Blog Roundup #47 | Abby Epplett, Historian
Abigail Epplett
Marketing Operations Specialist @ Waters | Accessibility Advocate | Available for Freelance Projects
For this week's roundup from my blog, Abby Epplett, Historian, I cover my trip to Berkley, MA; a six-post miniseries on the joys of Mystic Seaport Museum; and two more installments to my Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical series. As an added bonus, I have a new article on the website Mainly Museums. Enjoy!
Berkley, MA
Located in the tiny town of Berkley with a population under 7,000, this museum told the history of the rural community with a focus on military uniforms and local businesses. The collection lives in the beautifully restored and updated Old Town Hall, which once housed the library. Because of this work, the building had the best lighting system I have seen in any museum.
For the final leg of my trip back on Sunday, July 14, 2024, I made several quick history stops around Berkley, MA, including the town’s Carnegie library, nearby church, historic homes, and Dighton Rock State Park.
Mystic Seaport Museum
Post 1 of 6 covers coopers, printers, and hoop makers; clocks, chronometers, and a fire engine; a smith and a lighthouse; and two rather plain brown buildings
Post 2 of 6 covers the meeting house, two residential homes, a one-room schoolhouse, a pair of shops, and a reading room for sailors.
Post 3 of 6 covers the “Preservation Shipyard”, where I saw the ongoing restoration of several boats along with an exhibit on the materials used to build these boats
Post 4 of 6 covers “Galleries”, which hosted exhibits on ship figureheads, glass reproductions of sea creatures, art and diversity in maritime New England, the history of shipping, and a large model of Mystic.
Post 5 of 6 covers the Charles W. Morgan, the Joseph Conrad and Little Vigilant, many other antique boats, the opportunity to operate small boats, signage, and shows about maritime life in 19th century New England.
Post 6 of 6 covers four properties owned by the museum and visible from the street. Also, I give my conclusion to the series with museum hours, pricing, and a rating.
Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical
The second part of Appendix A, II from Part Three: The Return of the King covered the line of succession for the Kings of Rohan. This post has everything: explanations of names, motifs from folklore, Ancient European mythology, medieval repayment practices, and etymologies of unusual words appearing in the text.
I illustrated clothing styles for five variants of Men appearing in The Lord of the Rings based on historical costumes in Europe, including Bree-landers (Medieval England), Men of Dale (Vikings), Rohirrim (Anglo-Saxons), Dúnedain (Imperial Rome), and Númenóreans (Classical Greece). Five more variants of Men will appear next week in Part 2.
Bonus: Mainly Museums
This article is based on a blog post from September 2022 covering a trip to Maine from earlier in the year.