A Letter from the Project Director
Shipwrecks and Maritime Landscapes of the Great Lakes:
National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for Community College Faculty 2011
Dates: |
July 17-23, and July 24-30, 2011 |
Location: |
Alpena Community College and Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Alpena, Michigan |
Project Co-Directors: |
Cathy Green, Adjunct Faculty, Alpena Community College and Special Projects Coordinator, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary |
Contact: |
E-mail: cathy.green@noaa.gov |
October 31, 2010
Dear Colleague:
The oceans, rivers, and great lakes shaped American history in fundamental and extraordinary ways leaving a rich legacy of historical landmarks. Among the most unusual, and until recently, the least accessible are its historic shipwrecks—the fragile unfiltered time capsules or portals to the past that tell very special stories about the American nation and its people. It is our pleasure to invite your application to participate in our National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Landmarks in American History and Culture Workshop for Community College Faculty workshop, Shipwrecks and Maritime Landscapes of the Great Lakes. Hosted by Alpena Community College and Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Alpena, Michigan, the workshop centers on one of the most important and well-preserved collections of historic shipwrecks and associated maritime landscapes in America.
The two one-week workshops (July 17-23 and July 24-30, 2011) will take a selected group of community college faculty on a historical, cultural, and physical journey across the American maritime frontier into the nation’s breadbasket and industrial heartland. The mode of “travel” will be by historic shipwreck, a conveyance and type of landmark that transcends disciplinary boarders and crosses geographic boundaries to reveal the watery connections and maritime people that created the foundations of the modern American Midwest and contributed to the nation’s rise to continental and economic prominence during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Our dynamic weeklong explorations will take us to museums and archives, lighthouses, beaches, and industrial waterfronts, and to the shipwrecks themselves. Your guides will be an experienced team of historians, archaeologists, and educators who study, manage, and interpret this nationally significant collection of shipwrecks and landscapes. This combination of scholars, combined with Northeast Michigan’s unique archival and museum resources, will allow you to experience Great Lakes maritime heritage in all its dimensions and to capture your experiences in meaningful ways that you can integrate to your community college classrooms. Academically challenging, this hands-on workshop allows you to touch the physical components of history above and below the water’s surface and will provide the tools and perspectives required to help you transform your experiences into meaningful curricula in a variety disciplines.
This is a workshop for those who relish intellectual inquiry and the visceral experience of the physical historic environment. An academically rich, highly participatory program will instruct you in the historical facets of the region’s maritime heritage and its shipwrecks, while field based components in museums, archives, the natural environment, and shipwrecks will bring them to life.
Who Would Benefit from this Workshop?
Faculty in US history, western civilization, world history, political science, anthropology, archaeology, literature, fine arts, and other humanities-related disciplines are encouraged to apply. Adjunct faculty are eligible, as are librarians and other appropriate staff members.
Workshop Themes and Format
All History is Maritime History
In crucial ways, American history and culture rests on maritime foundations. Maritime activity shaped the nation in countless ways, from the integration of the continent into the European sphere between the 15th and 17th centuries to the establishment and growth of Boston, New York, and nearly every other sizable American city before 1850. Yet, it is fresh and not salt water that defines one of the most important maritime regions in American history.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Great Lakes of North America evolved from an isolated maritime frontier into the nation’s busiest and the world’s most significant industrial waterway, where innovative ships and technologies moved raw materials and agricultural products in larger quantities and at lower costs than at any previous time in history. Entrepreneurs and shipbuilders on the Great Lakes launched tens of thousands of ships of many different designs. Sailing schooners, grand palace steamers, revolutionary propeller driven passenger ships, and industrial bulk carriers transported America’s business and industry. In the process, they brought hundreds of thousands of people to the Midwest and made possible the dramatic growth of the region’s farms, cities, and industries. The American nation could not have developed with such speed and with such vast economic consequences without the Great Lakes.
Portals to the Past
Today, the United States depends far less on the Midwestern industries to sustain its economic growth and military power. A few dozen large ships now do the work that once required more than a thousand sailing vessels and hundreds of steamers. The Great Lakes’ influence in history remains visible in a complex maritime landscape where the remnants of heavy industry, mining and agriculture, piers, harbors, lifesaving stations, and lighthouses are common features. Shipwrecks, however, are the one landscape feature that most completely captures the cultural, environmental, technological and economic aspects of maritime history. Shipwrecks reveal the movement, bravery, tenacity, and innovative spirit of generations of maritime people. Below the surface of the Great Lakes, preserved by the cold fresh waters, thousands of these wrecks remain, often with their timbers and nearly always with their stories intact. With the development of scuba equipment, new remote viewing technologies, and increased scholarly consideration and government protection, shipwrecks have emerged as the Great Lakes’ newest and most promising category of maritime landmark.
