Join us in Rhode Island for the
50th Anniversary Gaspee Days
Maritime History Symposium
Friday, May 29th & Saturday, May 30th, 2015
Who: Maritime historians, US historians, Librarians, Archivists, Museum specialists,
graduate students, and all those interested in maritime history. ( Ctrl + Click to follow links )
What: Gather for sessions that examine the legacy of Rhode Island’s Gaspee Affair and
other maritime topics related to New England’s maritime culture and history.
Come experience the enticement and rich history of Providence and Rhode Island.
Our conference site is situated at the historic India Point waterfront of Providence
and is a short walk to world-class restaurants, WaterFire (if lit), museums,
theaters, galleries, and shopping.
Where: Wyndham Garden Hotel / Providence
220 India Street, Providence, RI 02903 United States
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Reduced room rates available to conference attendees.
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Cost $40 per person (if any profit - to Gaspee Days Committee)
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Cocktail reception on Friday at 6 pm overlooking
Providence’s waterfront.
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Optional brief sail excursion (details pending)
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Continued….
Friday, May 29th:
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6 pm: Welcomes and Introductions - Cocktail reception on the deck overlooking India Point and
Providence Waterfront
7 pm: D. K. Abbass – Director, RI Marine Archaeology Project
What's the Gaspee and What's Not, What's Passé and What's Hot, and Why the Public Should
Care
Saturday, May 30th
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9 am: Marti Klein – California State University, Fullerton, Faculty, Department of Liberal Studies
Temporary Mobility, Travel Narratives, and the ‘Pull’ of the Sea
9:45 am BREAK
10 am: Christopher P. Magra – Assoc. Prof. of Early American History, Dept. of History, Univ. of
Tennessee
“Seeing their trade distressed”: Press Gangs, Profits, and Revolution
11 am: Peter and David Emerick – Glovers Field Musick, Uxbridge, Mass.
“Lumps of Pudding, Pieces of Pie”: Martial music of the 1770’s with a seafaring heritage
12 noon: LUNCH BREAK (Many fine restaurants a short stroll into Providence)
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1:30 pm: Joel Sokolsky, Prof of Political Science, Royal Military College of Canada, and David
Manning, author of Global Arms Series
The Newport Connection: A Study of the International Officers Program at the United States
Naval War College
 2:30 pm: John Laurence Busch – Independent Historian
Was It Something in the Water?: Connecticut’s Trailblazing Steamer Sons
 3:30 pm: Richard Bailey, Captain, and Jessica Wurzbacher, Executive Director,
Oliver Hazard Perry - Rhode Island
SSV Oliver Hazard Perry - Where the past meets the future
 4:30 pm: John Concannon – Webmaster and historian, Gaspee Days Committee
The Conspiracy to Destroy the Gaspee
Symposium Chair & Moderator: Steven Park, PhD, Maritime Studies and History, and Director of
Academic Services, University of Connecticut-Avery Point. Steven.Park@UConn.edu
Symposium Co-Chair: John Concannon, DO, FAAP, Web Historian, Gaspee Days Committee.
JConcannon@gaspee.org
The Gaspee Days Committee is a civic-minded, nonprofit organization that operates many community events in and around
Pawtuxet Village, including the famous Gaspee Days Parade each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the 1772
burning of the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island patriots as America's ‘First Blow for Freedom’TM
2015GaspeeDaysMaritimeHistoricalSymposium 4/2015
Buy tickets at EventBrite or Scan here:
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