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Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum and Education Cente

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Participants can create a Nautical Trinket Dish on Thursday, January 11. Photo courtesy of The Whaling Museum

The Whaling Museum & Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor will present Crafts & Cocktails, an exciting new adult series beginning this December and continuing monthly on Thursday evenings. 

The Whaling Museum invites adults to get creative and learn new skills while enjoying thoughtfully selected cocktails to enhance each monthly program. This new series will incorporate crafts for adults that celebrate history, science, and the sea. Each month, the museum education team chooses a craft that highlights a link to the museum, either from a historical or scientific angle. Cocktails are selected to further immerse participants in the theme of the evening. 

“Just as we find ourselves drawn to the sea today, artists and artisans throughout human history have found inspiration in the watery parts of the world.  Through educator-led instruction and artifact exploration, participants will have the opportunity to explore the fascinating origins of sea-inspired crafts, while engaging their creativity and learning new skills. Our carefully curated accompanying cocktails will further bring the past to life as we celebrate Long Island’s maritime heritage,” said Brenna McCormick-Thompson, Curator of Education at The Whaling Museum.

Felted Whale ornament

The debut session stars an adorable, felted whale ornament and mulled wine to get in the spirit. It will take place on December 7, 2023. Participants work with wool and a needle to craft a whale ornament with fins, eyes, a tail, and a loop for hanging. Mulled wine will be served. The full program description is as follows: 

Felted Whale Ornaments and Mulled Wine: Join the staff for this festive felting workshop as we explore the history of wool crafting!  Discover how whalers carved knitting needles and sewing tools out of whalebone for their wives and loved ones and see examples from our collection.  Design and create a needle-felted whale ornament to take home. Sip a festive mulled wine cocktail as you work and learn about the origins of this traditional drink.

Nautical Trinket Dish

The January session will take place on January 11, 2024. Participants will decoupage shells with a sample of patterns to choose from and use paints to decorate it as a fanciful trinket dish. Sample dishes will be shared for design ideas. Champagne will be served as the cocktail for the evening. The full program description is as follows:

Nautical Trinket Dish: This January the museum will be celebrating one of life’s most iconic duos — oysters and champagne! Explore the fundamental role oysters have played in the history of New York and discover current efforts to bring these bivalves back to Long Island Sound. Then, dive into the surprising history of champagne and enjoy a glass of bubbly while designing a unique seashell trinket tray.

Watercolor Wonders

The February session takes place on February 8 2023. Participants will receive watercolor paper and paint with instructions for different watercolor techniques to use in their design. The cocktail will be a “layered” vodka drink. The full program description is as follows:

Watercolor Wonders: Explore the science of water through the world’s oldest kind of painting — watercolor!  Discover how both sailors and painters learned to exploit the unique properties of water for their own purposes.  Harness the power of physics to engineer a colorful layered cocktail to enjoy while you experiment with a variety of fundamental watercolor techniques. Create a nautical watercolor painting to take home.

The final session in the museum’s winter series will take place on March 7, 2024. Participants decorate a planter with sea shells and plant a succulent to take home. Rum will be served as the cocktail of the evening in honor of the sailors that used to drink grog while out at sea. The full program description is as follows: 

Seashell Succulent Planter

Seashell Succulent Planter: Whales, dolphins, starfish….not the sea creatures, but the PLANTS! Join us to explore the incredible world of succulents.  For sailors out at sea, every drop of water was precious, but these hardy plants thrive in dry conditions – in fact, too much water often leads to their demise!  Learn about the health benefits and easy care for these houseplants and decorate a terracotta pot with seashells to plant your very own sea creature succulent cutting.  Unlike those sailors, we won’t leave you high and dry!  Sip a rum cocktail while you work in homage to the grog sailors used to drink.

