Sorting Old Rowing Photographs

Pictured are some of Mystic Seaport PILOTS sorting and organising hundreds and hundreds of old rowing photographs. While leading this important project, rowing historian Tom Weil, at the head of the table, was throwing in some entertaining rowing anecdotes now and then.

Twice a year, Mystic Seaport hosts its so called PILOTS weekend. A PILOT is a volunteer who comes in to work for free (even paying a fee to work!) on Mystic Seaport projects which the Museum has not managed to do during the year. Yesterday, more than 100 PILOTS gathered at the Museum to work on boat projects in the Shipyard; paint porches, decks, and chairs; cleaning the grounds; attend the gardens; move artefacts; re-house photographs and negatives; and sort and date old wire-photographs of rowing.

When it comes to the latter project, six dedicated PILOTS showed up at the Blunt White Building, which houses the National Rowing Hall of Fame and the rowing exhibit, "Let Her Run", to sort tons of old rowing photographs from news agencies. The project was supervised excellently by rowing historian Tom Weil (with minor assistance from yours truly).

Work like this will help rowing historians and others to easily find images and other materials when they come to Mystic Seaport to do research. Well done, PILOTS!