a program on the America's Cup, with James Spithill, skipper for BMW Oracle Racing, Jim Doyle, freelancer and former staff writer for The San Francisco Chronicle, and Rob Grant, racing editor of Latitude 38. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of why the Bay may not be suitable as the next race course!

Forum on the Farallons

KQED's Forum aired an excellent program on the Farallon Islands today. Michael Krasny asked questions of the guests that elicited wonderful stories as well as clearly explained science. The guests, Gerry McChesney (Farallon National Wildlife Refuge), Maria Brown (Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary), and Russ Bradley (PRBO Conservation Science), also responded to questions and comments from the audience--a very interested audience that also shared their memories of the islands.

During the show they aired sounds of rare birds and animals from one of the richest areas of marine life in the world, while addressing the human history of the islands, too. And they didn't forget to mention the ghosts.

Audio of the show is available as an .mp3 file (about an hour long), and it makes for great listening.

Image of the lighthouse on the Farallon Islands from San Francisco Maritime's Park Fun for kids

Tales of the Seven Seas

Dennis Powers writes to tell us about his new book, being published by Taylor Trade in March, Tales of the Seven Seas. This book will be about Captain "Dynamite" Johnny O'Brien, called the prototype for Jack London's "Sea Wolf," and should make for some exciting reading! More information should be appearing on Powers' website, dennispowersbooks.com, soon.

Image, "Buster Keaton with Captain 'Dynamite Johnny' O'Brien aboard the SS Buford, 1924," Courtesy of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, see their Digital Collections site for more information.

ShipIndex.org

ShipIndex.org is an amazing resource. It began life as the Index to Ships in Books, which was amazing in itself, but its new incarnation is so much more.

It's a gateway to information about vessels. According to Peter McCracken, who was kind enough to write to alert me to the new ShipIndex.org, it tells you what books, journals, databases, CD-Roms, websites, and more, mention particular vessels. There are two levels of access: free to anyone, without cost or registration, are over 140,000 entries, but for under $10.00 per month, one can access the premium database which contains over 1.24 million citations.

When you search for a vessel, the free, full citations are mixed with the brief mention of citations available in the premium database. I like this a lot. I can "see" what I'm "not seeing." And the citations are nicely displayed--when searching: sea foam the citation list was organized by type of vessel and then chronologically--I could scan through the barks, brigs and schooners down to the steam schooner of interest. Links are included into resources such as Worldcat (to find information in libraries) or to ABEbooks to purchase items.

I also like the search interface. Searching sea foam retrieved exactly vessels named Sea Foam. No quotes needed, no retrieved items such as Seaborn Foam. The exactness of the results need to be kept in mind--this is not a library catalog with cross references. If you look for Balclutha, "Balclutha (Museum ship)" is the same vessel as one or more of the "Baclutha (Ship)" entries--and you haven't retrieved anything under "Pacific Queen."

Some periodicals are included--I can't wait for them to get more. And institutional subscriptions are in the works, and will be available in the future--contact Peter if you're interested. The folks behind ShipIndex.org are two of the same folks who founded Serials Solutions, so they are familiar with what libraries and museums are seeking in institutional access--so stay tuned!

I've listed ShipIndex.org in our blog roll, here--their blog is worth reading, especially if you're interested in metadata. (From the blog, you can use the search box on the left to search the database.) The index is also on Twitter and Facebook, which is mentioned on the "Contact Us" page.

I heard on the radio this morning that today was National Have Fun at Work Day, and I wasn't sure how I could make that happen--ShipIndex.org did it. This database is fun.

Popeye cartoons and radio shows

Love him or hate him, one of the most known fictional sailors is Popeye. Starting as a character in the Thimble Theater comic strip in 1929, he later appeared in cartoons, films, books--and on the radio.

The Internet Archive has made many Popeye cartoons available--there is a media type limit available via a pull-down list to the right of the search box on their home page--you'll find "Animation and cartoons" under the "Moving Images" type.

Likewise, you can limit your search to "Audio" to find audio recordings, including six episodes of Popeye the Sailor from their Old Time Radio collection.

