"Gloucester Harbor - The Soul of Cape Ann" was the subject of the Jonathan Bayliss Society's multidisciplinary conference on the weekend of September 5-7, 2025. Bayliss lived and wrote within about half a mile of Gloucester Harbor for more than fifty years, and his wide-ranging GLOUCESTERMAN novels refer countless times to Gloucester's magnificent natural harbor and its working waterfront. The JBS is grateful for support from conference partners Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, Gloucester Writers Center, Maritime Gloucester, Mass Oyster Project, Neptune's Harvest, Sawyer Free Library, and Schooner Adventure. The conference was funded in part by the Gloucester and Rockport Cultural Councils, local agencies supported by the Mass Cultural Council, by the Brace Cove Foundation, and by individual donors. Much of the conference took place at Maritime Gloucester's historic complex of buildings, wharves, and marine railway at the edge of the working harbor - the perfect venue for harbor-related talks, readings, song, and waterfront tours. |
Gloucester Harbor - The Soul of Cape Ann September 2025On Friday afternoon we visited the harborside location of Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute to hear about its fascinating marine-related research. In the evening at Maritime Gloucester in a short program led by JBS member Peter Littlefield, Cape Ann residents Gordon Baird, Jill Carter, James Craig, John Cunningham, Lee Cunningham, Justin Demetri, Margaret Garland, JoeAnn Hart, Monica Lawton, Theo MacGregor, Martin Ray, Ken Riaf, George Sibley, Tommy Testaverde, and Judy Walcott read Harbor-related passages from a variety of sources stressing the importance of Gloucester Harbor from the time of Samuel Champlain to the present day. The readings were followed by "Down the Harbor" with singer Michael O'Leary and guitarist Michael Dolinsky, who shared a variety of maritime songs, from tragic to comic, relating to life in and around Gloucester Harbor from the 1800s to recent times. |
On Saturday at Maritime Gloucester, after remarks by Gloucester Mayor Greg Verga, Maritime Gloucester Director Michael DeKoster, and JBS President Catherine Bayliss, we enjoyed short talks, breaking for lunch and tours on the docks with Justin Demetri of Maritime Gloucester and Louise Grindrod of Mass Oyster Project. Justin Demetri's talk took us on a fascinating journey through the origins of the Burnham Brothers Marine Railways, showcasing historic photos and news clippings covering the incredible history of Parker, Elias, and Joseph Burnham, including their contributions to Gloucester, the construction of America's oldest functional marine railway, and more. Cape Ann Museum's chief curator, Martha Oaks, enriched our experience of the Harbor through her illustrated talk, "Le Beau Port, Gloucester Harbor in American Art," demonstrating that the Harbor has provided inspiration for amateur and professional artists alike in countless paintings, drawings, and prints, from Fitz Henry Lane in the mid-19th century, through early 20th-century painters such as Jane Peterson and Stuart Davis, to Jeff Weaver today. James Cook, a poet and Gloucester High School English teacher, discussed "Harborside Civics Lessons: Gloucester Harbor in the Political Imagination of Gloucester Writers." With Gloucester Harbor and environs at its center, the talk explored overlapping and divergent ways that Gloucester writers, including Olson, Garland, and Anastas, imagine civic engagement and responsibility.JBS Board member and retired professor John T. Day presented "'The Center of Her Constituency': Gloucester Harbor and Bayliss," in which he showed the ways in which the many references to the harbor in Bayliss’s works are central to Bayliss's conception of his “Lady Gloucester” fictional world. Neptune's Harvest Ann Molloy was our final Saturday speaker, whose talk was entitled "Evolution of a Fishing Family, in Changing Times." Ann, co-owner of Ocean Crest Seafoods and Neptune’s Harvest Fertilizer, talked about her family's history in Gloucester’s working waterfront. She discussed the many changes she has seen over the past sixty years and how the business has evolved, and continues to do so, to stay afloat. Saturday evening, at Short & Main Restaurant in downtown Gloucester, many conference attendees gathered for a meal, silent auction of maritime-related items, and entertaining reminiscences by George Sibley and Ken Riaf about the somewhat unorthodox fishing family headed by Captain Bill Sibley and his wife, Peggy. |
On Sunday morning we were treated to a fascinating private tour, by Cape Ann Museum docent Gail Anderson, of the Blatchford maritime photography exhibit at the CAM Green campus. On Sunday afternoon CAM docent Trina Smith and JBS Board member John Day - undeterred by rain - led waterfront walks taking in scenes that we had been hearing about throughout the conference. They enriched our sense of the rich history of Gloucester's waterfront. Some conference goers joined the Sunday afternoon sail on the Schooner Adventure in spite of uncertain weather conditions. They got a taste of what sailing was like on a fishing schooner and learned about Adventure's history from Captain Greg Bover and Adventure docent Paul Romary. Because the Adventure turned 99 years old in 2025, and 9/7/2025 was the 99th birthday of Jonathan Bayliss, attendees were treated to a birthday cake decorated with the number 99. We are pleased to preserve here for reference the list of harbor-related resources supplied by Sawyer Free Library. |
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