Navigation Culture

Proposed Section Map:

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MARITIME

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• "The Art of Navigation"

  • This section is devoted to the ornate images and diagrams from navigation books, navigational ciphering books, and captain's logs, with the purpose of rendering an aesthetics of the sea from the eyes of everyday mariners.  ((The title here is a play on words--"The Art of Navigation" was an ideal for sailors, but their writing and imagery have been overlooked for their artfulness.))

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• "Booksellers & Instrument Makers"

  • The purpose of this section is to tell the stories of prominent maritime booksellers and instrument makers in London, Salem, New York, and Boston through their book catalogs and advertising ephemera. These items tell us not only about the popular and crucial scientific information of the day, but also the inner lives and spirituality of sailor-scholars. My goal is to theorize a notion of maritime "curation" in the early 18th and 19th centuries in Britain and America, with the primary example of the Essex Institute in Salem, MA.

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• "Navigational Objects"

  • This gallery of maritime navigational objects ​will provide brief descriptions, history, and timelines of the inventions of important maritime timekeepers, compasses, and mathematical instruments.​.

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• "Article: Robinson Crusoe"

  • Published on the Conversant Blog of the Phillips Library and the Connected Blog at the Peabody Essex Museum, I have shared my article on "Navigation in the Age of Robinson Crusoe," which combines my archival research with navigational history. Visit: http://connected.pem.org/navigation-in-the-age-of-robinson-crusoe/