Maritime history and how it ties into the seaport of Salem, Massachusetts, will be the focus of two talks coming up at Salem Maritime National Historic Site.

The talks are scheduled for February 6 and March 27 at the Salem Visitor Center (2 New Liberty Street) from 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Both talks are free and open to the public. Doors open at 7 p.m.

The first speaker on Thursday, February 6, is Lincoln Paine, author of five books and more than 50 articles, reviews, and lectures on maritime history. His most recent work published in 2013, The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World, is a retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise.

The area of today’s Salem has always been connected to the larger maritime world, from early Native American travel and trade, to European settlement, shipbuilding, international trade and even present-day pleasure boating. Mr. Paine will offer a look at how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world’s waterways. A limited number of copies of The Sea and Civilization will be available for sale at the event and may be signed by the author.

The second speaker, on Thursday, March 27, will be Jacob Remes, assistant professor of public affairs and history at SUNY Empire State College, in the Brooklyn Unit of the Metropolitan Center. Currently, he is the William Lyon Mackenzie King Research Fellow at Harvard University.

Professor Remes studies working-class and labor history with a focus on urban disasters, working-class organizations, and migration. His history talk, Life and Labor in the Aftermath of the Great Salem Fire, draws from his dissertation examining the overlapping responses to the Salem, Mass., fire of 1914 and the Halifax, N.S., explosion of 1917. Jacob Remes' upcoming book, Disaster Citizenship, based on his dissertation, will be published in 2015.

“We are delighted to co-host talks by these two scholars whose rich, inclusive stories bring fresh perspectives on the past,” said Superintendent Michael Quijano-West. “Our collaboration with the History Department at Salem State University provides an opportunity for the community to learn more about their heritage, expand the meaning of Salem Maritime to new audiences and allows us all to enrich our understanding of the past.”