And if you want everything they have related to Popeye, leave the limit set to "All Media Types," then use the links on the right of the page to group your results conveniently by Media Type or Collection.

Polar ice, polar bears

Two new programs are available relating to polar regions. The Library of Congress has posted On Thin Ice: Changing Ice Cover on Polar Oceans, a 65 minute lecture by Thorsten Markus, head of the Cryospheric Sciences Branch at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He not only addresses recent findings in the context of global climate, but addresses why the southern and northern regions react differently to climate change.

Focusing on the northern regions, Rose Aguilar converses with Richard Ellis, author of Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear on KALW's locally produced Your Call Radio (a one-hour show, broadcast on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010). The show is fascinating, not the least due to Ellis' multifaceted career as a marine conservationist, painter, and author.

History of Nautical Science Symposium

Freshwater, the XVth Symposium and Reunion for the International Committee for the History of Nautical Science will be held in Veszprém, Hungary, September 24 - 26, 2010. The website has the call for papers (deadline March 1, 2010) as well as the preliminary program.

(My thanks to Dr. Zsolt G. Török for sending along the conference information.)

Takara-Bune

According to the Encyclopedia Mythica, on New Years' eve, the treasure ship, the Takara-Bune, will sail into port with the Shichi Fukujin on board. Objects associated with the voyage of these deities occur in many types of collections, and the above image is one of many available at the Wikimedia Commons.

The Hull Museums also have a very informative article, Takarabune and Seven Lucky Gods of Japan, accompanying beautiful, detailed images of their carved group.

Another beautiful image available online is the Bolton Museums and Archive Service's netsuke boat.

Happy New Year!

Christmas on an American warship

(It's the lower image on this reproduction of the New York Tribune--do follow the link to see a larger version.)



From the Library of Congress' photostream on Flickr.

More dazzle

My thanks to Theo Van Doren for bringing Bobolink Book's Dazzle Camouflage site to my attention. The site is by Roy R. Behrens and promotes his new Camoupedia : a compendium of research on art, architecture and camouflage. The site links to many resources (including those previously mentioned on MaritimeCompass), having to do with dazzle camouflage as well as camouflage in general, in the cultural and natural world. If you're interested in exploring the topic, don't miss the link in one of the the little green boxes--it's to a bibliography compiled by Behrens.

And be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page, where you will find little gray numbers--the site continues for four pages. The second page is especially interesting, outlining the steps in designing ship camouflage, and linking to a list of people involved in camouflage. The next pages are of further maritime interest--even the last page, with its discussion of nature, ends up returning to the topic of dazzle.

Thanks again, Theo!

Larry T. Nix on books for sailors

I read about Larry T. Nix's wonderful post, Books for Sailors, in the Nov. 18, 2009 issue of American Libraries Direct. This post appeared on his Library History Bluff blog, and is a wonderful overview of great sources on navy ship's libraries--following the links will take you to thorough resources, rich with footnotes, as well as images from Nix's own postcard collection, and makes for an excellent starting point for investigating libraries for U.S. sailors.

A. Hyatt Verrill

My thanks to Doug Frizzle for writing in about his blog Stillwater Woods, which contains some of A. Hyatt Verrill's works. Verrill wrote on many topics, including those of maritime interest, such as Knots, Splices and Rope Work (available from Project Gutenberg). Further resources on Verrill are listed in the Wikipedia article, including a long list of his works and a link to biographical information.

150 Years of On the Origin of Species

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published on Thursday 24 November 1859. I'm going to mark this significant anniversary by reading two books:

• On the origin of species : the illustrated edition, recommended in Library Journal's Darwin reading list and edited by David Quammen (published by Serling in 2008, ISBN 978-1-4027-5639-9
  
  
• Richard Dawkins' new book, The greatest show on Earth : the evidence for evolution
  

Today I'm reminded of the impact that just a few voyages can have on our culture--even the impact of just one person aboard just one vessel--and of the rich maritime history that often underlies, and inspires, our other endeavors.

Imperator on Flickr

The Library of Congress has been contributing photos from the George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress) to the Flickr Commons, which include many wonderful photos of the Hamburg America Line's SS Imperator from June 1913, which include close details as well as grand images of the entire vessel.

