Using exclusive oral histories and primary resources straight from our extensive archives, we focus on the vessels, crew, and passengers that revolutionized the way that we traveled, traded, and immigrated. Steam ahead with us as we navigate the waters of America’s rich maritime heritage.
This program is generously funded by Ted Scull who also helps source interviews, research, and provides visual materials. You can view all the films below or click on the headings to see the theme pages that includes additional information, lesson plans, and more.
Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for Part I of a discussion on Japanese immigration to Hawai’i by steamship and the practice of picture brides with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of History and Ethnic Studies Dr. Kelli Nakamura. You’ll learn about how the American Civil War and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 fueled a need for sugar plantation workers in Hawai’i. You will also hear about the practice of picture brides, or arranged marriages where partners were selected by photos and personal recommendations of friends and family.
Join Education Director Aimee Bachari for Part II of a discussion on Japanese immigration to Hawai’i by steamship and the practice of picture brides with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor of History and Ethnic Studies Dr. Kelli Nakamura. In this episode, you will hear about the practice of picture brides, or arranged marriages where partners were selected by photos and personal recommendations of friends and family. Topics discussed in this part of the interview range from women’s work, domestic violence, WWII and internment, and citizenship issues.
Watch this oral history that details what it was like immigrating to America from Germany post-WWII on board the United States Line’s ship, the SS United States. In between a conversation with Brigitte Bentele and Education Director Aimee Bachari, you will see primary source photographs and posters from SSHSA Archives in addition to personal photographs provided by Brigitte.
This film details the history of Italian Immigration to the United States via steamship in the early 20th century, through the eyes of Gerardo D’Amico. Learn about the business of the immigrant trade and how changing laws and anti-immigration sentiment in America forced the steamship companies to focus more on pleasure cruising.
Learn about one man’s story escaping Czechoslovakia the day before the Nazi’s invaded. This anonymous interviewee talks with SSHSA Education Director Aimee Bachari and Former Board President Ted Scull and describes the process of leaving Europe for America during World War II. You will see primary source images from the SSHSA Archive as well as images from personal collections of the interviewee. Images and video in the public domain are also used.
Across the US, pilotage remained a profession for white men until the late twentieth century. In 1983, Captain Paul Brown became the first Black Houston Pilot and the second in the nation. By 2001, the Houston Pilots led the way in hiring minorities and women, and a few years later it formed a nonprofit called Anchor Watch, to offer scholarships to maritime students in need and boost opportunities for minority and women candidates. Captain Holly Cooper joined the Houston Pilots in 1994 as the group’s 151st pilot and the first woman to begin training as a deputy. You’ll hear excerpts from two oral history interviews with the first Black Port Commissioner in Houston, Howard Middleton, who served from from 1978 to 1996 and passed away in 2023 and the first female Houston pilot, Holly Cooper, now retired. Both interviews were conducted for the Welcome Wilson Houston History Collaborative, a project of the University of Houston’s Center for Public History. You can watch more from Holly’s interview here.
Join SSHSA Education Director Aimee Bachari and the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes Archivist Mark Sprang to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The two discuss what makes this shipwreck so popular, the changes that came about after, and the material related to “Big Fitz” that you can find in Mark’s archive and collections at Bowling Green State University. Most importantly, SSHSA remembers the 29 men that were lost that fateful day when the “Big Fitz” went down on November 10, 1975, just 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Michigan. You will see historic images, video, and documents from both Mark’s archive and the SSHSA archive along with materials in the public domain.
Learn about the worst natural disaster in American history when a Category 4 storm surge hit Galveston killing between 6,000 and 12,000 people. You’ll hear a clip from an interview with survivor Katharine Vedder Pauls from the Rosenberg Library detailing the horrors experienced in Galveston. Then Education Director Aimee Bachari talks with PowerShips author Eric Pearson to discuss the ships impacted by the storm from its beginning, in the Caribbean, in Galveston, and to the Great Lakes and beyond. You can hear the full interview on our podcast Ship History Radio.
