Additional college and graduate programs available:
Williams-Mystic
Spend a semester at Mystic Seaport studying the history, literature, science and policy of the world's oceans.
Paul Cuffe
Memorial Fellowship
Fellowship for the study of minorities in American maritime history.
The Munson Institute: Overview
Each summer graduate-level courses in American Maritime Studies are offered at Mystic Seaport through the Munson Institute. The tall ships, historic buildings, and scenic waterfront of Mystic Seaport will be the campus of the Munson Institute from late June through late July. The Munson Institute courses are available for academic credit through the University of Connecticut and Trinity College, but may also be audited.
There is no better setting at which to study American Maritime History than Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea. The village of 19th-century trade-shops, homes and ships is alive with the sights, sounds and traditions of shoreline America. While Mystic Seaport's incomparable setting and exhibits offer a nontraditional learning environment, the museum's Collections Research Center supplies the traditional. In addition to one of the nation's largest collection of maritime research holdings, the CRC also provides the seminar hall where the classes take place.
Field trips complement the classroom component. Faculty members lead students on a visit to historic Fort Griswold and New London with its U.S. Coast Guard Station. The class also travels to the old whaling village of Stonington, CT, and tours colonial Newport, RI, which still has more than 300 18th-century homes and buildings. Students cruise to the waters of Long Island Sound aboard Sabino, America's only coal-fired operational passenger carrying steamboat.
Classes are taught by leading experts from a variety of fields, including gender, race and ethnicity, diplomacy, the Anglo-Atlantic, navies, ocean sciences, marine archeology, and the lakes and rivers. The interaction among institute participants, faculty and guest speakers will continue under informal circumstances during the late afternoon and evening get-togethers.
The Munson Institute, which has educated over six hundred students in the past fifty years, is open to anyone with an interest in studying the sea, including teachers, graduate students, advanced undergraduates and auditors. History of the Munson Institute and Williams-Mystic.
Course Options: "American Maritime History" Survey Course; "Maritime History Seminar"; "Independent Research" <See Syllabus for details.>
Academic Credit: Students earn three graduate-level credits per course through their choice of Trinity College or the University of Connecticut.
Admission: The Munson Institute welcomes graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and all others interested in immersing themselves in maritime history. Applications will be considered for enrollment as soon as their applications and transcripts are received, on a rolling admissions basis. <Click here for Application Information.>
Tuition and Financial Aid: Tuition is $1350 per course for credit, $675 per course to audit. Financial aid is available.
Accommodations: Furnished rooms are available in 19th-century houses owned by Mystic Seaport and adjacent to the Museum itself. Houses hold four to eight people, and include beds, desks, dressers, and fully-equipped kitchens. $528 for a shared double room. $678 for a single room (as available).
The Munson Institute
of American Maritime Studies
P.O. Box 6000
75 Greenmanville Avenue
Mystic, CT 06355-0990
Phone: 860-572-5359 Fax: 860-572-5329
Email: munson@mysticseaport.org