These photos will no doubt interest many, as the Imperator was later well-known in the English-speaking world when she served as the Cunard's flagship, the RMS Berengaria.

NMM's expanded prints & images sites

My thanks to Douglas McCarthy, Picture Library Manager at NMM in Greenwich, for writing about the expansion and improvement of nmmprints.com--there are now over 14,000 images online in revamped categories and in featured collections.

Check out the "Art of World War II" to find Norman Wilkinson's works, online for the first time ever, as well as works by other artists such as Charles Pears, Eric Ravilious and Richard Eurich. If you'd like a broad overview, select the "Bestsellers" collection for some delightful browsing.

But wait! There's more!

The sister site, nmmimages.com, has new content as well in two new collections, Sons of Sindbad: dhow voyages in Arabia, 1938-39 with the striking photography of Alan Villiers and Caricature & satire, a collection of satirical prints from the 18th and 19th century, which, according to Douglas, parodies "everyone from ordinary seamen to Prime Ministers and the Astronomer Royal!" I really like the long captions that accompany the larger version of an image--they often explain the humor which wasn't readily apparent to me!

So if you're doing research, or even seeking the perfect gift for a maritime enthusiast, do check out these wonderful expanded collections.

L'Espérence

L'Espérence, appartenant à Mr. Vitel. (1862)

Hand colored lithograph from Monographie de l'oeuvre de Bernard Palissy : suivie d'un choix de ses continuateurs ou imitateurs.

Part of the NYPL Digital Gallery, which also participates in the Flickr Commons.

Dreaming the ferry terminal

Claudia La Rocco's article in the New York Times, A reason to miss the boat: dance at the ferry terminal, begins with enchantment:

Ferry terminals are surprisingly dreamy spaces.

Her article reviews a site specific dance piece, "Halt!" by Pavel Zustiak, with such poetry that you feel you are watching the dancers emerge from the crowds at the Whitehall Ferry Terminal. Her writing made me stop and think about the role of the ferry terminal--a portal, a transitional space. She states that Pavel Zustiak often explores the line between private and public space, and what better place to explore that line than the portal between the shore and the water?

Amundsen photo discovered

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has a great article by Damien Larkins, Rare South Pole Photo Brought to Light. The photo is not just a newly discovered image of Amundsen's 1911 South Pole expedition, but is the only print in the world taken from the original negatives of the event.

What makes the story even more compelling is the process of discovery--through the National Library of Australia's digitization efforts, Harald Ostgaard Lund from the Norwegian National Library (pictured on the ABC News blog entry) was able to make the discovery.

Galilean Nights

Tonight through Saturday (Oct. 22-24, 2009), people around the globe will be looking to the skies to see what Galileo saw. Part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, the focus for the event, Galilean Nights, will be observing what Galileo observed--the beauty of Jupiter, its moons, our moon, and other wonders of the night sky that attracted Galileo's gaze. By seeing what Galileo saw over 400 years ago, this moment of history, when the evidence that the Earth was not the center of the universe, can be relived.

If you've never seen the brilliant jewels seemingly strung on an invisible line that are the moons of Jupiter through even the smallest of telescopes, I strongly encourage you to seek out one of the Galilean Nights events near you or to participate in one of the remote observing events. To look at the planets and stars is one way to understand our position in the universe, and to really grasp that we are poised on top of a big ball around which sailors navigate.

Dazzle camouflage

The Fleet Library at the Rhode Island School of Design has a wonderful online exhibit of Dazzle Camouflage. The images and plans were donated to them by Maurice L. Freedman, a U.S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation camofleur. The images are wonderful--all the ones I looked at were scans of full plans sheets. According to the site:

Our collection consists of 455 plans (includes port and starboard sides of a ship) and 20 photos. There are 10 types of merchant ships represented with multiple designs for each of those ships.

So the online images are just a taste of the rich resources held by the library.

The site is a little resource intensive, so might not work well at slower connection speeds. Also, the links are not readily apparent--for example, go ahead and click on "What is Dazzle?" as it's as live a link as the "Dazzle Camouflage Blog" or the individual images, even though it doesn't turn your arrow into a hand (at least under Windows, in Firefox & IE).