Join us for a chat with Doug Tilden, former VP of United States Lines, South America, and later CEO of Marine Terminals. Doug spent the last five decades in the shipping industry, working his way up from being a dock clerk to serving as the top executive within a Global Fortune 100 corporation. In Part I of this series, you will learn about the move from breakbulk cargo to the rise of containerization.
Watch Part II with Doug Tilden and learn about the cost savings in the move from breakbulk cargo to the rise of containerization and the evolution of container ships.
Join us on this segment of SHIPS where we team up with Rhode Island-based documentarian Mark Starr whose interviews and film help us learn women in the commercial fishing industry at Point Judith. Background about the port is provided by Dan Costa. You’ll hear from Jenn Fish, Mary O’Rourke, and Stesha Campbell about their experiences working in the fishing industry.
You’ll hear from Ted Scull about his time working for Holland America Line from 1964 – 1966 in Sales Promotion. It was here that he witnessed the major changes to Manhattan’s waterfront. The Container Revolution was taking over from the breakbulk ships that were loaded and unloaded along the city’s waterfront. Long stretches were abandoned for years. Increases in air travel took over from point-to-point passenger ship travel and ocean liners were replaced by leisure travel aboard cruise ships. You will also hear from Stuart Gewirtzman who shares photographs he took of Manhattan’s waterfront and the ships you may see in the harbor today.
In this next episode of our program SHIPS , you will hear from interviewee Jim Shaw about how he and other passengers kept themselves busy on board during long voyages. Jim details the various deck games and provides historical context about how these games on ships have changed from the 1910s to the current offerings on cruise ships and everything in between.
In this episode of our program SHIPS, you will hear from interviewees Alan Zamchick, Ted Scull, and Charles Zuckerman about the ways they kept busy while at sea. Alan details what it was like as a child exploring the ship and having newfound freedom with his brother. Ted discusses two voyages and the infamous “Crossing the Line” ceremony. Charles talks about playing trivia, which many might not think of when discussing deck games and leisure at sea.
Watch the latest episode on ships as transport in SHIPS that features an oral history with Paul Klee. He discusses what it was like traveling via steamship to Europe at the age of 17 on board the student ship the SS Groote Beer. He details what the ship was like compared to the larger ocean liners and how exciting it was to travel alone as an adult for the first time among so many others students.
Watch this oral history with Theodore Scull. He discusses what it was like traveling via steamship to Europe at the age of 17 on board the SS Liberte of the French Line, traveling through Europe, and returning on the SS Flandre. Ted recalls what it was like on board, exploring other classes, and how he fell in love with this community at sea. He details his experiences traveling across Europe and how this trip influenced the rest of his life. Topics include travel, leisure on board, class differences, post-WWII Europe, and traveling through storms at sea.
Daniel F. Harrington recounts the gruesome tragedy that took place on February 11, 1907, one of New England’s worst maritime tragedies, when the Larchmont sank in icy waters off Watch Hill after a collision with the three-masted schooner Harry Knowlton. A former East Providence City Council Member, Harrington began writing on the subject and found the stories of the victims and survivors so interesting that he created an hour-long presentation on the topic and has been touring local libraries and historical societies. You’ll hear about murder, suicide, and 7 inches of ice coating the bodies that washed ashore on Block Island.
SSHSA Curator Jordan Berson discusses the fascinating Elmo N. Pickerill Collection. Pickerill served as Chief Radio Operator aboard the SS Leviathan for most of the ship’s career. He made a name for himself in the fields of aviation and wireless radiotelegraphy, being taught by the Wright brothers AND Guglielmo Marconi! He was credited with making the first ever airplane-to-ground radio communication, while solo-piloting a biplane in August 1910, but because of the absence of period news reports, some historians have suggested that Pickerill fabricated the story. In 1968, when Pickerill passed away, a large volume of the papers and mementos that he saved from his time working on theLeviathan were donated to SSHSA.
