Kathleen Lafferty: Letter to an Ancestor II
Second in a series of letters to her ancestor Marian Smith.
Lafferty grew up on stories of New England, whaling, and her family’s ties to it. While aboard the Charles W. Morgan, she channeled her ancestor Marian Smith, navigator, photographer, and correspondent who sailed on numerous ships throughout the world at the turn of the 20th century with her whaling captain husband, Horace P. Smith. As a student at the George Washington University, Lafferty studied and wrote about the economics of the whaling industry and efforts to stop whaling on an international scale. Today, she is a self-employed editor and proofreader, handling projects ranging from environmental science and policy to U.S. history and geography.
Eighty-five individuals from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds sailed aboard the ship and participated in an unprecedented public-history project, using their own perspectives and talents to document their experiences. Meet the Voyagers »