Ship historian Norman Brouwer lectures on the Steamboats of the Long Island Sound

On February 5th, the Stephen B. Luce Library had the honor of welcoming Norman J. Brouwer, one of the leading U.S. maritime historians and lecturers. Brouwer served as curator of the South Street Seaport Museum for 30 years and is currently affiliated with the Mystic Seaport Museum. He shared with us his expertise on the historic steamboats that once plied the waters of the Long Island Sound.

Drawing largely upon materials researched in his book Steamboats on Long Island Sound – Images of America (Arcadia Publishing, 2014), Brouwer’s lecture zeroed in on New York City as an epicenter for shipping lines which often ferried passengers to important ports such as Norwalk and New Haven in Connecticut, Narragansett Bay and Providence on Rhode Island, and beyond. Competition among service lines spurred the construction of increasingly elegant steamboats which greatly improved the ability to travel between New York and coastal New England. Early photographs accompanied his research into the ships’ architecture during the 19th and early 20th century, as well as ship’s plans and colorful illustrations of ship designs.

Luce Library and the rest of the college community would like to thank Brouwer for this interesting lecture, which brought to life the past age of steam, now largely replaced by diesel engines and other components of modern ship design. His full lecture can be seen here.

Brouwer’s book Steamboats on Long Island Sound is available as an ebook and in paperback from Amazon.com.