A Shipwreck Sanctuary
In 2000, federal and state partnership established the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the largest marine protected area in the United States exclusively devoted to underwater cultural landmarks. Nearly 200 historic shipwrecks exist in the vicinity of the 448-square mile sanctuary. These submerged archaeological sites offer a nearly complete collection of Great Lakes. Vessel types from the small schooners and pioneer steamboats of the 1830s, to enormous industrial bulk carriers that supported the Midwest’s heavy industries during the twentieth century are all represented. These vessels carried immigrants and pioneers traveling west for new homes, schooners carrying Midwestern grain and lumber, passenger and package freight steamers, and evolving generations of bulk freighters specially designed to carry iron ore, coal, grain, cement, and other bulk commodities. The establishment of the sanctuary, with its headquarters in Alpena, Michigan, has spurred the creation of new research collections, laboratories for conserving and analyzing artifacts, and the acquisition of new tools for exploring and understanding Great Lakes shipwrecks.
Interdisciplinary Expeditionary Learning
Shipwrecks and Maritime Landscapes of the Great Lakes will explore these sunken historic landmarks through the interdisciplinary study of shipwrecks and associated maritime landscape features found within and near the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The shipwrecks of Thunder Bay are touchstones for historic research and archaeological study, true American landmarks providing untapped opportunities for artifact and place-based education. Beyond their impressive physical characteristics, embedded in each shipwreck are core themes reflecting more than a century of American history and culture that cross academic disciplines. These include, for example, maritime frontiers; national and international maritime connections; westward expansion; race, ethnicity, gender, and work; the influence of geography, industrialization, and perceptions of the environment. Participants may, and we hope, will identify new and compelling themes relavent to their teaching and research interests.
Community college instructors teaching in the areas of U.S. history, western civilization or world history, anthropology, archaeology, literature, fine arts, or the general liberal arts will benefit from this workshop. By its conclusion participants will have the tools and resources required to seamlessly integrate shipwrecks, maritime perspective, and nautical archaeology into existing curricula, enhancing textbook learning with new approaches to primary sources, material culture, and tangible place-based history.
Preliminary Schedule of Activities
Sunday:
Arrive at the Detroit Metro Airport no later than NOON to take advantage of the provided bus transportation to Alpena*.
Transportation to Alpena Community College, Alpena, Michigan
Participants check into College Park Apartments, or alternate housing, and then meet at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center. We will open with a welcome and introduction by Alpena Community College President, Sanctuary Superintendent, and Mayor of Alpena, followed by a group dinner. Participants will also complete a “pre-test” to find out their perceptions of shipwrecks and their initial thoughts of what they would like to gain from this workshop. Light refreshments provided.
* please check the local facilities and arrangements section for alternate travel options
On and In Water Components:
Please note that this workshop includes a full day aboard a 65-foot, 100-passenger glass bottom boat on Lake Huron. This is a key component of the course. Please contact the Project Director if you have questions about this aspect of the week. Participants may elect to explore Thunder Bay’s historic shipwrecks by snorkel(equipment provided). P articipants how do not wish to take part in the in-water component will be directed to landbased landscape componants so that everyone will have a truely immersive experience . Please contact the Project Director with questions or concerns.
Monday:
Exploring the Shipwreck Century
Location: Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center
The morning session will focus on two interactive workshop sessions: Exploring the Shipwreck Century - Using site-based resources to engage students. And Exploring the Shipwreck Century - Translating site-based resources into classroom cues. Project Directors Dr. John Jensen, Professor of Maritime Studies and Ocean Policy at the Sea Education Association at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Adjunct Faculty at Alpena Community College, and long-time sanctuary collaborator on research, interpretation, and exhibits; and Cathy Green, Special Projects Coordinator at Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, maritime archaeologist and educator who specializes in experiential learning, will utilize the heritage center exhibits to immerse participants in exercises and small group discussion that will introduce participants to Great Lakes maritime history, shipwrecks, and site preservation and stimulate questions about teaching and learning, including translating themes and stories into the classroom.
