Tag: Yacht

Upcoming special event at Cape Ann Museum

Who Was Ben Butler? A series of presentations at the Cape Ann Museum

The Cape Ann Museum and Gloucester Stage Company are pleased to present Who Was Ben Butler? a special arrangement of speakers and performers on Saturday, July 27 at 2:00 p.m. This program will take place at 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester and is free for Gloucester Stage Company & Museum members or $10 nonmembers(includes Museum admission). Reservations are required. For more information visit capeannmuseum.org or call 978-283-0455 x10.

Benjamin Franklin Butler of Gloucester had many admirers and detractors as he helped shape the course of mid-19th century America.  He won a seat in Congress while camping in Bay View, started the Cape Ann Granite Company, owned the yacht “America,” championed women’s suffrage, and changed the course of the Civil War, not through military skill but legal acumen.  These accomplishments are among many achieved in a life spent in business, law, and the military.

In 21st century Gloucester, however, Butler remains a cypher.

The Gloucester Stage Company and the Cape Ann Museum are pleased to re-introduce Ben Butler to his adopted city.

Gloucester Stage will present the play BEN BUTLER August 2-25, and in anticipation of that, the Cape Ann Museum and Gloucester Stage will offer an opportunity to acquaint themselves with one of Gloucester’s most accomplished citizens.  Professor Robert Forrant (U. Mass Lowell), a noted Butler historian, will join some of Butler’s Bay View descendants for a lively discussion, and actors from the play BEN BUTLER will make an appearance to give a hint at this fascinating and witty play.

Image credit: Alfred James Wiggin, Benjamin F. Butler. Collection of the Cape Ann Museum.

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