Curriculum Vitae
Phillip Frank Reid
305 N. 23rd St.
Wilmington NC 28405 USA
(910) 352-3171
phillipfrankreid@gmail.com
Academic Qualifications
Ph.D. with distinction, History, Memorial University of Newfoundland, May 2017. Dissertation title: “A Very Good Sailer: Merchant Ship Technology and the Development of the British Atlantic Empire, 1600—1800.” Advisor: Neil M. Kennedy.
M.A., Maritime History & Nautical Archaeology, East Carolina University, 1998. Thesis title: “The German Barque Peking: History, Restoration and Interpretation of a Cape Horn Sailing Ship.” Advisor: Michael A. Palmer.
B.A., Humanities & Social Sciences, Hendrix College, 1990.
Scholarly Publications
Books
A Boston Schooner in the Royal Navy, 1768–1772: Commerce and Conflict in Maritime British America (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2023). Honorable Mention, John Lyman Book Award for North American Naval History.
The Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, 1600–1800: Continuity and Innovation in a Key Technology (Leiden: Brill, 2020).
Articles and chapters
“’Such Precautions of Safety’: Rational Strategies for Managing Physical Risk in British Atlantic Merchant Ships, 1600—1800,” in Ulrike Gehring et al., eds., Dangerous Tides: Perceiving, Imagining, and Managing Maritime Risks in Ancient and Early Modern Worlds, pp. 259—79. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2025.
“Navigating the British Atlantic in the Eighteenth Century: What the Logbooks Tell Us,” Itinerario 48:1 (Apr 2024): 82–97.
“The Trials of the American Snow George in the British Atlantic, 1805—6.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 147:1-2 (Jan./Apr. 2023): 21—45.
“Ships/Shipbuilding.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Renaissance and Reformation, ed. Margaret King. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2023.
“Risk, Uncertainty, and the British Atlantic Merchant Ship as a Technology for Profit, 1600—1800.” International Journal of Maritime History 35:3 (October 2023): 376—92.
“Revisiting ‘the Brigantine Problem’: the origins and development of eighteenth-century two-masted square-rigged ship types,” with Nick Burningham, Mariner’s Mirror 108:4 (November 2022), 407—22.
“Conveyance and Commodity: The Ordinary Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, 1600—1800,” in Victoria Barnett-Woods, ed., Cultural Economies of the Atlantic World: Objects and Capital in the Transatlantic Imagination (London: Routledge, 2020). Winner, 2021 Elizabeth Eisenstein Essay Prize, National Coalition of Independent Scholars
“Notes from a published treatise in an ordinary eighteenth-century shipwright’s journal,” Mariner’s Mirror 104:1 (January 2018), 79—83.
“The Ordinary Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, 1600—1800: A Call for Further Research,” International Journal of Maritime History 29:4 (November 2017), 911—26.
“Something ventured: Dangers and risk mitigation for the ordinary British Atlantic merchant ship, 1600-1800,” Journal of Transport History 38:2 (December 2017), 196—212.
“The Time Machine? Using Replica Analysis to Understand Merchant Ships and the Development of the British Atlantic, 1600-1800,” The Northern Mariner/Le Marin du Nord 26:3 (July 2016), 299—316.
Scholarly Papers and Presentations
“The Schooner Sultana and Maritime British America, 1768–1772,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, January 2023.
“A Boston Schooner in the Royal Navy, 1768—1772: Commerce and Conflict in Maritime British America,” North American Society for Oceanic History Annual Conference, Wilmington NC, June 2022
“Letters, Lines, and Logs: Researching the Early Modern British Atlantic Merchant Ship,” National Coalition of Independent Scholars, online, June 2022.
