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.)