The Sound Archives at Mystic Seaport include oral history interviews, recorded lectures, and events. The vast majority of the interviews document maritime activity, and the people and objects associated with that activity. Many of the interviews complement and document material in the Museum’s Library, Art & Object, Watercraft, and other collections.
Among the specific subjects represented in the collection are boat and ship design and construction, whaling, oystering, the New England fisheries, sail making and other maritime trades, yachting, recreational sailing and boating, the U.S. Life-Saving Service, lighthouses, the history of Mystic Seaport, and local and regional history. The collection’s greatest strengths are in the areas of the fisheries, vessel design and construction, and yachting and recreational boating history.