Latest news with #CapeAnnMuseum
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- General
- Boston Globe
A Gloucester of another century, when fishing was king, returns in pictures
Blatchford (1868-1947) was a Gloucester native. After a few years living in Boston and Kittery, Maine, he returned home and never left. He spent four decades working as a bookkeeper for the New England Fish Company. His workspace overlooked the inner harbor. Think of his office window as a much larger version of a viewfinder. Blatchford started photographing in the 1890s, and the 27 photographs in 'Down to the Sea'(drawn from more than 250 in CAM's collection) date from that decade and up through 1913. This was a time when some 350 fishing vessels were working out of Gloucester. Ernest L. Blatchford, "Launch of the schooner Helen Miller Gould at John Bishop's Shipyard, Vincent Cove, Gloucester," 1900. Cape Ann Museum Advertisement Blatchford was an amateur photographer. Amateur can mean more than just not a professional. It tends to get forgotten that the word derives from the Latin 'amator,' 'lover,' and Blatchford's feeling for his subject matter can be felt in every image. Even more important than the obvious knowledge and experience he brought to bear was a sense of emotional connection. Ernest L. Blatchford, "Tugboat Startle in Gloucester's Inner Harbor," circa 1900. Cape Ann Museum Gifted amateur would be a more precise description of Blatchford. Although he was less concerned with form than content, his work has a lot going for it formally. Blatchford was a member of the Cape Ann Camera Club. One of the club's goals was 'to show the rest of New England that we can keep abreast of the times.' This Blatchford did. The graceful plume of steam from a tugboat in Gloucester Harbor evokes Pictorialism, the most artistically ambitious photographic movement of the era. Advertisement Elsewhere one notes the elegant spindliness of the bare masts of an iced-in schooner; the foamy wave raised by the launch of a schooner; the way Blatchford nearly fills the frame with the pile of salt that two sailors are shoveling in the hold of a ship. The removal of any larger context adds to the in-drawing unreality of the scene. Ernest L. Blatchford, "Shoveling salt in the hold of a salt bank in Gloucester Harbor," circa 1900. Cape Ann Museum Salting fish was crucially important in preservation. It was the reality of the fishing industry as well as its romance that drew Blatchford. The variety, too. He photographed not just fishing schooners, but also barks, sloops, shipwrecks, lighthouses, ferries, tugboats, and a US Customs launch. It was later used during Prohibition to chase rumrunners. That kind of detail is representative of how informative and thorough the wall texts are. 'Down to the Sea' honors Blatchford's documentary impulse with an ample selection of items relating to the industry. Three dozen objects related to fishing are in display cases. They lend a three-dimensional immediacy to the world we see in two dimensions in Blatchford's photographs. The items are marvelous as objects — many could be works of vernacular sculpture — and bear names no less marvelous. There are thole pins (to support oars), baggywrinkles (woven coverings for cables), wooden fids (a tool of conical shape used on rope and canvas), a heaver (a lever), a marlinspike (for rope work), a monkey's fist (a kind of knot used to secure the end of a rope). Advertisement Less esoteric are net-mending needles, glass floats, a wheelbarrow, a block with swivel hook and tackle, and both a fog horn and a speaking horn. Two insurance maps of the harbor area in 1917 give a rich sense of how much was going on there commercially. Of special note are a full-size in-shore dory, circa 1900, and two models. One is of a fishing schooner, the John Hay Hammond. The other, and it's truly a thing of enchantment, is of a steam ferry from the early teens, the Little Giant. Ernest L. Blatchford, "Waterboat Aqua Pura in Gloucester Harbor," circa 1900. Cape Ann Museum So much of the fascination of 'Down to the Sea' is the window it offers on a now-distant world. There's one photograph, though, that feels depressingly prophetic. It shows the Aqua Pura, a water boat that serviced the fishing fleet. Ads cover its sail. Baggywrinkles and wooden fids are all well and good, but even 125 years ago you couldn't get away from branding and marketing. DOWN TO THE SEA: The Photographs of Ernest L. Blatchford At Cape Ann Museum, CAM Green campus, 13 Poplar St., Gloucester, through Sept. 28. 978-283-0455, Mark Feeney can be reached at
Boston Globe
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Free events this week: Pop-up hip-hop performances, ‘Mean Girls' trivia, and the Greater Roxbury Book Fair
YO GO GLEN COC O 'Mean Girls,' known for its comedic influence and memorable one-liners, will become the topic du jour for Lord Hobo Brewing's trivia this Monday night. Brush up on the 2004 teen comedy's iconic references for the chance to take home a (metaphorical) crown May 12, 6-9 p.m. 5 Draper St., Woburn. Advertisement The Mexican art collective TRES will be at the Peabody Museum for an exhibition of their environmentalist project 'Castaway: The Afterlife of Plastic.' TRES (ilana boltvinik and rodrigo viñas) FAKE PLA STIC EARTH Tired of visiting the same paintings and ceramics on every art-venture? Perhaps you'd be interested in viewing more eccentric creations — something trashier . This Thursday,Harvard's Peabody Museum and Museums of Science & Culture will present art made from waste for the May 15, 6-7 p.m. 24 Oxford St., Cambridge. In collaboration with the Cambridge Hip Hop Collective, MIT Open Space will bring live hip-hop and R&B performances to Kendall Square this Wednesday. Noah Phoenix for MIT Open Space Advertisement MID DAY GROOVES If you're in Kendall Square Wednesday afternoon, there's a chance you may hear smooth instrumentals reverberating throughout the area. The source? May 14, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Suffolk Bldg., 292 Main St., Cambridge. LOCAL LITERARY FAIR The Greater Roxbury Book Fair returns for its third year, celebrating reading, literary connection, and local entrepreneurship. Along with author panels, workshops, and signings, an open-air local market of Roxbury-based vendors and literary organizations will be set up for attendees to shop or converse with local leaders. The programming will be full of interactive activities for all ages, bringing attention to the importance of literacy at any stage in life. May 17, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 149 Dudley St., Roxbury. Cape Ann Museum will show "Feathered Friends," a second-grade project and "Facing Back, Facing Forward," an eighth-grade project created by local children. Courtesy of Cape Ann Museum BUDDING ARTISTS As art lovers search for the artists of tomorrow, some children are already the artists of today. The Cape Ann Museum will host an opening reception to present two original art installations created by second- and eighth-grade students from Cape Ann Public Schools. Each work, made with the guidance of museum educators, was inspired by works in the CAM collections: 'The Feathered Friends,' an ode to Gloucester block printmakers Folly Cove Designers, and 'Facing Back, Facing Forward,' an introspective exploration of vintage maps and mapmaking, made with acrylic paints. May 17, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 13 Poplar St., Gloucester. g Advertisement P OETRY OPEN MIC Poets of all levels can expand their creative mind-set and find inspiration through a community-based experience. At Trident Booksellers' Sunday open mic, budding Dickinsons and Angelous in the making can stop by to test out their newest work (or others' that they love) in front of a crowd — readers are limited to three minutes, and yes, notecards and cheat sheets are welcome. Signups are first come, first served and begin at 6:30 p.m. May 18, 6:30-9 p.m. 338 Newbury St. Marianna Orozco can be reached at
