Lecture Series

The Antique Boat Museum was excited to reintroduce our lecture series in 2021! Spanning all four seasons and a range of topics, we hope to be able to bring local history and boating life to you throughout the year whether you are with us in the 1000 Islands or far away and missing the River.

Note: All lectures, unless indicated otherwise, will be held in a hybrid in-person/virtual format.  If you are unable to join us in-person, we invite you to join us via Youtube live stream.  The live stream link for each lecture can be found below.

Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario – A Journey of Discovery

Jim Kennard, Shipwreck Explorer

July 28 | 5:30pm

Youtube Live Stream: This lecture will not be live streamed

Join the most successful shipwreck hunter in Lake Ontario on a personal and historic exploration of some of the most important shipwrecks discovered in Lake Ontario by his team and shipwreck peers.  Jim Kennard will take the audience on a nearly 50 year journey of Lake Ontario shipwreck discovery from the pages of his new book.  Several of these significant discoveries include the two oldest shipwrecks discovered in the Great Lakes, the 1780 British warship HMS Ontario and the sloop Washington lost in 1803 and more with underwater images and video of these lost ships.

Ways of Learning: An Apprentice Boatbuilder in Japan

Dennis Brooks

August 5 | 5:30pm

Youtube Live Stream: link coming soon.

When people think about Japan, they usually have in their minds images of manga and anime, busy urban centers, and an economy based on innovations in electronics.  Most people do not know that there is also a second Japan, wherein lies a rich history of traditional arts and crafts, many of which are fast disappearing.  Douglas Brooks has apprenticed with boatbuilders from throughout Japan since 1996, building over a dozen types of traditional wooden boats. Brooks’ teachers were all in their seventies and eighties when he worked with them, and he is the sole apprentice for seven of his nine teachers. In this slide talk he will share his experiences with traditional crafts drawn from twenty-six trips to Japan since 1990, visiting all forty-seven prefectures. Brooks’ research in Japan focuses on the techniques and design secrets of the craft.  These techniques have been passed from master to apprentice with almost no written record.  His book, Japanese Wooden Boatbuilding is the first comprehensive survey of the craft, spanning his first five apprenticeships and including a chapter on Japan’s last traditional shipwright.

Brooks will also talk about the nature of craft education in Japan; an ethic that is largely at odds with our notions of teaching in the West.  The apprentice system produced craftspeople with incomparable skills, yet it required an intense devotion and seriousness from participants.  Brooks has experienced first-hand what it is like to learn when the apprentice is forbidden from speaking.  At the core of this process is the belief that one learns by observation and perseverance. Japan’s last generation of traditional boatbuilders has almost disappeared.

Past Lectures:

The Homer L. Dodge Lecture Series is funded by the Homer L. Dodge Endowment which funds programming that promotes, celebrates, and teaches topics focused on the history and ecology of the St. Lawrence River.