Coastal Cultural Experience: Bayman and Southampton Historical Museum

Sam Parrish & the Rogers’ mansion
by John Maniscalco

While spending the semester in Southampton [New York], it was both nice and interesting to get a brief, yet informative look into the history of Southampton. During our trip we spoke to Alex, who is a local bay man here in Southampton. While he spoke to us, he talked a lot about the lifestyle of bay men, in addition the future might be for his occupation as well as Shinnecock Bay. Afterwards, we made our way into Southampton where went to the Southampton historical museum located in the Rogers mansion.

Figure 1: Roger's mansion from the outside (Photo taken by me at the Southampton historical museum located in the Rogers mansion)

 As stated before, the Roger’s mansion is home to the Southampton historical museum. The mansion stayed within the Rogers’ family until 1880. Then in 1899, Samuel Parrish purchased the property and for a lack of better terms made it his own. For starters, the current size of the house wasn’t achieved until Sam Parrish purchased the home; where the house was doubled in size. However, one very notable piece of information regarding the mansion, especially the increase in size, is the fact that the way the house’s size increased. This is because there were some odd architectural choices made by Parrish that can seen by as not fitting with the house. However, personally I believe these “oddities” add character the house in the sense that these features are uniquely a part of the mansion. With that said, let it be known that Samuel Parrish was not an architect. Instead he was very adamant about art, which is not only one of the more notable parts of the house, but also my favorite. Art can be found all over the walls of the mansion; leaving hardly an open space on the walls. In addition, much of the art found on the walls tie into the history of Southampton, Long Island, and even New England. Ultimately, Parrish lived in the mansion for the reminder of his days. Now, the mansion is home to the Southampton historical museum; where the mansion has been decorated interiorly to match that of the time when Parrish lived there. Personally, I feel the mansion/museum is a wonderful time capsule as it gives a concentrated look into Southampton history and culture. Without, the Rogers family, museum personnel, and Sam Parrish this piece of history may have been lost.

Figure 2: Some of the beautiful pieces of art found in the Rogers mansion (photo taken by me at the Southampton historical museum located in the Rogers mansion)

The Protection of Oysters in Tiana Bay
by Alyssa Shanley-Lente

On a windy, cloudy day while driving around the town of Southampton my professor took the class down to the beach called Tiana Bay. As we got closer I saw that there was a dock and in between where the dock and the shoreline was there was these screens with pieces of colored foam floating on the water. At first I had no idea what these things were and I was very confused, but once my professor came over he explained to the entire class that they were oyster cages. These oyster cages had been placed there in order to help restore the populations of these shellfish and are very important for the local community to keep the populations alive and well.

This restoration project is interesting to me because the local community depends on these shellfish for their livelihood and as such they are doing their best to keep the populations healthy. Each one oyster cage holds up to one thousand individuals each and because they are in such close vicinity to each other the reproduction rate is high. Then once the oysters reach adulthood they are transported to an area where they can then begin to filter feed improving the water quality. Kurt also said that people are able to purchase an oyster cage for themselves and that as many as one hundred and fifty individuals can fit onto your fingernail!

Due to the fact that more and more people are becoming involved with the protection and restoration of the oysters their populations are beginning to increase. This outlook is good and as such the hope for the restoration of the oysters population is promising. This gives celebration for not only bay men and fish markets but also for the local oceans and bays around the area. If the oyster cages continue to work the local community will no longer have to worry about losing this important shellfish from the area.

Southampton blog

by Christian Iniguez-Ulloa

This is an exhibit at the Roger Mansion Museum in Southampton. They are some of the birds that are displayed in one of the rooms in the museum. The birds are there because the original owner of the house, Albert Roger, would bring back birds and they would hatch so there would be different birds around the house.

These are artifacts that are on display on the outside of the Roger Mansion Museum in Southampton. They are called try pots. They were iron kettles that were used onboard whaleships to boil blubber and convert it into oil. The fire for the try pots would be inside the bricks that are located underneath them.

This is a painting that is being displayed in one of the main rooms of the Roger Mansion Museum in Southampton. It is a picture of the Mayflower leaving Southampton, England in 1620. This picture gives us a view from the other side of voyage since we are used to seeing the Mayflower arriving the New World.