(As far as I can tell, the Fleet Library was named after FleetBoston Financial Corp., rather than "fleet" in the maritime sense.)

My thanks to MonkeyFist at the Cascobayboaters blog--it was their post that brought this site to my attention.

Semester at sea article

Ever wondered about combining a love of being aboard ships with a love librarianship? Many people do! An excellent article about being a Semester at Sea librarian was published in Virginia Libraries (Apr.-June 2009), Treasures found by seafaring librarians, (.pdf version) by Mary Johnston. (The article is reprinted on ALA's ilovelibraries.org blog.)

The article makes great reading, but also has an extensive list of citations to other articles by Semester at Sea librarians and to resources for those who might be interested in pursuing such a job.

Pirate woman & FictionMags

Originally published in All-Story Weekly, Captain Dingle's The Pirate Woman is now available at Project Gutenberg.

If you're interested in reading more of Aylward Edward Dingle's works, or other works published in the story magazines, check out the wonderful FictionMags Index. Organizing magazines and stories, it's an invaluable resource for locating poetry and serialized fiction in many genres, including maritime adventures, reaching back to the 19th century and covering classic pulp fiction titles. And don't miss the links section if you want to dive in further--they even list dealers.

(My thanks to Dan Krummes for introducing me to FictionMags!)

Mystic Seaport's Image Archive

On Sept. 9, 2009, our very own Kelly announced the new Collections and Research Image Archive on Mystic's excellent News from the Collections blog. I gave it a few days before checking it out--I've found that rushing to a new site on announcement day makes for slow browsing!

I like the layout of the Image Archive very much. Right at the top of the page are phone & email contacts for assistance. I do wonder a little at the title; "Collections" and "Research" images? Don't all the images in the archive come from the collections, and isn't a "research image" any image that you're using for research? (But I split hairs.)

First I followed a suggested browse topic, choosing "Signs and posters." On the next screen, I like the link to switch to a gallery view very much--for casual browsing, this is great. I can't tell you much more about gallery view, however, because even though I'm on a rather high speed connection, only 25 thumbnails loaded, with what are apparently catalog numbers interspersed among the images like so:

2004.83.1 2004.83.10 2004.83.100 2004.83.101 2004.83.102 2004.83.103 2004.83.104 2004.83.105 2004.83.106 2004.83.107 2004.83.108 2004.83.109 2004.83.11 2004.83.110 2004.83.111 2004.83.112 2004.83.113 2004.83.114 2004.83.115 2004.83.116 2004.83.117 2004.83.118 2004.83.119 2004.83.12 2004.83.120 2004.83.13 2004.83.14 2004.83.15 2004.83.16 2004.83.17 2004.83.18 2004.83.19 2004.83.2 2004.83.20 2004.83.21 2004.83.22 2004.83.23 2004.83.24 2004.83.25 2004.83.26 2004.83.27 2004.83.28 2004.83.29 2004.83.30 2004.83.31

No amount of reloading would correct the problem (at least for me today with Firefox). I suspect that you wouldn't have this problem if you waited for the previous page (non-gallery view) with the columnar display to fully load, but who waits for pages to fully load when you're interested in clicking away?

I backed up to try another category--"Bicycles?!?" Yes--a maritime museum with images of bicycles! And much, much more. The images are all extremely well cataloged with extensive descriptions. The descriptions are so thorough, that you may wish to use the "find" feature in your browser to zero in on keywords for which you were searching or browsing.

The search interface is a bit tricky, however.
This search retrieved images: "charles w. morgan"
But this search retrieved nothing: charles AND morgan
And this search retrieved yet another image not seen in the first search: charles morgan
There's no "advanced search" or search help available that I could find, so play around with the searches.

Finally, if the Mystic Seaport logo on the upper link were actually a link to Mystic's homepage, that would be lovely--if the Image Archive were my entryway to their site, as it was today, I'd like their main page to be just a click away.

On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass

"Figure 11.—Geared Astrolabe by Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr of Isfahan, A.D. 1221-1222."--p. 98, of: On the Origin of Clockwork, Perpetual Motion Devices, and the Compass by Derek J. de Solla Price.

