The Art of Waiting: Snug Harbor’s Historic Graffiti and Sailor Identity

Littered throughout the many buildings of Snug Harbor’s extensive campus, hundreds of pieces of graffiti left behind by former residents speak to us through time. These graffiti are not merely examples of rebellious artwork, but archives and information networks—each representing an identity preserved in a moment of creation. In this engaging lecture, Ewan Shannon will share his photographs of Snug Harbor’s idiosyncratic nautical graffiti and present the early findings of his digital preservation project. The talk will explore how the Snugs, who fraternally referred to one another as Captain regardless of rank while at sea, marked their innermost thoughts on the quiet corners of this venerable institution over a century ago.

Ewan Shannon is a historical archaeologist from Staten Island, New York. He received his bachelor's in archaeology and anthropology from the University of Rochester, and an MA from The New School for Social Research. When not performing cultural resource management in the U.S., Shannon is a site supervisor for the Smith's Island Archaeology Project in Bermuda, a multidisciplinary effort in collaboration with the Bermuda National Trust, Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo, and Bermuda Government to recover the past of ALL Bermudians within a global context.

Image: Ewan Shannon, chalk drawing in a hidden corner of a residence attic, 2024