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By clicking on these links, you can go directly to particular sections:

Links to Maritime and Massachusetts History, Tourism and Preservation Websites
Links to Websites of Places Featured in this Itinerary
Selected Bibliography for Maritime History of Massachusetts
Children's Literature

Links to Maritime and Massachusetts History, Tourism and Preservation Websites

National Park Service Maritime Heritage Program
Advancing awareness and understanding of the role of maritime affairs in the history of the United States. Through leadership, assistance, and expertise in maritime history, preservation, and archaeology, the Maritime Heritage Program helps to interpret and preserve our maritime heritage.

Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism
Vacationing, dining, shopping, transportation and entertainment in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Tourism
Links to sites that participate in the Massachusetts Visitor Information Network Service program.

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Protecting, promoting and enhancing Massachusetts' wealth of natural, cultural and recreational resources for the well-being of all.

Preservation MASS
Statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Commonwealth's historic and cultural heritage.

Massachusetts Historical Society
For more than two centuries the Massachusetts Historical Society has been collecting and preserving materials relating to the history of the commonwealth and Nation. The holdings of the Massachusetts Historical Society encompass millions of rare and unique documents and artifacts vital to the study of American history.

American Lighthouse Foundation
Encouraging the historic preservation and restoration of lighthouse, lightship and lifesaving station artifacts and documents across the Nation.

United States Lighthouse Society
A non-profit historical and educational organization incorporated to educate, inform, and entertain those who are interested in America's lighthouses, past and present.

US Life-Saving Service Heritage Association
Founded at the Cape Cod National Seashore in 1995 to preserve the stations, history, boats and equipment of the US Life-Saving Service and US Coast Guard.

Massachusetts Maritime Museums
Links to maritime-related museums, historic sites and historic vessels in Massachusetts including, the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center and the Peabody Essex Museum.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
Sits astride the historic shipping routes and fishing grounds for numerous ports around Massachusetts.

Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itineraries 
Other travel itineraries in the National Park Service's ongoing series include many historic destinations that you can visit online or in person.  Each itinerary spotlights a different geographic region, community, or theme.

Teaching with Historic Places
This website, maintained by the National Park Service, offers online classroom-ready place-based lesson plans created by historians and educators to help teachers use historic places in the classroom.  Each lesson is linked to national standards for history and the social studies.

Maritime-related National Parks and National Heritage Areas of Massachusetts
Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, Cape Cod National Seashore, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Boston National Historical Park, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, Essex National Heritage Area protect and preserve our maritime history.

National Park Service Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER)
The HABS/HAER program documents important architectural, engineering and industrial sites throughout the United States and its territories. Its collections, including a number of Massachusetts sites, are archived at the Library of Congress and available online. You can view these by clicking on the link above and entering the search term "Massachusetts."

National Trust for Historic Preservation
Learn about the programs of and membership in the oldest national nonprofit preservation organization.

Historic Hotels of America
A feature of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Heritage Traveler program that provides information on historic hotels and package tours in the vicinity of this itinerary.

National Park Service Office of Tourism
National Parks have been interwoven with tourism from their earliest days. This website highlights the ways in which the National Park Service promotes and supports sustainable, responsible, informed and managed visitor use through cooperation and coordination with the tourism industry.

National Scenic Byways Program
This website, maintained by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, includes information on state and nationally designated byway routes throughout America based on their archeological, cultural, historic, natural, recreational, and scenic qualities. Visit the America’s Byways Connecticut River Byway website for more ideas.