“Technical Expertise and Doing History” roundtable discussion—convener, moderator, and discussant, Society for the History of Technology and History of Science Society Joint Annual Conference, online, November 2021
“Rational Strategies for Managing Maritime Risk in the Early Modern Atlantic,” Risk and Uncertainty in the Premodern World Seminar Series, Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, online, November 2021
“The Interceptions of HM Schooner Sultana on the Eastern Seaboard, 1768—1772: A snapshot of inbound maritime commerce at some principal British American ports,” International Postgraduate Port and Maritime Studies Network Annual Conference, University of Stirling, Scotland, online, August 2021
“Pre-Modern Technological and Economic Innovation,” conference session organizer, The Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, October 2018
“Stasis and Change in a Key Artisanal Technology: The Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, 1600—1800,” Society for the History of Technology Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, October 2018
“British Atlantic Merchant Ships, 1600—1800: An Agenda for Further Research,” part of panel, North American Society for Oceanic History Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, May 2017
“The Time Machine? Using Replica Analysis to Understand Merchant Ships, 1600-1800,” part of panel “Post-Mortem on the Sea,” North American Society for Oceanic History Conference, Monterey, California, 2015
Public Presentations
“A Boston Schooner in the Royal Navy,” Sultana Downrigging Festival book talk, 28 October 2023
“A Boston Schooner in the Royal Navy, 1768-1772,” New Books Network podcast, hosted by Mark Klobas, 10 August 2023
“Using Replica Ships for British Atlantic Maritime History: Important Questions and Experiments,” Tall Ships America Annual Conference, online, 4 February 2022
“Episode 309: Merchant Ships of the Eighteenth Century,” Ben Franklin’s World podcast, hosted by Liz Covart, 17 August 2021
“The Merchant Ship in the British Atlantic, 1600–1800,” New Books Network podcast, hosted by Mark Klobas, 20 July 2020
“The Sailing Ship as Early Modern Technology: Understanding the Maritime Environment in Its Own Time,” Maritime Studies Research Unit, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 7 November 2019
CBC Radio Newfoundland & Labrador, On the Go with Ted Blades, St. John’s, Newfoundland, 6 November 2019
“The Ship IS the Treasure: Why Alexandria’s Eighteenth-Century Ship is Important,” The Lyceum, Alexandria, Virginia, October 2017
Academic Service
Board, National Coalition of Independent Scholars, 2022–25
Reviewer for The Independent Scholar, Technology and Culture, Eighteenth Century Studies, International Journal of Military History and Historiography, Journal of Transport History, Business History Review, Renaissance Quarterly, European Review of Economic History
Grants and prizes committees, National Coalition of Independent Scholars
Elizabeth Eisenstein Essay Prize Committee, National Coalition of Independent Scholars
Academic Awards and Distinctions
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, 2024
Conference Travel Grant, American Historical Association, 2023
Conference Support Grant, National Coalition of Independent Scholars, 2022
Elizabeth Eisenstein Essay Prize, National Coalition of Independent Scholars, 2021
Special Research Support Grant, National Coalition of Independent Scholars, 2021
Anderson Bequest Research Grant, Society for Nautical Research, 2021
Research Grant, National Coalition of Independent Scholars, 2020
Carter Fellowship, Early American Industries Association, Spring 2019
Research grant, Tomlin Fund, Society for Nautical Research, Winter 2018
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences nominee, Governor-General’s Gold Medal, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Spring 2017
Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2017
John Scholes Transport History Research Essay Prize, International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility, 2016
Recognition of Excellence, School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2016
A.G. Hatcher Memorial Scholarship, Memorial University, 2015
Short-Term Research Fellowship, Peabody Essex Museum/Phillips Library, 2015
Clark G. Reynolds Student Paper Award, North American Society for Oceanic History, 2015
Scholarship in the Arts Research Travel Grant, Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2015
Graduate Research Fellowship, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2012-2016
Graduate Research Fellowship, East Carolina University, 1996-1998
National Merit Scholarship, Hendrix College, 1986-1987
Positions Held
Teaching Assistant, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Department of History, 2012-2014
Adjunct Instructor of History, Cape Fear Community College, 2001-2011
Teaching Assistant, East Carolina University, Department of History, 1996-1998
Coordinator of Public Programs, Gaston County Museum of Art & History, Dallas, North Carolina, 1998-2000
Professional Affiliations
Royal Historical Society
Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction (FEEGI)
International Maritime History Association
National Coalition of Independent Scholars
Nautical Archaeology Society
North American Society for Oceanic History
Society for Nautical Research (UK)
Society for the History of Technology
Languages
French (reading moderate
PHILLIP REID 