Programs Blog

Date: March 3, 2025 

Time: 1028 

Location: SEA Campus, Falmouth, MA 

Weather: 30० F, sunny, clear skies, wind from the northwest up to 11kts 

Hello everyone! My name is Brigitte, and I have been tasked with starting our blog off for the semester- an intimidating, but very exciting job. I am a junior from Smith College who has been enthralled with the marine world from an extremely young age and has therefore been drawn to SEA’s MBC program for this semester. When I learned that I would be the one writing our first blog post upon arrival, my mind started racing to catalog every little detail from our short time here. I constantly wondered how could I possibly create a full, hearty post from just a few days of class? But after these few days have passed, I find myself with too many events and details to recount.

      From the moment I arrived on February 26, I knew I was in the perfect place for me. From the Moby Dick drawings on the walls of Cabin A to the group of laughing students in the kitchen who immediately greeted me upon entry, I felt instantly welcomed. This only became more apparent when I walked into my room and met my roommates, who also happened to be from seven sister schools- Gabi from Barnard, and Charlotte from Mount Holyoke (which is the historically women’s college about 20 minutes down the road from mine). Grace (our Program Assistant) promises she had no idea of this similarity when she made the room charts- just a crazy coincidence! We opened up the program with our first and second day of classes where we learned about our coursework for the duration of the shore component, and I can confidently say that I felt butterflies in my stomach (of excitement) after every topic was introduced. Between marine independent research projects, policy research, illustration, and nautical science of all sorts, it truly feels like every class indulges my academic and personal interests perfectly.  

During our field trip to the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), this feeling was further solidified. Upon arrival, we walked through the town of Woods Hole and listened to a short lecture by Rich and Erin on the guano industry that used to be a major part of the area, and a bit about the whaling industry in the area. On this dock, we were also able to glimpse one of NOAA’s research vessels, as well as the interior chamber of one of the ALVIN submersibles run by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  

After our lecture on some of the surrounding area and history, we headed to the library, where we got our library cards and had a tour led by Jennifer Walton, the co-director of the MBL/WHOI Library, director of library services at MBL, archivist, and rare books librarian. Walking through the stacks was like entering another world. There were what felt like endless rows of scientific literature, and I easily could have spent hours getting lost in there. We were on a tight schedule though and had to walk quickly as we had an even more exciting activity to come. We then entered a room with about 15 books on the tables that looked like they were from the 1800’s… and they were from the 1800’s. We had the chance to browse MBL’s rare book collection after being talked through the history of many of the books by Jennifer, which was a huge treat. This collection included old books from Ernst Haeckel, Charles Darwin (a signed copy of Origin of Species!), Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and so many more. Many of these books had intricate illustrations which were replicated in each copy with impressive printing techniques like block printing or lithography, and then painted over manually by a talented artist. During the period where these books were produced, the means to visit the places that the depicted animals lived were not available for most people, so they had to learn about the world’s biodiversity through these volumes. Some depictions were more accurate than others- one book chronicled the sea monsters found in global ocean waters- but all were equally impressive pieces of history. I will be constantly looking back at the pictures of illustrations that I took from these books for inspiration in my own artistic endeavors.  

After a good bit of book investigation, we headed to the Harambee Celebration at MBL for the end of Black History Month, listened to some lovely live folk music, and then headed home for an early night. First field trip: success!