Strange architectural choices and the toggle harpoon
by Diana Beckenhaupt

Whaling was a part of Southampton life, like most marine-based communities at the time. The tour guided showed us a piece of ambergris, chipped off a huge block that is now completely useless since ambergris is prohibited. (Ambergris is a byproduct of whaling that was used as a perfume fixative for a long time) At the museum, several whaling artifacts were on display, and our tour guide brought out a harpoon gun, which was almost too heavy to pick up. This harpoon was tipped by a ‘toggle iron’ which is basically a movable hook, that gets stuck in the whale once it is impaled. The toggle iron was invented by a black American man from New Bedford, CT in the 1840s. His name was Lewis Temple and he is often forgotten today because whaling is no longer an industry – but his invention was crucial at the time. Lewis Temple himself unfortunately died at 54 after a fall, leaving only debt and no heirs. (Source: http://nbhistoricalsociety.org/Important-Figures/lewis-temple/)

Toggle iron harpoon very similar to the one at Southampton Historical Museum. The pointed end moves on a hinge, which is what allows the weapon to be so effective.

Source: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/27282625_ca-1880-toggle-harpoon-29-34-long

The whaling items were only a small part of the tour. The main focus of the Southampton Historical Museum is the Rogers Mansion. Built in 1648, it has been continually changed, moved and updated. Though originally inhabited by the Rogers family, others like Dr. John Nugent who bought the house in 1889 made their mark by adding parts, windows, or expansions to the mansion. Today, you can notice the strange details left over from multitudinous changes. Outside, I noticed the weirdly flat roof, and a window that looks out to the opposite wall. The tour guide told us that the roof pools water when it rains, and occasionally someone will have to bail it out. I’m no architecture buff, but even I could notice the stairs that are squared away in the wall in a haphazard fashion, and the fancy molding whose designs get cut in half by the adjacent wall. It’s slightly frustrating to see; the tour guide also said that when someone came to prepare an architecture report on the mansion, she told the museum staff she hated the house design. I personally liked the curved door though (the museum staff had hidden a mummy for Halloween behind it!). Overall the mansion became a lot more interesting to me once I noticed the poorly planned renovation details like the moldings, if slightly aggravating. The Rogers Mansion has been a part of Southampton town life since its beginning, and so it is a valuable resource for tracing the town’s history, including the renovations. I’m glad we got to visit it, and plan on making another trip into town to check out the other old historic buildings.

I was unable to find a photo of what I talk about here, but these are two of the moldings in the house. In several places, the face shown here is abruptly cut in half to make way for the intersecting wall’s corner. It just doesn’t make sense to do that, rather than carefully measuring ahead of time!

Source: The Rogers Mansion Historic Structure Report, found at https://www.southamptonhistory.org/historic-structure-reports

Life of a Baymen

by Sarah Stromski (text is author's impressions)

Every morning I wake up, get to the boat house and put my waders on to get ready for the day. Me and the boys get the draggers ready and the bull rakes all set to take out on the boats. Today I’m in the bay raking for clams, so I made sure to wear my best waders since the water is starting to get a little colder now. We supplement our income with shellfish especially since the hard clam population has been rebounding and on the rise in Shinnecock Bay. Scallop season is coming up soon so that should help us a lot since it’s a longer season, hopefully there’s a good amount out there, we have to find the right spots to go to. At the end of the day, we bring some of our catches to the fish market right after the bridge; they take most of the east end catch as well, so they have a huge variety. The largest amount of catches go to the fish market in the Bronx called Hunt’s Point, formally known as Fulton Fish Market. They’re the biggest distribution fish market in the entire US, especially for the tri-state area, so we not only provide for our small community, but for the rest of the tri-state area and beyond.

Hopefully with the start of the new year, the DEC and National Marine Fisheries will come up with new catch limits for us because this is ridiculous. How are we supposed to make a living doing what we do when we have limits set on us, meanwhile New Jersey fishermen can come into our waters and take our resources. Southern states have nowhere near as strict of limits as we do, I don’t think I’ll ever understand why, but I wish it would change. We talked to the local politicians as much as we could, til we were blue in the face, but nothing has really changed to benefit us. This is all becoming too political, and not being managed in favor of the resources. Don’t they know we have families to take care of, they should be helping us. By taking care of us, we can take care of the community.

Most of the people I work with are men, but there is one woman in Southampton though. Most people stereotype baymen as just men, but they don’t understand that everyone in the families of the baymen are involved too. When we bring home shellfish, they shuck them in the kitchen, they take care of us and they should be considered part of the baymen community.