Originally published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1959 as Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology, Paper 6, now available at Project Gutenberg.

Godrevy Lighthouse

Recently the Guardian published another in its "Top 10s" series, Margaret Drabble's top ten literary landscapes, which includes Godfrey Lighthouse, thought to have inspired Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Drabble's descriptions of the places are lovely--be sure to read about Godfrey Lighthouse at no. 7.

If you're interested in a little armchair travel to this beautiful spot, visit Look Around Cornwall's site and be patient--wait for the large image to load and begin playing to enjoy a lovely 360 degree panorama. (For more information on controlling the panorama, click on the little "i" icon on the lower left of the image.) And do enlarge it to full screen (the control on the far right).

The pearl from the black dragon

"A fisherboy dived into the water and brought up a pearl from beneath the chin of a black dragon," facing page 138 in:

The Chinese Fairy Book
Editor: Wilhelm, Richard, 1873-1930
Illustrator: Hood, George Washington, 1869-1949
Translator: Martens, Frederick Herman, 1874-1932

New York, Frederick A. Stokes Company, c1921

Now available at Project Gutenberg.

Garbage Patch updates: Project Kaisei & SETI

On Monday I was delighted to see the Kaisei sailing past my window on her way home from her research voyage to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The San Jose Mercury News published an article this morning by Paul Rogers covering her return, the results of her voyage, and the next steps in testing the samples of plastics. (More information is also available on the Project Kaisei website.)

Then yesterday I heard an excellent interview with Charles Moore, who discovered the patch in 1997, on the episode Earth, a millennium hence of one of my favorite radio programs, "Are We Alone?" from the SETI Institute.

An interesting subject addressed by both the newspaper article and the interview is plastic's role in transmitting pollutants up the marine food chain--to humans. And Charles Moore's opinion of our archaeological future is also intriguing.

PRI & NPR on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

On August 21, PRI's radio show, The World, featured the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on its Geo Quiz. The story makes great listening and their website supplements the audio with a photo from the patch and a map of the location of the North Pacific Gyre, the phenomenon where the trash is accumulating.

The story also features an interview with Miriam Goldstein aboard the research vessel New Horizon, which hosts the team from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, out studying the patch. She also contributes to the Seaplex blog about their research, and she was also a guest on NPR's Talk of the Nation Science Friday--audio and a transcript of that interview are available on NPR's site, and links to different resources are on Science Friday's own site.

Bulwer-Lytton and the Old Salt Blog

I've always enjoyed the annual Bulwer-Lytton prize, and in reading about the 2009 winners came across the Old Salt Blog which has a delightful article, A salty dog wins the 2009 Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest, highlighting the wonderful entries by David McKenzie and Dr. Sarah Cockram.

The rest of the blog, hosted by Rick Spilman, covers much of interest to MaritimeCompass readers, from current maritime news to museums, so I've added it to the resources on our site, and recommend it highly.

NMMprints.com

Everyone who works at a museum; everyone who is at an organization that sells reproductions of collection images; everyone who purchases reproductions of images--pay attention. Click over to NMMprints.com right now. Don't even waste time reading the rest of this post. Just go there. Check it out!

OK, I haven't actually ordered a print yet from this new site from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, but I have ordered a print from the Museum the past, and let me tell you, it wasn't this easy back then! Back then, in the dark ages, I wasn't even able to see the image I was ordering before it arrived.

This new site, from the Museum that brings you the excellent NMMimages.com, is a destination for those that want a hardcopy reproduction. They have prints, framed prints, canvases, even framed canvases available. The search interface is excellent, so if you know you're looking for something to hold in your hands or hang on your wall, just head to NMMprints.com; if you need an image electronically, then NMMimages.com is still your destination.

As far as I can tell (and I count on Douglas McCarthy, the Picture Library Manager to correct me if I'm wrong) there are still more images in NMMimages.com (for example, a purse from the Franklin expedition is beautifully imaged in NMMimages.com but not present in NMMprints.com). So for browsing and research, NMMimages.com might still be the prime destination.

