Year: 2011

Researching Alone at Sea, an illustrated talk with author John Morris

The Cape Ann Museum is pleased to present Researching Alone at Sea, an illustrated talk with author and Gloucester native John Morris on Saturday, January 15 at 3:00 p.m. Morris will be discussing how a personal journey to learn more about his ancestors led him to the Cape Ann Museum Archives. This program is free and open to the public. Reservations are required. For reservations please call 978-283-0455, x11.

John N. Morris’s grandfather, Steve Olsson, was a Gloucester doryman who disappeared at sea without a trace in 1935. Olsson and his dorymate lost contact with their schooner and were never seen again. Morris set out on a quest to discover what might have happened to his grandfather and what a doryman’s life was like. The result—after ten years of exhaustive research and dozens of interviews—is the most complete and authoritative history of the Gloucester fishing industry ever written. This epic highlights life at sea, life at home, and the industry that connected them, growing and then fading over more than 300 years. Alone at Sea is illustrated with over seventy period photographs and maps, many of which came from the Cape Ann Museum archives.

John N. Morris, Ph.D., is the grandson of one of the last Gloucester dorymen lost at sea. A native of Gloucester himself, John is descended from a line of fishermen going back to the seventeenth century. His father was a fish cutter, his mother a fish packer. Director Emeritus of the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston, a Harvard-affiliated hospital and research program, John has published widely in his field. A board member of the group preserving one of the last surviving Gloucester schooners, Adventure, he now lives in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts.

Funding for this program was made possible through a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which promotes excellence, access, education and diversity in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences, in order to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents and to contribute to the economic vitality of our communities.

The Cape Ann Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The Museum is closed during the month of February, on Mondays, and on major holidays. Admission is $8.00 adults, $6.00 Cape Ann residents, seniors and students. Children under 12 and Museum members are free. Admission for Cape Ann residents is free during the month of January. The Museum is wheelchair accessible. For more information please call: (978) 283-0455. Additional information can be found online at www.capeannmuseum.org