Shipwrecks and Sanctuaries
Location: Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center
The afternoon sessions: The Many Meanings of Shipwrecks, and Exploring the Shipwrecks of Thunder Bay will address questions about the ways shipwrecks are important in history, culture, and contemporary society; how something underwater can be a historical “Landmark;” and why was Thunder Bay Sanctuary created, and what does it protect? Dr. Jensen and Sanctuary Superintendent Jefferson Gray will lead these instructional sessions about the many meanings of shipwrecks and the sanctuary itself. Noted underwater explorer Dr. James P. Delgado, Director of NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program will address the national and international significance of the Thunder Bay wrecks and introduce tools and technologies they have used to find and study them[JJ1]. This fully interactive session will take place in The Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center’s Telepresence Theater.
Dinner on your own.
Tuesday:
Historical Contexts and Technological Developments on the Great Lakes
Location: Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center
Morning instructional sessions include: The Great Lakes: From the Atlantic World to the Industrial Heartland. Dr. Jensen leads the discussion on why the Great Lakes matter in history and how they fit into the larger American experience both on land and on the water. The morning continues with: The Evolution of Great Lakes Ships through the Landmark Wrecks of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. C. Patrick Labadie, Sanctuary Historian and Russ Green, Sanctuary Deputy Superintendent explore the Thunder Bay’s extraordinary and representative collection of Great Lakes shipwrecks. Using historical photos from the Sanctuary Research Collection and video gathered from sanctuary shipwreck expeditions, Labadie and Green will present dramatic evolution of Great Lakes ships.
Understanding and Exploring Great Lakes Shipwrecks
Location: Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center
Dangerous Convergence: Where, how, and why ships wrecked at Thunder Bay. Dr. Jensen and Dr. Roderick Mather, Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island’s Archaeological Oceanography program, will examine patterns of shipwrecking in Thunder Bay. This session will lead into a Practicum in Shipwreck Archaeology. C. Green, Wayne Lusardi, State of Michigan Marine Archaeologist, and Tane Casserley, Maritime Archaeologist with the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will teach students to document a shipwreck. Taking advantage of the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center’s full-scale shipwreck site reproduction, workshop participants will learn and apply basic concepts and techniques employed in documenting historic shipwrecks at Thunder Bay.
Besser Museum of Northeast Michigan
The evening program includes a tour of the Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan’s maritime collections, including the fish tug Katherine V, as well as the 19th century buildings collected on the museum grounds. Dinner will be held in the one-room schoolhouse on Besser Museum grounds and will be followed by an evening session at the Besser Museum Planetarium on celestial navigation.
Wednesday
Exploring Shipwrecks through the Primary Sources of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Collection.
Location: Alpena County Library
The morning’s session will center on the sanctuary’s archival collection: Primary Sources in the Study of Great Lakes Shipwrecks. This large and diverse archival collection, created by Mr. Labadie over four decades, will form the basis for the morning’s sessions exploring the primary resources in one of the regions largest collections of Great Lakes maritime research materials. This will follow with a workshop session: Hands-on Group Research Exercises, Dr. Jensen and Cathy Green are joined by T. Kurt Knoerl of George Mason University, and Jamin Wells of the University of Delaware in facilitating group research exercises delving into the primary resources of the Thunder Bay Research Collection. Participants will learn about major types of sources and brainstorm about creative and effective ways to incorporate them into teaching. These sessions will form the basis of the participants’ individual workshop projects that will lead them to integrate maritime heritage and shipwrecks into aspects of their teaching.
Exploring A Historic Shipwreck
Location: Various near-shore or beach shipwrecks in and around Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Individual wreck exploration onshore or in water, C.Green, Jensen, R. Green, Wells, Knoerl, and Lusardi will build on the previous day’s shipwreck mapping practicum, by breaking students into archaeologist-led teams to conduct a reconnaissance exploration of a historic shipwreck. A variety of wrecks are available for exploration, depending on participants’ individual interests and physical condition. Some will analyze a wreck on the beach, while others will venture into shallow waters in waders. For the most immersive experience, participants will be encouraged to snorkel on a shore accessed, shallow shipwreck in less than 5 feet of water. The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary will provide wetsuits, masks, fins, and snorkels, or participants may bring their own gear. Participants will keep a “field journal” of the experience, recording historical, archaeological, and personal details.
