Joanna Colcord: The Woman Who Saved the Chanteys
Some of you know that one of my long-running research obsessions is Joanna "Nan" Carver Colcord — born at sea in 1882, raised aboard her father's square-rigger on voyages between New York and the China Sea, and the woman who put the American chantey tradition on paper at the moment it might otherwise have slipped away entirely. This month, with Women's History Month as the occasion, she's on my mind more than usual. Colcord is a featured subject of A Woman's Way , my program of women explorers, adventurers, and songcatchers whose contributions to maritime culture the history books have consistently underweighted. And she has her own home on the web now at joannacolcord.com — where you'll find the interactive maps, timelines, song checklists, and bibliography I've built up over years of research, along with information about booking Chanteys from the Colcord Collection for your library, historical society, or concert series. What draws me to Colcord ...
