Tours of Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute
GMGI, 417 Main St., Gloucester (wheelchair-accessible)

The Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute will offer 30-minute tours of its beautiful harbor-front facility. You'll learn about the research projects ongoing at GMGI and how their findings impact the state of our oceans and human health. One of the current projects on view studies the amazing ability of different species of sea urchins to live a long life without developing cancer.

Photo courtesy GMGI.

Gloucester Harbor Readings + Songs
Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop, Gloucester (wheelchair-accessible)

Numerous poets, novelists, historians, and essayists have written in exciting ways about Gloucester Harbor. On Friday evening, Cape Ann residents will read short passages from selected prose and poetry highlighting the importance of the harbor to Cape Ann's industries, workers, and residents - past and present. The readers - including Gordon Baird, Jill Carter, James Craig, John Cunningham, Lee Cunningham, Justin Demetri, Margaret Garland, JoeAnn Hart, Monica Lawton, Theo MacGregor, George Sibley,  and Judy Walcott - will convey, through readings from a variety of sources, the importance of our amazing natural harbor from the time of Samuel Champlain to the present day. 

The British salt ship Falka and the tugboat Eveleth at the Gloucester Fresh Fish Co. Wharf, 1898, photograph by Ernest L. Blatchford. Gordon Thomas Photograph Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives. Museum Purchase/Gift [2794]. Courtesy Cape Ann Museum and Archives.

"Down the Harbor," with singer Michael O'Leary and guitarist Gary Dolinsky, will conclude the Friday evening program. Michael and Gary will share a variety of maritime songs, from tragic to comic, relating to life in and around Gloucester Harbor from the 1800s to recent times.  

The Harbor and Its Impact on Cape Ann's History, Art, Literature, and Commerce
Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop, Gloucester (wheelchair-accessible)

Left: An aerial view of Gloucester Harbor taken from Hammond Street (detail), 1901, photograph by Ernest L. Blatchford. Gordon Thomas Photograph Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives. Museum Purchase/Gift [2794]. Courtesy Cape Ann Museum and Archives. Middle: Aerial view of the Maritime Gloucester campus, with Schooner Adventure at the dock. Courtesy Maritime Gloucester. Right: John Sloan (1871-1951). Glare on the Bay, c. 1914.  Oil on canvas.  Collection of the Cape Ann Museum. Gift of Robert L. French, 2009 [2009.051.011]. Courtesy Cape Ann Museum.

Saturday morning begins with remarks by Gloucester Mayor Greg Verga, Maritime Gloucester Director Michael DeKoster, and JBS President Catherine Bayliss. Short illustrated presentations will be given by Cape Ann experts on important aspects of Gloucester Harbor, with a break for outdoor tours and a bag lunch.

• Maritime Gloucester Historian Justin Demetri, The Burnham Brothers Story, 1838-1925. Justin will take us on a fascinating journey through the origins of the Burnham Brothers Marine Railways, showcasing historic photos and news clippings. Discover 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 curator Martha Oaks, Le Beau Port, Gloucester Harbor in American Art. For centuries, Gloucester Harbor has provided inspiration for amateur and professional artists alike. 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, the Harbor in all its nuances has been captured in countless paintings, drawings, and prints. Martha’s talk will provide a survey of the subject, enriching our appreciation of this amazing resource. 

• Gloucester High School English teacher James Cook, Harborside Civics Lessons: Gloucester Harbor in the Political Imagination of Gloucester Writers.  With Gloucester Harbor and environs at its center, the talk will explore overlapping and divergent ways that Gloucester writers, including Olson, Garland, and Anastas, imagine civic engagement and responsibility.

• Lunch break with outdoor tours exploring the history of the working waterfront led by Justin Demetri and a demonstration on the wharf by Mass Oyster Project volunteer Louise Grindrod. A bag lunch will be provided.

• JBS Board member and retired professor John T. Day, "The Center of Her Constituency": Gloucester Harbor and Bayliss. References to the harbor abound in Bayliss’s works; it is central to his conception of his “Lady Gloucester” world. He creates multiple lavish descriptions of the harbor, its subparts and distinctive features, including landmarks now long gone. While a repeated geographic location, the harbor is often the place of significant encounters and emotional experiences. It can serve as a socioeconomic marker, as well as a soothing vista, a point of reference observed out of windows and from various perspectives and in different seasons.

• Neptune's Harvest Ann Malloy, Evolution of a Fishing Family, in Changing Times. Ann, co-owner of Ocean Crest Seafoods and Neptune’s Harvest Fertilizer, will talk about her family history in Gloucester’s working waterfront. She’ll discuss the many changes she’s seen over the last 60 years and how the business has evolved, and continues to do so, to stay afloat.

Exhibit and gallery talk: Down to the Sea, The Photographs of Ernest L. Blatchford (limited capacity)
CAM Green, Cape Ann Museum, 13 Poplar Street, Gloucester

Sunday morning will feature a visit to the exhibit at the CAM Green campus of maritime photographs taken in the early 20th century by Ernest Blatchford (1868-1947), a Gloucester native who managed the local office of the New England Fish Company, located at the foot of Duncan's Point. The exhibit, which focuses on the fishing industry, is accompanied by objects from the Museum's collection that deal with the processing of fish, the ancillary vessels working in Gloucester Harbor during the early 1900s, and the outfitting of fishing vessels. A gallery talk will given by Cape Ann Museum's Brittany Cook. 

The four-master George E. Walcott of Bath, Maine in Deep Hole, circa September 1910, photograph by Ernest L. Blatchford. Harold Adams Photograph Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives. Gift of Rachel Adams Asher and James Adams, 2002 [2002.23]. Courtesy Cape Ann Museum and Archives.

11:00 am -1:15 pm

Walking Tour: Waterfront Reflections (limited capacity)
Led by Cape Ann Museum docent Trina Smith, this guided walk will focus on changes in Gloucester’s Harbor Village as it advanced from the home of a few to the workplace of many during the late 18th to early 20th centuries. A mix of structures past and present, heroes, art, and waterfront activity all inform the picture of the diverse and vibrant community that emerged along the shore of Le Beau Port, the beautiful port.