Glouceter Project: Getting Started

On Monday you will begin conducting preliminary research in the Gloucester High School library.
Before you get in there I want you to have a starting place: an essential question and a topic .

Here some of the essential questions related to Gloucester (or, more broadly, Cape Ann) culture. Under each question are topics that might be explored to address the question.

Question #1 about change:
Change is inevitable. However, some changes are radical and severe; such changes can--for good or ill--alter the character of a polis. Other changes are built upon, nourished by, and informed by an understanding of the past. What changes should and should not take place in Gloucester?
Possible topics:
* The proposed changes to the Fort
* The future of the fishing industry in Gloucester
* The role of maritime industries/business other than fishing
* The role of tourism in Gloucester
* The role of the arts in Gloucester
* The possible uses of Fuller School
* The future of public education in Gloucester

Question #2 about change:
How are cultural changes that have already taken place significant?
* the changes in the fishing industry
* the changes created by Urban Renewal (particularly in the 1960s)
* the changes in parts of Gloucester: Dogtown, Stage Fort Park, the Fort, Rocky Neck, Lanesville, etc.
* the changes in public education in Gloucester
* the changes in writing and the arts (Charles Olson, Vincent Ferrini, and T.S. Eliot created and adapted new, innovative kinds of poetry in the 20th century; Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Marsden Hartley, Nell Blaine and others created and adapted new kinds of painting in the 20th century)
* the changes in gender roles (Judith Sargent Murray, women working in fish factories and for Mighty Mac, the Fishermen's Wives Association)
* the changes in religious observance and celebration: the Portuguese Crowning Ceremony, St. Peter's Fiesta, the arrival of the Unification Church, the rise of the Universalist church and the separation of church and state, etc.
* the conversion of the Haskell-Pierce House into a parking lot and pocket park by the Cape Ann Museum
* the changes in the economic and cultural use of particular places, such as Stage Fort Park, the inner harbor, Magnolia, Lanes Cove, Dogtown, etc.
* other?

Question #3 about change:
How has Gloucester been a site of innovation?
* scientific innovators in Gloucester and Cape Ann: John Hays Hammond, Clarence Birdseye, schooner designers, etc.
* poetic and artistic innovators in Gloucester and Cape Ann (see above)
* educational innovations: Project Adventure, lots of art schools in Magnolia and East Gloucester, the now closed charter school, O'Maley Innovation School, Charles Olson's role in Black Mountain Colleg
* other?

Question #4 about change:
How has Gloucester been a site of cultural preservation?
* artistic conservatives in Gloucester and Cape Ann (many artists resisted modern changes to art and wanted to preserve older ways of creating art)
* Cape Ann Museum, The Sargent House Museum, Babson Museum, Sleeper House, White-Ellery House, Captain Elias Davis House, etc.
* other?

Question:
What parts of Gloucester culture do we know, what do we not know, and what do we think we only know? What aspects of Gloucester culture are people referring to when they say "that's so Gloucester" or "the Gloucester way of life"? What aspects of Gloucester culture are generally excluded from what people mean by Gloucester culture? How do different parts of Gloucester have unique and separate cultures?
Possible topics:
* heroic and/or tragic figures and events: The Perfect Storm, Howard Blackburn, the original settlers in 1623, any and all of the men on the Man at the Wheel cenotaph, any and all of those who served in the wars, Gloucester privateering

teen pregnancies in 2008 (and before and beyond)
* lesser known significant cultures: Cape Ann's Jewish community, Native Americans on Cape Ann, Maritime Canadian immigration
* lesser known significant industries: 19th quarrying in Lanesville and Rockport, 18th and 19th century trade with the far east and the west indies, grand hotels in Magnolia, etc.
* lesser known figures: Newman Shea (fisherman labor leader), Mason Walton (the Hermit of Magnolia),
* the cultures of Fort, Portuguese Hill, East Gloucester, West Gloucester, Magnolia, Annisquam, Lanesville, etc.
* other?

Question:
How has Gloucester played a significant role in major historical events? How have people associated with Gloucester played a role in those events?
* Gloucester trading vessels, West Indian slavery, and the triangular trade
* Newman Shea and the fight for fair labor practices for fisherman
* the Unitarians and the separation of Church and State
* the early feminism and philosophical beliefs of Judith Sargent Murray
* the military and political career of Benjamin Butler (the Civil War and beyond)
* the political and social beliefs of Mason Walton, the Hermit of Dogtown
* Roger Babson's influence on economics and politics (before, during, and after the Great Depression)
* A. Piatt Andrew from the American Field Service to the bridge over 128
* Gloucester's first poet laureate Vincent Ferrini and radical labor politics in Lynn
* Charles Olson in FDR's administration and at Black Mountain College

Question:
What role has Gloucester had in shaping the work of writers and artists? What role have writers and artists had in shaping Gloucester?
Possible topics:
* any writer, poet, painter, sculptor, photographer, architect, dancer, actor, etc.
* Other?

Question:
What is the significance, meaning, and value of public art, monuments, memorials, parks, and/or architecture?
Possible topics:
* the meaning, value, and effectiveness of public art: the Fisherman's Statue (the Man at the Wheel), the Fishermen's Wives Memorial, Babson's rocks in Dogtown, the Spanish-American War Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Joan of Arc Statue
* the significance of architecture: Sleeper house, City Hall, Hammond Castle, etc.
* the significance of parks: Dogtown, Ravenswood, Stage Fort, etc.
* Other?

Question:
What role has Gloucester had in shaping the cultures that come to Gloucester? What role have those cultures had in shaping Gloucester?
Possible topics:
* the role of immigration: English, Canadian, Irish, Portuguese, Italian, Brazilian
* the role of religion: Puritanism, Unitarianism, Universalism, Catholicism, Judaism, Evangelical Christianity, Unificationism
* Other?

In the comment box tell me what question and topic you want to start exploring on Monday. (Create your own if you have ideas of your own. You're also welcome to modify one of the ideas above.) See you Monday.