My wife started a blog about the history of Pirates. She did some chronology work on Pirates of the Caribbean and as a result has become rather knowledgeable about Pirate History and its affect on Modern politics.
Here are her first posts.
Nice job! Very interesting blog. I’ve bookmarked it.
Good for her!
A couple weeks ago, I went to a pretty good pirate exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center. It probably doesn’t approach your wife’s level of scholarship, but it was worth going. I’m guessing “the Capitalist’s Mecca” is not near Cincy, but maybe she’d like to include a link?
Good Blog!
When your wife is ready to take a break from being serious, have her check out wht my friend built in his backyard. (I helped)
Bayard: It’s New York. I imagine a museum has pretty good scholarship.
BMalion: That is friggin awesome!
Check out this art car from Burning Man Burning Man Galleries
She’s gonna put your links into her blog.
Well, it’s not exactly the Smithsonian. I should have said it isn’t a terribly in-depth treatment of the subject. A lot of cool artifacts, though.
Ahh. What did they have?
They had a lot of stuff dredged up from the wreck of a ship called the Whydah. The first thing you see after leaving the introductory film viewing is the ship’s bell, which is very impressive. They also had the kinds of buttons, cooking implements, pistols, and so on that you see at lots of these kinds of things.
The captain of the ship had amassed a huge collection of cannons, many more than he ever could have actually used. He stored them in the hold of the ship, and the tremendous weight of them was one reason his ship didn’t survive its fatal storm – he was pretty near land, but when his hull scraped bottom, the shifting weight of the guns tore the ship open. They had a bunch of these cannons on display, which was really cool to see.
They had a few boxes of coins, but the best part of the coins was that they had a few that you could touch. They were sandwiched between plexiglass, with a little opening so you could poke your finger down and feel them. That was neat.
The Whydah’s crew included one of the younger pirates of the era – a boy of 8 or 9. Towards the end of the exhibit, they had some of his clothing and a shoe. That was a little weird in a way.
But the best part was a partial recreation of the ship. You walk through this recreated port town, then get aboard the ship and walk through a full-scale replica of the rear 1/3 of the ship. They have mannequins showing the clothing and garb, men in their racks, and so on. It is very well done.
When I was there, an actor dressed as a pirate was walking around scaring people. He would glare at the children and threaten to carry them off. I heard him threaten to split one guest “melon” and “step on his gizzard”.
So, it was great infotainment. What disappointed me was that they glossed over the criminal parts and the thuggery. They would mention it in passing, but they were much more interested in the reasons why people were attracted to piracy – the pay was good, the lifestyle was pretty egalitarian, it was easier work than other sailing occupations, non-whites could get a reasonably fair shake, etc. They made it sound pretty cool. Oh, and by the way, they stole things and killed people, and the survivors of the wreck were hanged. But, they voted for their captains, and here’s this romantic myth about the captain! I just wanted a little more balance and a little less spectacle. Having said that, it was definitely worth going. Just a little light on the “info” and heavy on the “tainment”
Ahh, sounds like a fun exhibit. I think most people realize that pirates kill people though.
You misspelled “global warming.”
I clicked on the link and it went straight to a review of my favourite books on pirates! 
Nice, feel free to feed us material!