Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History

Last updated

[1] The Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime History was established at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, in 1955 to provide graduate-level summer courses in maritime history. The name was later changed to the Munson Institute of Maritime Studies, to include literature and other aspects in the history of maritime affairs. Mrs. Cora Mallory Munson, widow of Frank C. Munson endowed the Institute, named in memory of her husband, who had been president of the Munson Steamship Line and a major figure in the American shipping industry in the first and second World Wars. The curator of Mystic Seaport, Edouard A. Stackpole, originated the idea for the institute and turned to Professor Robert G. Albion, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University to join with him in creating the Institute and to serve as its first director. [2]

Contents

Since its founding, the Munson Institute has been the leading, and often the sole, center for the teaching of maritime history in the United States. Its faculty has included the leading maritime historians in the United States. In 1996, 2006, 2010, 2012, and 2014, [1] the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded it grants to run summer institutes to teach maritime history to college and university faculty members in a national effort to further develop this field. In 1998, the Munson Institute's faculty produced the first wide-ranging maritime history of the United States, America and The Sea: A Maritime History. [2]

The Institute annually awards the Hardin Craig Memorial Prize for academic excellence.

Directors

  1. 1955 - 1974 Professor Robert G. Albion
  2. 1974 - 1996 Professor Benjamin Woods Labaree
  3. 1996 - 2001 Professor John Hattendorf
  4. 2001 - Pres. Dr. Eric Roorda and Dr. Glenn Gordinier

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystic, Connecticut</span> Census-designated place in Connecticut, United States

Mystic is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in Groton and Stonington, Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystic Seaport</span> Maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut

Mystic Seaport Museum or Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in Mystic, Connecticut is the largest maritime museum in the United States. It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for the re-creation of the crafts and fabric of an entire 19th-century seafaring village. It consists of more than 60 historic buildings, most of them rare commercial structures moved to the 19-acre (0.077 km2) site and meticulously restored.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John B. Hattendorf</span> American naval historian

John Brewster Hattendorf, D.Phil., D.Litt., L.H.D., FRHistS, FSNR, is an American naval historian. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of more than fifty books, mainly on British and American maritime history and naval warfare. In 2005, the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings described him as "one of the most widely known and well-respected naval historians in the world." In reference to his work on the history of naval strategy, an academic in Britain termed him the "doyen of US naval educators." A Dutch scholar went further to say that Hattendorf "may rightly be called one of the most influential maritime historians in the world." From 1984 to 2016, he was the Ernest J. King Professor of Maritime History at the United States Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He has called maritime history "a subject that touches on both the greatest moments of the human spirit as well as on the worst, including war." In 2011, the Naval War College announced the establishment of the Hattendorf Prize for Distinguished Original Research in Maritime History, named for him. The 2014 Oxford Naval Conference - "Strategy and the Sea" - celebrated his distinguished career on April 10–12, 2014. The proceedings of the conference were published as a festschrift. In March 2016, Hattendorf received the higher doctorate of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from the University of Oxford. Among the few Americans to have received such designation, Hattendorf remained actively engaged on the Naval War College campus after his formal retirement in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriot (American Revolution)</span> Colonists who opposed British rule during the American Revolution

Patriots were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who opposed the Kingdom of Great Britain's control over the colonies during the American Revolution. Patriot politicians led colonial opposition to British policies regarding the American colonies, eventually adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. After the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1776, Patriots fought a victorious conflict against the British and their allies, which saw the colonies gain their independence as the United States in 1783.

The Royal Society of Arts Benjamin Franklin Medal was instituted in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership to the Royal Society of Arts.

Wilbur Cortez Abbott was an American historian and educator, born at Kokomo, Indiana. He graduated from Wabash College in 1892. Afterward, he studied at Cornell University (1892–95) and at Oxford in 1897 where he received the degree of B.Litt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert G. Albion</span> American maritime historian (1896–1983)

Robert Greenhalgh Albion was Harvard's first professor of Oceanic History and inspired two generations of maritime historians in the United States.

William Morgan Fowler Jr. is a professor of history at Northeastern University, Boston and an author. He served as Director of the Massachusetts Historical Society from 1998 through 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Woods Labaree</span> American historian (1927–2021)

Benjamin Woods Labaree was a leading historian of American colonial history and American maritime history. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Woods Labaree</span> American historian

Leonard W. Labaree was a distinguished documentary editor, a professor of history at Yale University for more than forty years, an historian of Colonial America, and the founding editor of the multivolume publication of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin.

The Gardiner Chair of Oceanic History and Affairs was established at Harvard University in 1948.

John Horace Parry CMG, MBE was a distinguished maritime historian, who served as Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.

John Haskell Kemble (1912–1990) was a professor of history at Pomona College and an influential American maritime historian.

William Avery Baker was a distinguished naval architect of replica historic ships and a maritime historian, who was curator of the Francis Russell Hart Nautical Museum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1963–1981.

Briton Cooper Busch was a specialist in nineteenth century British diplomatic history, military history, and American maritime history at Colgate University.

Karl Jack Bauer, was one of the founders of the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) and a well-known naval historian. NASOH's K. Jack Bauer Award is named in his memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Faunce Leavitt</span> American artist (1905–1974)

John Faunce Leavitt (1905–1974) was a well-known shipbuilder, writer on maritime subjects, painter of marine canvases, and curator of Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut.

Lisa Norling is a U.S. historian noted for her pioneering work on gender and the sea. As such she is part of a new move in maritime historiography to examine gender, race and class in relation to seafaring labor, passengers and people in port cities.

References

  1. 1 2 "About the Munson Institute - Munson Institute".
  2. 1 2 Labaree, Benjamin W., 'The Frank C. Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies,' American Neptune, vol. 45 (1945), pp. 441-445.

"The Munson Institute". Mystic Seaport. Archived from the original on 2013-03-29. Retrieved 2012-10-01.