For the future, I hope we see a little link below the images in NMMimages.com that says, "Order a print" to take one right to the NMMprints.com image details/order page. Or, if permissions don't allow this, perhaps text that says, "Sorry, print orders for this image not available; would you like to see related images from NMMprints.com that are available?" The "related images" link that appears with each image on NMMimages.com is such a wonderful feature, it would be great to see it apprear not only within NMMprints.com but into NMMprints.com from images in NMMimages.com. In the far future, perhaps the sites could be integrated; in the very far future, perhaps after one has selected "Order a copy," one could pick a .jpg of the image, or a framed print, or a tshirt, or a book bag (a la CafePress or Zazzle).

So why not start your Christmas shopping now? Why not celebrate the winter solstice with a lovely print as a gift? Start browsing the collections on the left; I really like Staff Favourites.

Marques d'impressors = Printers' Devices

The Centre de Recursos per a l'Aprenentatge i la Investigació has put up Marques d'impressors, a wonderful database of printers devices, which include some with maritime themes, with searching available on printer, device/motto, ensign, city, mark term, or keyword in Catalan, Spanish, and English.

This device is that of Simone Tini.

Northwest Passage news

If you've been following the Open Passage Expedition, or the news about the Beluga Fraternity, you may be interested in the reader feedback that the NY Times has published on their Dot Earth blog as well as following the Open Passage Expedition on Pipes.

And if you read the NY Times article in print, do check it out online; not only does the article contain links to resources to allow further exploration of the topic, they revise and correct the article in response to reader feedback.

The Prismatarium

Juli Carter took the time to comment on a previous post about the Aquatic Park Bathhouse, alerting me to her lovely photos of the ceiling of the room that Hilaire Hiler called the Prismatarium. Juli generously granted permission to reproduce her photos here, and writes:

"Alerted by recent pictures in the Guess Where SF Flickr pool and subsequent discussion, a friend and I made a special trip to see the newly cleaned and restored Maritime Museum (formerly Aquatic Bathhouse). Everything about it is spectacular: the architecture, the murals, the view towards Alcatraz...

The Prismatarium was empty of exhibits, full of echoes and shade. These pictures show the light fixture at the center of the circular room, with the color wheel that extends out to the windows, in natural light (with the windows blocked to preserve the art) and with the exposure digitally manipulated."

Juli's photo of the ceiling in natural light:



And Juli's digitally manipulated photo:



It is a fascinating room, and these photos show only the center point of the large, colorful ceiling. In Aquatic Park Building Decoration, Hilaire Hiler the room, originally "The Ladies Lounge," and this ceiling fixture are described:

At the opposite end of the Portico is another circular room which is used as a Ladies' Lounge. The form of this room made it appropriate for the decoration which consists of a color circle covering the entire ceiling. A moving lighting fixture containing lights in the color of the Physical Primaries makes it possible to give striking demonstrations on the relationship of color and light. Charts showing the Psychological the Pigment Primaries [sic], and the Solar Spectrum, etc. adorn the walls and make the room a veritable full size schema of the world of color in outline form, which its designer, Hilaire Hiler, calls a "Prismatarium" functioning in relation to the world of color much as a Planetarium does for the heavens. These considerations in no way interfere with the function of the room as mentioned above, as the fondness of the Fair Sex for colors is too well known to merit discussion.

To see a couple of the "charts" mentioned above, go to the NPS Museum Collections catalog, and search: hilaire AND hiler AND painting

My thanks to Juli for her wonderful contributions to MaritimeCompass.

Photos © All rights reserved, Juli Carter, http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntijuli/
Used with permission

Pacific Ocean evening, La Jolla Strand Park

It was a lovely vacation.

Photo: © All rights reserved, Paul Hernandez,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_a_hernandez/, used with permission.

Brief hiatus

Just a short note that I'll be taking a couple of weeks off for vacation--rather than putting the blog on autopilot with no guarantee that I could keep abreast of comment moderation, I thought I'd interrupt our normal maritime topics with a personal note to let y'all know what's up. (I'm really excited--this is my first real vacation in years! I'll be enjoying some serious offline time.)