Links to Websites of Places Featured in this Itinerary

Lowell's Boat Shop
Twin Lights Historic District--Cape Ann Light Station
Adventure
Salem Maritime National Historic Site
Nathaniel Bowditch House
Boston Naval Shipyard
USS Constitution
USS Cassin Young
Luna (tugboat)
Union Oyster House
Mariner's House
Boston Light
Captain John Wilson House and Bates Ship Chandlery
Point Allerton Lifesaving Station
Scituate Light
Old Shipbuilder's Historic District -- Nathaniel Winsor, Jr. House
Bradford Family Houses in Duxbury -- Gershom Bradford House
Plymouth Light Station
Bird Island Light
Wing's Neck Light
Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat CG 3650
Nauset Beach Light
Wellfleet Center Historic District
Highland Light Station
Long Point Light Station
Wood End Light Lookout Station
Race Point Light Station
Nobska Point Light Station
Gay Head Light
East Chop (Telegraph Hill) Light
Edgartown Village Historic District
Edgartown Harbor Light
Cape Poge Light
Nantucket Historic District
Sankaty Head Light
New Bedford Historic District
New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park
Ernestina
Palmer Island Light Station
PT 796
PT 617
USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.
USS Lionfish
USS Massachusetts

 

Selected Bibliography for Maritime History of Massachusetts

Beattie, Mary Elizabeth. Obligation and Opportunity: Single Maritime Women in Boston, 1870-1930. Ithaca, New York: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000.

Bither, Barbara A. and Boston National Historical Park. Charlestown Navy Yard. Images of America. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 1999.

Bourne, Russell. The View From Front Street: Travels Through New England's Historic Fishing Communities. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.

Cheney, Robert K. and Roland H. Woodwell. Maritime History on the Merrimac: Shipbuilding. Newburyport, Massachusetts: Newburyport Press, 1964.

Clafin, James. Lighthouses and Life Saving Along the Massachusetts Coast. Images of America. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 1998.

Clifford, J. Candace and Mary Louise Clifford. Nineteenth-Century Lights: Historic Images of American Lighthouses. Alexandria, Virginia: Cypress Communications, 2000.

Connolly, James B. The Port of Gloucester. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1940.

Fischer, Lewis R. The Market for Seamen in the Age of Sail. St. John's, Nfld.: International Maritime Economic History Association, 1994.

Garland, Joseph E. Down to the Sea: The Fishing Schooners of Gloucester. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 1983.

German, Andrew W. Down on T Wharf: the Boston Fisheries as seen through the Photographs of Henry D. Fisher. Mystic, Connecticut: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1982.

Harrison, Tim and Ray Jones. The Golden Age of American Lighthouses: A Nostalgic Look at the U.S. Lights from 1850-1939. Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press, 2002.

Heyrman, Christine Leigh. Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690-1750. New York: Norton, 1984.

Johnston, Paul Forsythe. The New England Fisheries: A Treasure Greater than Gold. Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Salem, 1984.

Kimball, John R. H. Disasters &c: The Maritime World of Marblehead 1815-1865. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Peter E. Randall, 2005.

Kraus, Theresa L. The Department of the Navy. Know Your Government. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1941.

National Park Service. Salem: Maritime Salem in the Age of Sail. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, 1987.

----------------------. Bowditch's Salem: A Walking Tour of the Great Age of Sail. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Interior, 2003.

Peckham, Courtney Ellis. Essex Shipbuilding. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.

Shanks, Ralph and Wick York. The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard. Petaluma: Costano Books, 1996; reprint, Petaluma: Costano Books, 2000.

Snow, Edward Rowe. The Lighthouses of New England, updated by Jeremy D'Entremont. Beverly, Massachusetts: Commonwealth Editions, 2002.

Story, Dana A. Growing up in a Shipyard: Reminiscences of Shipbuilding in Essex, Massachusetts. Mystic, Connecticut: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1991.

---------------. The Shipbuilders of Essex: A Chronicle of Yankee Endeavor. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Ten Pound Island Book Company, 1995.

Children's Literature

Carse, Robert. The Young Mariners: A History of Maritime Salem. New York: W.W. Norton, 1966.

Knight, James E. and David Wenzel. Salem Days: Life in a Colonial Seaport. Mahwah, New Jersey: Troll Associates, 1982.

 

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