Exploring Presque Isle Lighthouses
Location: Presque Isle Lighthouses
Life of a Lighthouse Keeper. After the shipwreck explorations, the groups will reunite at Presque Isle harbor for a guided tour of the “old” lighthouse museum and grounds led by the staff of the Old Presque Isle Light and Museum. This session will explore the most aesthetically pleasing element in the maritime landscape, the lighthouse. The group will consider the reasons for building specific lighthouses as well as the nature and organization of government intervention into shipwreck prevention. A group dinner will be arranged at the Portage Restaurant at the harbor. An evening tour of the new lighthouse to watch the sunset from the lighthouse grounds will take place after dinner.
Thursday:
Learning through Shipwrecks - The Pewabic: History, Memory, Archaeology, and Material Culture.
Location: Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center
The morning session will focus the sanctuary’s most infamous site: Pewabic: The ship and her loss: the salvage; archaeology, memory, historical landmark. Jensen, C. Green, Labadie, and Wells show how shipwrecks have the potential to breakdown barriers between people and disciplines. Archaeology, material culture, and cultural history provide foundation for a cross-disciplinary examination of the Pewabic. Material culture will also be explored in: Marine Archaeology Conservation Lab Tour: Introduction to Artifact Conservation: Experienced conservator Wayne Lusardi leads participants through the conservation lab at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center and discusses fundamental issues of maritime artifact preservation and conservation at the Sanctuary. This is followed by a practicum -Working with Artifacts: The Material Culture of the passenger steamer Pewabic. Participants will have access to a wide range of artifacts recovered from the Pewabic. Lusardi, Jensen, Wells, and Knoerl will focus on analyzing and teaching maritime history through objects. After having an opportunity to examine several objects, teams of participants will select one for close examination and detailed interpretation. Lunch will continue the theme of material culture studies with a picnic along Thunder Bay River at Mill Island, an archaeological site of one of Alpena’s early saw mills, now part of the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Trail. While on site, students will get an overview of documenting shoreside industrial sites so typical of the Great Lakes maritime landscape.
Learning from Disaster
Location: Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center
Learning from Disaster: Workshop Project Development builds directly on the previous several sessions. Using the materials from the Pewabic. Jensen and C. Green will facilitate the participants breaking into workshop groups to develop an outline for a unit or units that integrate historic shipwrecks into their college courses. This session culminates with: Learning from Disaster: Presentations and Moderated Discussion. Participants will present their ideas from the previous session, leading into a moderated discussion about teaching techniques and historical themes well addressed through shipwrecks. Jensen and Green will moderate the session, and at week’s end, will integrate the units developed into a collaborative workshop project workbook for distribution to all participants and available online.
Dinner on your own.
Friday:
Discover Thunder Bay by Ship
Location: Day aboard Thunder Bay’s Glass-bottom Boat (*weather conditions dictate which specific sites are visited)
Friday is a day of experiential education at its best with: Visiting the Historic Shipwrecks of Thunder Bay*. Jensen, C. Green, R. Green, Lusardi, and Wells guide students on a cruise to different parts of Thunder Bay where they can examine historic and modern elements of the region’s maritime cultural landscape. From the deck of the ship, the group will visit several historic shipwrecks and view Thunder Bay from a mariner’s perspective. At lunch, participants will disembark via small boats to Thunder Bay Island, a private and remote island for lunch and exploration of the historic lighthouse and remains of the lifesaving station. The field experience continues with: Continued Exploration of Thunder Bay: Shipwrecks as Touchstones to the Past. The afternoon will be dedicated to keeping careful notes in field journals with an eye to integrating what they experience into their workshop projects. After returning to Alpena, the group will reconvene for a closing plenary presentation and discussion of individual projects along with a culminating evening at the historic Fletcher Street Brewery, adjacent to the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center.
Saturday Morning:
Depart Alpena. Bus departs from College Park Apartments 10:00am, arriving at Detroit International Airport, 2:00pm.
Local Facilities and Arrangements
The town of Alpena, Michigan is located on the shores of Lake Huron in rural Northeast Lower Michigan. It is approximately a 4-hour drive north of Detroit. To facilitate participants’ ease of travel and to ensure affordability, we will be providing bus transportation on the Sunday of arrival from the Detroit Metro Airport to Alpena, as well as return transportation from Alpena to Detroit on the final Saturday morning of the workshop. There is no charge to participants for this service.
