Howard I. Chapelle

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Howard I. Chapelle (1901-1975) was curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.. In addition, he authored a several books on the subject on maritime history and architecture.

From 1919, Chapelle worked as a marine apprentice and designer for a number of shipbuilders. After 1936, he went into business for himself, and later served as head of the New England section of the Historic American Merchant Marine Survey, a New Deal project designed to research American naval history and staffed by unemployed marine architects.

During World War II, Chapelle served in the United States Army Transportation Corps ship and boatbuilding program. In 1950, he ventured to England where he researched colonial ship design on a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1956/57, he served the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization as a consultant on fishing boat construction to the government of Turkey. Upon returning to America, he was appointed Division of Transportation curator of the National Museum of History and Technology. Ten years later, in 1967, he stepped down as curator to assume to assume the role of Senior Historian. He retired in 1971, accepting the title of Historian Emeritus.

[edit] References

• Richard V. Szary. Record Unit 7228 – Howard I. Chapelle Papers, 1969-1975. 16 June 2003. Last accessed on 12 January 2006.