A new exhibit is called “Illustrating the News: Shipwrecks in the Popular Press.” It follows the history of shipwreck imagery in newspapers and periodicals from the 1830s through 1912, a time before the widespread use of photography. Before this period, most publications didn’t have much imagery to accompany their stories.

The museum has a large and varied collection of artifacts, which surprisingly includes bathing suits. This is a small sample of the types of bathing suits we have in our collection that have been worn throughout the past century.

This “Artifact of the Month” is a piece of china from the White Star Line. The White Star Line was a prominent British shipping company and today is most known for its ship, RMS Titanic.

Welcome back Blackfish Dart, object number WH 38!! Returning to the museum after a 58 year vacation that had you traveling from Newport News, Virginia to Tennessee and then back again!!!

Recently, I’ve been working on several items that are going out on loan to various institutions next year. While only a couple of these projects will be very treatment intensive (probably more on those later…), I thought I’d share an example of the routine care and due diligence paid to every artifact prior to loan. Every little consideration is important to ensure the safety of an object while it is being appreciated elsewhere.

The Mariners’ Museum version of the twelve days of Christmas to celebrate Dollar Admission and the holidays and today, a few of our Museum guests helped me illustrate it.

What’s an attribution, you ask? It’s the act of ascribing an artwork to a particular artist (if the painting isn’t signed) or as a depiction of a particular event (if it isn’t specifically identified by the artist). To attribute a painting to an artist one must be very knowledgeable about the artist’s oeuvre. To make an attribution to an event one must be a VERY careful and detail-oriented researcher.

The lead line was used by sailors to assess the depth of the water and take samples of the sea floor. The line was thrown over the side of a vessel and the lead was allowed to sink to the bottom while the end of the line was held by the sailor.