Author connects global maritime and California missions histories
The Santa Barbara Mission.
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum will present “Global History and the California Missions: A Sea Story” with Janet Dowling Sands, author, artist and educator at 7 p.m. March 16.
There will also be a pre-lecture reception for members only from 6:15 to 6:45 p.m. To register for the event, go to sbmm.org/santa-barbara-event and to become a member, visit sbmm.org.
Admission is free for SBMM’s Navigator Circle Members, $10 for all other members and $20 for members of the public.
The presentation will explain how the missions were inextricably linked to global maritime history and prehistory, including the latest research on the origins of California’s indigenous people whose ancestors came to the Americas thousands of years before the first European soldiers and missionaries arrived.
Ms. Sands will discuss the far-reaching geopolitical context of the California missions and presidios to explain why they are here, including some “surprises and sidebars and the fascinating connection of an Enlightenment-era Spanish viceroy who, after launching the mission project in 1769, turned his attention to the success (or failure) of the American Revolution.”
She will also raise some important questions about how we should regard and study the mission era today, when colonialism itself can be a highly controversial topic.
The author of “On a Mission: The Real Story of the California Missions, Their History, Impact and Legacy,” Ms. Sands has developed a unique perspective on history shaped by extensive research and by many years of engagement with educators, scientists and historians. She is a California native with a degree in art history from UC Berkeley.
As a long-time active board member of both the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, Ms. Sands has spent many years working to improve science and nature education for children in Santa Barbara and to support scientific outreach for the public.
A lifelong student of history, art and the natural world, and a collector of American regional art, she is currently working to complete her next book, “Collision of Cultures: A Traveler’s History of the American Southwest.”
Janet Dowling is the author of “Global History and the California Missions: A Sea Story.”
Ms. Sands and her husband Ed, an architect and ship model builder, divide their time between Arizona and New York to be near their children and grandchildren.
Ms. Sands will conclude her talk with an illustrated 10-minute “road trip” to see the missions and surviving “asistencias.” Her skills as a writer, photographer and watercolorist have been applied to recording her travel experiences in illustrated journals and in her book, “On A Mission: The Real Story of the California Missions.”
Signed copies will be available at the museum gift shop.
In his review, which appears on the back cover of the book, Dr. Karl Hutterer, director emeritus of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, said “I absolutely loved it! The approach is unique — a tour with information on dining and lodging, combined with how mission history is linked to world history.”
email: mmcmahon@newspress.com
FYI
Author Janet Dowling will give her talk at 7 p.m. March 16 at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, 113 Harbor Way, Suite 190. For more information, call 805-962-8404 or visit sbmm.org. This event is sponsored by Marie L. Morrisroe.
