PART 1:
In Part 1 of a special two-part podcast, Curious Objects’ host Benjamin Miller speaks with Peter Siebert, president and CEO of Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum about a folk art watercolor from the late 1700s that’s been the subject of a major research project. Called Navigation Lesson, the painting is believed to depict the artist, Cornelius van Buskirk, receiving instruction from Commodore John Barry (1745–1803), the man regarded as the father of the United States Navy.
PART 2:
In Part 2 of a special two-part podcast, Curious Objects’ host Benjamin Miller speaks again with Peter Siebert, president and CEO of Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum, this time about a Revolutionary War–era naval signal book made for English Admiral Richard Howe. “Prepare to haul to the wind together on the starboard tack when in order of battle, and the ships are to haul to the wind forthwith when the admiral fires a third gun” and other such recondite orders fill this hand-printed and watercolored volume, belying its usefulness as an eminently modern tool of warfare.
Peter S. Seibert, the president and chief executive officer of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has built his career leading historical organizations across the United States. Prior to joining the ISM in February 2021, Seibert worked at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming; the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Virginia; and the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico, and several other societies and historical centers. He is chair of the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations. Additionally, he is a member of the Camden County (New Jersey) Historical Society Board of Directors and the New Jersey Society of Colonial Wars’ Board of Governor. Seibert has authored several books and articles, the most recent of which, a history of summer cottage communities, will be published by History Press in 2024.