“Adults will appreciate the dedicated attention to detail museum educators have made when crafting each session to encapsulate educational themes with adult enjoyment. Each evening is a perfect opportunity for friends, partners or family members to gather and spend time in a relaxed and unique environment. They’ll go home with something to remember the evening by in addition to a new skill,” added Gina Van Bell, Assistant Director at The Whaling Museum.

The Whaling Museum is located at 301 Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor. Each Craft & Cocktails session is approximately 1.5 hours long at begins at 6:30 p.m. Admission is $30 per participant and $20 for Museum Members.  Registration is online at cshwhalingmuseum.org/craftsandcocktails. For further information, call 631-367-3418.

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A ship in a bottle from Lester Kappel's collection. Photo by Gina Van Bell
Lester Kappel with his collection of ships in a bottle.
Lester Kappel's collection of ships in a bottle.
Lester Kappel's collection of ships in a bottle.
Lester Kappel's collection of ships in a bottle. Photo by Gina Van Bell

When Jeff Kappel’s father Lester passed away this May just a few months shy of his 100th birthday, Jeff was faced with the decision of rehoming his father’s extensive collection of ships in a bottle. Ultimately he chose 19 items to donate to The Whaling Museum & Education Center in Cold Spring Harbor. 

“I want it seen. My father collected for years and loved sharing his collection with people, and I want to continue that,” he said.

The art of ship in a bottle is a finely crafted and challenging folk art. The earliest surviving models date to the late 1700’s. Popularized by both American and European mariners who needed to pass long hours at sea, the creator would use a discarded bottle, bits of wood and other materials to create a tiny yet accurate model of a sailing ship. 

With great patience for handiwork, the model was created with complete but collapsible rigging, which was inserted folded into the neck of a bottle, set into a painted diorama, and had the sails raised. Each ship in a bottle is unique, and was often created as a gift or souvenir. Retired seamen also maintained their skills by engaging in the hobby.

Lester Kappel spent a lifetime collecting ships in a bottle, some of which were loaned years ago to the Whaling Museum for a special exhibition about the craft.

Born in Brooklyn in 1923, Lester spent childhood summers in Long Beach. In 1939, his family moved to the area on Belmont Avenue. He attended Long Beach High School and studied aircraft mechanics at Roosevelt Aviation School in 1941 (where Roosevelt Field Mall is located today). He began working for Pan American Airlines, and served in the Navy for 18 months before transferring to the Army, where he worked on aircraft. After the war, he continued to work as an aircraft mechanic, as well as in his family’s printing business in Manhattan.

For 65 years, Lester was a member of the Point Lookout/Lido Fire Department, serving as Captain of the Lido company and fire commissioner for over five decades. He also joined the staff of the Long Beach Public Library in 1983.

The largest ship in a bottle in the collection “was found in Queens for $24. Whenever my father traveled, he would look for ships in a bottle to collect — and yet here in Queens was this find!”

Lester Kappel was not only a collector of ships in a bottle. He and his wife filled their home with antique firefighting equipment, wooden duck decoys, artwork, glass bottles, and household objects such as glove stretchers. The walls of his kitchen are lined with antique and vintage kitchen tools. 

“We are very thankful to Jeff and the Kappel family for gifting these remarkable items to The Whaling Museum’s collection,” says Nomi Dayan, Executive Director. “This is a significant moment in helping us preserve and promote a unique part of our maritime heritage.”

A selection of ships in a bottle from this collection will be exhibited in the Museum’s craft workshop by September of this year and will be on display thereafter. 

The Whaling Museum, 301 Main St., Cold Spring Harbor is open in the summer from Tuesday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Beginning Sept. 3rd, the museum will be open from Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more informtion, call 631-367-3418 or visit www.cshwhalingmuseum.org.

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Stock photo

Join the Whaling Museum of Cold Spring Harbor for an online music-themed night of trivia on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. From whale songs to sea shanties to cricket chirps to Mozart to Broadway to the Beatles to Beyonce, join them for a tune-filled evening with trivia questions about music in film, television, art, nature, and history. For adults. Free to play, $10 donation appreciated. To register, visit www.cshwhalingmuseum.org. For more information, call 631-367-3418.

