Jack Putnam as Herman Melville
John Putnam, who preferred to be called Jack, died earlier this month at the age of 82. Jack was the historian at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York and so much more.
Jack joined the museum in 1982 as an office manager and cook for the Pioneer, the museum’s schooner. He became the retail manager of Bowne & Company Stationers, a historic printing house owned by the museum, and then became the manager of the museum’s bookstore. He would also serve as shipkeeper of the 1911 built barque Peking, docked at Pier 16, for more than a decade.
As a tour guide, Jack told the story of the seaport as central to the development of New York City. The New York Times quotes Capt. Jonathan Boulware, the president and chief executive of the South Street Seaport Museum. “Jack saw the roots of New York as we know it in the seaport. He saw the very literal and direct connection between South Street and Wall Street. Between South Street and Madison Avenue. Between South Street and Fifth Avenue. He told the history of South Street, Chapter One of the modern history of New York.”
In 1990, Jack Putnam began to perform a one-man show as Herman Melville. He also developed the performance into a walking tour of the South Street Seaport, and Lower Manhattan, near Melville’s boyhood home, at 6 Pearl Street. In the appropriate garb, Jack looked remarkably like Melville.
“After a certain age, as a member of this gene pool, if you keep your hair and grow a beard you begin to resemble Herman,” Mr. Putnam told NY Times in 2001.
But it was more than just his appearance. Again from the NY Times: “He was able to bring to life what it was like to be at sea,” Captain Boulware said. “Jack Putnam and Herman Melville shared a common love of the sea. Yes, he looked like Melville; yes, he could recite long passages of ‘Moby-Dick’ from memory. But it was that common love that brought the comparison to life.”
Melville was not the only writer given a voice by Jack Putnam. Jack was also known for his readings of the works of Joseph Mitchell, a contemporary and a friend, whose last book, Up in the Old Hotel, was inspired by the Fulton Ferry Hotel, across the street from the Seaport piers.
At the turn of the century, the South Street Seaport Museum suffered a series of body blows. The museum was closed for two years after the attacks of 9/11. As it was recovering, the financial crisis of 2008 wiped out key funding. Then in 2012, Hurricane Sandy literally put the museum’s primary building underwater, destroying the electrical systems and other systems.
Even with the future of the museum very much in doubt and most employees laid off, the staff continued to meet weekly, and Jack Putnam, even without an official job at the museum, became a motivator.
“His presence as a sort of a wise old man, but who didn’t take himself too seriously, was a buoying force for the staff of the museum,” Captain Boulware said.
John Bruce Putnam was born on July 2, 1936, in Boston to Philip Austin, a law librarian at Harvard Law School, and Thelma Madeleine (Arthur) Putnam, who worked at the Harvard development office. After graduating from Belmont Hill School he attended Harvard, where he was a member of the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps. He graduated in 1958 with a degree in English, then served at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia and later as a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve.
The New York Times refers to Jack Putnam as the official historian and unofficial conscience of the South Street Seaport Museum. The Times went on to say, that for the museum, Mr. Putnam was not just a link to the past; he was a lodestar during its tempestuous recent history.
To be fair, however, Jack seemed to be more than just an unofficial conscience of the museum. He was perhaps, in a real sense, the soul of the seaport. He will be sorely missed.