If you would like to arrange your own transportation directly to Alpena, you may do so. In addition to the major airport in Detroit, Alpena is serviced locally by Alpena County Regional Airport. For participants wishing to extend their stay in Northern Michigan, it is a beautiful area for recreation. Popular destinations such as Mackinaw Island, Traverse City, and Sault St. Marie are within an approximate two-hour drive from Alpena.
Housing for participants has been arranged at a reduced cost with College Park Apartments, on the campus of Alpena Community College, which offers furnished, multi-bedroom, full kitchen residences available for weekly rental during summer sessions ($200 per person). Participants would have a private bedroom in a shared 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment. While the apartments are approximately one mile from the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center and along a scenic walking/biking path following the Thunder Bay River, Alpena Community College will provide bikes and vans for daily transportation. Participants are also welcome to drive their own vehicles. For those wanting alternative housing options, additional lodging at local hotels is plentiful, reasonable and close to workshop locations. More information is located on the accommodation section of the project website.
While many of the meals are arranged to accommodate workshop sessions and activities (box lunches or dinners a local restaurants and venues), participants will have reasonable priced options from which to choose, including preparing their own meals. Transportation to a grocery store will be provided upon arrival to Alpena on Sunday.
How to Apply
Eligible applicants include full-time faculty members, part-time lecturers, or adjunct faculty at American community colleges. Other academic staff such as librarians will be considered. Applicants do not need to have an advanced degree to qualify.
To apply please complete the online NEH application cover sheet. In addition to the online submission, please print out three copies of the cover sheet and add it to three copies of the following collated items in your application package as outlined below:
* The most important part of the completed application is an essay of up to two double-spaced pages (no more). This essay should include information about your professional background and interest in the subject of the workshop; your special perspectives, skills, or experiences that would contribute to the workshop; and how the experience would enhance your teaching or professional service.
* Please include a brief resume, curriculum vitae, or biographraphical sketch detailing your educational qualifications and professional experience. Please limit your resume or CV to three pages. Biographical sketches should not exceed five double-spaced pages.
* A letter of recommendation from your department chair/division head or other professional reference. Please ask your referee to sign across the seal on the back of the envelope containing the letter. Enclose the letter with your application.
* Your completed application should be postmarked no later than March 1, 2011, and should be addressed as follows:
Cathy Green
Project Director, NEH Shipwreck Workshop
Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
500 W. Fletcher Street
Alpena, MI 49707
Notification
Successful applicants will be notified of their selection on April 1, 2011, and they will have until April 5, 2011 to accept or decline the offer. Once you have accepted an offer to attend any NEH Summer Program, you may not accept an additional offer or withdraw in order to accept a different offer.
Stipend and Commitment
Faculty members selected to participate as NEH Summer Scholars will receive a stipend of $1,200 at the end of the residential workshop session. Stipends are intended to help cover travel expenses to and from the project location, books, and ordinary living expenses. Stipends are taxable. NEH Summer Scholars are required to attend all scheduled meetings and to engage fully as professionals in all project activities. Participants who do not complete the full tenure of the project will receive a reduced stipend.
We look forward to receiving your application. If you have any questions, please contact Cathy Green at cathy.green@noaa.gov or call 989-356-8805 ext.10.
Sincerely,
Cathy Green and John O. Jensen
Project Directors
NEH Landmarks Workshop
Alpena Community College
Additional Notes on Eligibility:
Full-time faculty members, part-time lecturers, and adjunct faculty at American community colleges are eligible to participate. An applicant need not have an advanced degree in order to qualify.
Faculty members at community colleges in the United States or its territorial possessions, or Americans teaching in foreign schools where at least 50 percent of the students are American nationals, are eligible for this program. Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Foreign nationals teaching abroad at non-U.S. chartered institutions are not eligible to apply. Individuals may not apply to participate in a workshop given by the same director on the same topic in which they have previously participated; in other words, you may not apply to attend the same workshop twice. Individuals may not apply to study with an NEH Landmarks director who is a family member or a colleague.
Applicants must complete the NEH application cover sheet and provide all the information requested in the ‘how to apply’ section to be considered eligible
Equal Opportunity Workshop:
Endowment programs do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age. For further information, write to NEH Equal Opportunity Officer, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. TDD: 202/606-8282 (for the hearing impaired only).