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Offers insight into Indigenous maritime history
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'Shinnecock Indian Man, 18th Century,' oil painting by David Martine
One of the displays in the exhibit.
'Messemennuck' by Jeremy Dennis
One of the walls of the exhibit highlights the Shinnecock and offshore whaling. Above, a painting by David Martine titled Late Afternoon Rest.
'The Point Shinnecock' by Jeremy Dennis
Shinnecock arrowheads and shells on display at the exhibit.

By Tara Mae

For thousands of years, the Shinnecock (“People of the Stony Shore”) have depended on the water and maritime industries. 

Expressed mainly through contemporary artwork, first person narratives, and historic artifacts, the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum and Education Center’s new exhibit, Shinnecock Artists and Long Island’s First Whalers, explores the often overlooked history of Indigenous whalers as well as the relationship between Indigenous people of Long Island and the sea.  

“We wanted to spotlight the fascinating but under-told maritime history of the Shinnecock people. We used this exhibit as a launch to spotlight history as a whole,” Executive Director Nomi Dayan explained. 

This dynamic is largely represented through the work of Shinnecock artists, especially Jeremy Dennis and David Martine, who contributed photography and oil paintings. Interactive elements are also incorporated into the installation, such as a children’s activity table and videos by Shinnecock artist Shane Weeks. 

“We took a conscious step of staff stepping back and collaborating with several native artists, to spotlight native voices,” Dayan added. 

Relics from Long Island’s Indigenous nautical past are showcased, like scrub brushes, items extracted from a midden (an old  trash heap), and a small whalebone paddle. “I like how Nomi chose to frame our heritage and history through the lens of whaling … It’s a good way to show whaling as part of our history,” said Dennis. 

Dependence on the ocean for survival influenced many aspects of tribal life, encompassing arts, values, and culture. However, much of the most accessible scholarship focuses on the European settlers’ relationship to the sea and overlooks local Indigenous history.

“Any exhibit like this is important for examining the Native American culture of Long Island, especially pertaining to the history of whaling and maritime culture of the local tribes, which were big parts of the culture for thousands of years. Native American culture doesn’t have much mainstream recognition except in inaccurate movie and television portrayals,” Martine said.

Open to the public through 2022, the display is a manifestation of the museum’s concerted effort to elevate and amplify the stories of traditionally otherized groups and diversify the stories the museum presents, according to Dayan.  

“It came out of a strategic initiative … we prioritize telling stories of historically marginalized people. Pivoting to tell stories of Indigenous people addresses several needs, including strengthening visibility of the Shinnecock people, who have a long history of marginalization and dispossession. A preliminary study of the public indicated that it had limited prior knowledge of the Shinnecock, but interest in the tribe’s ways and culture was high,” she said. 

Dennis similarly recognizes the impact of this exhibit. “There is a misunderstanding that the Shinnecock are no longer here, so creating any type of visual art or expression is a good start of showing that we are still here,” he said.  

Like other Indigenous communities, the Shinnecock are currently being disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In highlighting the work of Indigenous artists, the museum expands patrons’ awareness of the Shinnecock tribe’s continued presence on Long Island and broadens their understanding of its history, according to Dayan. 

To kick off programming for the exhibit, a virtual artist chat with Jeremy Dennis will be held on February 17 at 6 p.m. Dennis will discuss his landscape photography project, On This Site — Indigenous Long Island. Tickets may be obtained online at www.cshwhalingmuseum.org/events, under the “Virtual Chats” tab.

The Whaling Museum is located at 301 Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor and is currently open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets to the exhibit may be purchased online at www.cshwhalingmuseum.org/visit. Social distancing will be observed and masks are mandatory for entry. For further information, call 631-367-3418.

Photos courtesy of Whaling Museum of Cold Spring Harbor

 

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