Captains Corner 2025 – August

Speaker: Jason Smith

Date: August 2nd

Time: 2 PM

Cost: Included with General Admission, Free for ISM Members

Jason Smith is associate professor of History at Southern Connecticut State University. He is the author of To Master the Boundless Sea: The US Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire. He is currently at work on a new book tentatively titled, Sea Power and Spectacle: A Cultural History of Navalism and the Ordinary Origins of American Empire.

Admiral Schley's Punch: The Heroes of 1898 and the Culture of Naval Celebrity, 1898-1916: In the days, weeks, and years following the Spanish-American War, naval heroes like George Dewey, Richmond P. Hobson, and Winfield Schley emerged as among the first rank of modern celebrities in American culture. This talk critically examines the ways the public came to celebrate and, in turn, sometimes to critique and condemn their newfound heroes. In these ways, American naval celebrity underwrote the rise of the US Navy, the nation's global power, and the role of common people in it.

This program is free for Members – please email Membership@phillyseaport.org if you have any questions.

Please note that Olympia is not ADA accessible. If you have any accessibility questions, please email Education@phillyseaport.org.