LATEST NEWS
Seminar Series: Mega Shipping with Angus Gillespie – 28 January 2023
Register Here for the Zoom Seminar
Saturday, 28 January 2023
Welcome & Lecture at 11:00 AM ET, Q&A to Follow
Seminars are free to attend, although we hope you will support the Series with a suggested $10 Seminar Guest donation.
Join us Saturday, 28 January, for the first NMHS Seminar Series of 2023 featuring Professor Angus Kress Gillespie and his new book, Port Newark and the Origins of Container Shipping.
Container shipping is a vital part of the global economy. Goods from all around the world are placed in large metal containers which are transported across the ocean in ships, then loaded onto tractor-trailers and railroad flatbeds. But when and where did this world-changing invention get started?
Gillespie’s fascinating Zoom presentation traces the birth of containerization to Port Newark in New Jersey, in 1956, when trucker Malcom McLean thought of a brilliant new way to transport cargo. The author will also explain the approach from the ocean to the docks, with a review of the lighthouses, forts, islands, and anchorages along the way.
About the Speaker
Angus Kress Gillespie teaches American Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he has taught courses in maritime history. A Fulbright professor and a New York Times best-selling author, he has written on subjects ranging from skyscrapers to superhighways. He is the author of Twin Towers: The Life of New York City’s World Trade Center and the co-author of Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike, both published by Rutgers University Press.
Featured Image: “First container ship” Ideal-X, in 1956 / Source: Maersk/SeaLand
Category: