Smithsonian Curators and staff worked with primary sources for many years to better understand America’s maritime history and to create the On the Water: Stories from Maritime America exhibition. Historians and researchers rely on contemporary accounts of people, places and events and examine multiple perspectives to get an accurate picture of what life was like in the past. As part of this exhibition, the National Museum of American History would like to ask your help in creating a “Snapshot in Time” of American maritime activity today.
The Museum created a Flickr group (http://www.flickr.com/groups/OTWsnapshots/) dedicated to collecting the images and descriptions of current maritime activities across the United States of America. Maritime activity includes shipping and port-related work, ship and boat building, fishing and fish processing, recreational cruising, and many other water-related enterprises, all of which have far-reaching impacts. The foods we eat, the products we buy, how we travel, and even the words we speak are all affected by maritime commerce, past and present.
No matter where you live or what you do for a living, what happens On the Water affects your life. Share you pictures and stories with us on our On the Water “Snapshots in Time” Flickr group.
The interactive map below displays photographs and descriptions of maritime activity contributed by people of all ages and from all over the United States of America.
