The Seaport Museum’s fishing schooner, Lettie G. Howard, built in 1893 in Essex, MA, marks her 120th birthday this year. Join us for a gala concert to raise funds for Lettie’s restoration—starring Grammy-award-winning artist Rosanne Cash, whose work blends country, blues, and traditional American roots music. Cash's family landed at Salem, MA, aboard Good Intent in 1643, with generations of mariners and musicians in between.
Monday, April 8
8:00 pm
New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street
Donors at the Jib level and above will be invited to join Rosanne Cash for a champagne reception following the performance.
For further information, contact Ana-Alicia Siqueiros at asiqueiros@mcny.org or (917) 492-3379.
Our beloved Lettie G. Howard is one of few surviving examples of the fishing schooners once in wide use in the North Atlantic. She is a rare beauty with classic fishing schooner lines, turning heads wherever she goes, and is a designated National Historic Landmark. After an active life in the fisheries of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Lettie G. Howard arrived at South Street Seaport Museum in 1968. In 1994, after an extensive two-year rebuild that restored her to her original appearance, she was certified as a Sailing School Vessel by the U.S. Coast Guard and began a new career carrying students of all ages on life-changing voyages.
This year she turns 120 years old and she's as beautiful now as she was when she first slid down the ways at Essex, Massachusetts in 1893. In celebration of this milestone and with an eye to the future of this living artifact, South Street Seaport Museum has undertaken a capital campaign to raise $250,000 for critical repairs and restoration—most significantly her keelson, a structural element that runs from stem to stern. Projects of this size and scope are periodic needs in the maintenance of historic ships; this one will bring Lettie back into service as a Sailing School Vessel and will ensure her place in the lives of generations of student-sailors to come. $140,000 has been raised to date—not an insignificant accomplishment.
Working in partnership with New York Harbor School we plan to have Lettie sailing with students in 2014.
Rosanne Cash, daughter of Johnny Cash and a descendant of mariners who arrived in Salem, MA in 1643, is helping our work with a concert on April 8th at 1216 Fifth Avenue. A champagne reception will follow. Please join us for this evening in celebration of our lovely Lettie and donate as generously as you are able to this important effort.
You can purchase tickets at:
http://www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=rcash
