Quinn R. Stuart
The Sea Witch: Telling the Stories of USS Salem
The US Naval Shipbuilding Museum was established in 1994 when the US Navy transferred USS Salem, a Cold War-era heavy cruiser, to the museum at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Salem, nicknamed the Sea Witch, was commissioned in 1949 and placed in reserve status in 1959, retaining its entire armament and nearly all its equipment. Since 2020, Quinn and her colleagues have been working on documenting the ship’s history and preparing the museum’s first strategic management plan. This presentation we will tell the stories USS Salem’s service and crew (with plenty of period photographs) and the ongoing work to evolve and expand a more dynamic visitor experience at the museum.
[Recorded August 12, 2023]
Quinn R. Stuart, MA, is the Director of Cultural Resources at VHB and has been working in historic preservation throughout the country for the last 16 years. Quinn has a diverse professional and educational background in architectural history, cultural resource management, preservation carpentry, and masonry conservation. She received her MA in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2009 and graduated from Roger Williams University with a BS in Historic Preservation in 2006. She has a personal interest in Cold-War era history, both domestic and military, which has led to the documentation of several military installations of that era.
