Author: Mystic Seaport Museum

Mystic Seaport will hold its annual Antique & Classic Boat Parade on the Mystic River beginning at 11:45 a.m., Sunday, July 23. The boats should begin passing through the Mystic River bascule bridge in downtown Mystic at about noon.

The new start time is 30 minutes earlier than previously announced to accommodate the bridge opening schedules

The name and particulars of each boat will be announced at a public address station on the shore at Mystic River Park as it passes through the bascule bridge. The boats then make their way in a procession down river to the village of Noank.

The parade is the conclusion of the Museum’s Antique & Classic Boat Rendezvous  weekend, which showcases high-quality antique vessels, including cruisers, sailboats, and runabouts. Approximately 50 classic vessels will gather along the museum’s waterfront. Visitors are invited to see the displayed vessels Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. An awards competition will recognize excellence in restoration, authenticity, and workmanship.

To celebrate the 85th anniversary of the launching of the museum’s schooner Brilliant, the Rendezvous will highlight boats designed by the naval architecture firm Sparkman & Stephens. Brilliant was design #12, one of the earliest of co-founder Olin Stephen’s designs. She was launched in 1932 at the Henry B. Nevins, Inc. yard at City Island, N.Y. As one of the longest-running sail training programs in the country, she has carried more than 10,000 students on cruises throughout New England and beyond.

The dragonflies and honey bees were having a grand time in The Vietor Garden on Monday afternoon, flitting and buzzing among the daylilies, asters, and bee balm. They were so busy that they did not notice the gathering of a small group of people around the edges of the garden on this beautiful July day.

The dedication of the new Vietor Garden, given to Mystic Seaport in memory of Anna Glenn Butler and Alexander Orr Vietor by their family, under a cloudless sky, was the final piece in the Museum’s redevelopment of the north end of its grounds.

The ceremony began just after noon, and as the last of the Greenmanville Church’s 12 chimes on the hour died away, Museum President Steve White stood to speak.

“If you heard just now the church clock’s chimes, those have been a long time coming,” White said. “Thanks to the efforts of some volunteers and our staff those chimes have been restored. Those, and the dedication of this garden, are the final pieces to bring together this entire landscape. The Vietor Garden is the last piece to create a gorgeous place to be.”

The reworking of the north end into the McGraw Quadrangle was part of a longtime vision for Mystic Seaport, White noted. Anna and Alexander Vietor also had a vision for the Museum.

“Anna Glenn was an extraordinary philanthropist and we were so lucky that Mystic Seaport was a place she decided was deserving of support. Alexander spent 25 years as a trustee, and with the exception of one or two years, for 60 years we have had Vietors involved with our board. Alexander was very involved with the concept and construction of the G.W. Blunt Library in 1964, and Alexander and Anna were very involved with the creation of what has become our PILOTS program.”

In 1981, when Alexander passed away, he gifted his extensive logs and manuscripts collection to the Museum. Since then, Mystic Seaport has grown the collection from 10,000 volumes and 68,000 manuscripts to more than 75,000 volumes and 1 million manuscripts.

The garden was given by the Vietor children: David, Richard, Louise, Pauline, Alexander, and Martha. David Vietor spoke briefly at the dedication, expressing gratitude to Mystic Seaport for the opportunity to create the garden for the area, as horticulture was his mother’s passion. “She loved that gardens are continually renewing themselves, that cycle of life,” he said.

The garden was designed by Brian Kent of Kent + Frost Landscape Architecture of Mystic. Kent said the garden was planned to be sustainable, with plant combinations that replicate the natural landscape, showcasing Mrs. Vietor’s favorite colors, in a way that would be sustainable over the long term without the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and little weeding. He jokingly invited the guests to come back in a year, saying that a new garden is a lot like “a 13-year-old boy. Lots of arms and legs and a big head and it looks like nothing goes together.”

Julia Jankowski, garden supervisor for the Museum, said that while there are 18 varieties of plants in the garden, there are more than 1,000 actual plants. It took two days, a squad of 12 volunteers, plus staff to plant the garden in the spring.

Mrs. Vietor’s Garden Plant List:

Veronicastrum virginicum – Culver’s Root

Aster oblongifolius ‘Raydon’s Favorite’- Aromatic Aster

Erigeron pulchellus – Robin’s Plantain

Hemerocallis x ‘Ice Carnival’- Daylily

Meehania cordata – Meehan’s Mint

Salvia x sylvestris ‘May Night’- Sage

Sesleria autumnalis – Autumn Moor Grass

Symphyotrichum ericoides ‘Snow Flurry’- Heath Aster

Waldsteinia fragarioides – Appalachian Barren Strawberry

Quercus bicolorr – Swamp White Oak

Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’- Blue Switch Grass

Agastache foeniculum – Blue Giant Hyssop

Amsonia hubrichtii – Arkansas Blue Star

Baptisia australis – Blue False Indigo

Eryngium x ‘Big Blue’- Sea Holly

Liatrus spicata – Gayfeather

Monarda bradburiana – Eastern Bee Balm

Sporobolus heterolepis – Prairie Dropseed

The National Park Service announced today that Mystic Seaport is the recipient of a National Maritime Heritage Grant.

The Museum is one of 27 recipients in 13 states and the District of Columbia who will collectively receive $1,752,073 in grant awards. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD), the National Park Service awarded grants for projects that teach about and preserve sites and objects related to our nation’s maritime history.

“Protecting our nation’s maritime history is an important part of the National Park Service’s mission to share America’s story,” said Acting National Park Service Director Michael T. Reynolds. “These grants will support efforts to conserve important parts of our maritime history and educate students of all ages.”

Mystic Seaport was awarded $49,959 to support development of “From Clippers to Containers: The Benjamin F. Packard and the History of U.S. Deepwater Cargo Transport,” a long-term exhibition that will deliver to a broad public audience important historic content about the changes in the maritime cargo trades from the mid-19th century to the present.

The centerpiece of this exhibit will be the recently reinstalled cabin from the Down-Easter Benjamin F. Packard which Mystic Seaport salvaged in 1939 before the ship was scuttled. The Packard ship’s cabin is a favorite with visitors because of the immersive experience: “beyond-the-ropes” access allows visitors to walk into the dining area, parlor, and captain’s stateroom, an ornate Gilded Age setting complete with velvet settees and burled wood panels. This unique artifact is an ideal vehicle to frame the history of American merchant vessels.

In addition to the compelling story of the Packard, the exhibition will focus on the evolution of American cargo handling and deep water trade using examples of various vessel types to illustrate the changes in society and technology that occurred over time. “From Clippers to Containers” will use interactive technology as well as ship models, period paintings, photos, and other artifacts to illustrate these stories.

The National Maritime Heritage Program Grant awards are made possible through a partnership between the two federal agencies, which both share a commitment to maritime heritage preservation and education. They are funded through recycling of vessels from the MARAD’s National Defense Reserve Fleet. The grant program supports a broad range of maritime education and preservation projects, without expending tax dollars, while ensuring that the vessels are dismantled in an environmentally sound manner.

For a complete list of the recipients and the award amounts please see the National Park Service press release.