Conversations with Classic Boats

Conversations with Classic Boats is a podcast about classic boat designs and the stories behind them. Hosted by Tom Darling, the 30th episode features two of the most interesting curators in the marine museum world.

Meet Christina Connett Brophy of the Mystic Seaport Museum (MSM) in Mystic, CT and Evelyn Ansel of the Herreshoff Marine Museum (HMM) in Bristol, RI. In this podcast, Christina and Evelyn talk about their personal paths to the positions today and provide a glimpse of the exhibitions current and in the near future.

Christina grew up on a school at sea in a Bill Tripp designed yacht, the Geronimo. As part of her family’s activities, they tagged sharks and turtles while taking students out on the waters from Nova Scotia to the Bahamas. Her curatorial career took her through the New Bedford Whaling Museum where she did shows on notable figures like the South Coast’s Ray Hunt.

Evelyn is from the new generation of marine curators, combining an early life growing up on the Mystic Seaport campus with the new digital curatorial know-how. Today, she masters cameras and digital database to bring the public the details of the greatest polymath in American boating design and construction, Nathanael G. Herreshoff. With her online Code Flag Lima Project and the current Aria Gallery display of rigged models on the upper floor of the Herreshoff, she demonstrates the new and the traditional aspects of this shrine to the Wizard of Bristol.