Even though I work in a maritime museum, my art training still brings a sense of wonder to certain images. I know that this photograph is documenting a step in a process, but this was not my initial response to this image.

Just as the smoke cleared from the scene of the first Confederate victory at Big Bethel, onto the battlefield rapidly marched what would become one of the most colorful, daring, and poorly disciplined units of the Army of the Peninsula: Coppens’ Battalion.

Having outside experts use our collection to research their own projects is a great thing because even though it’s sometimes inconvenient and frequently time consuming it ALWAYS yields some new information about an object or image in our collection. This was especially the case in November when two researchers, Kevin Foster and Emir Yener, showed up to research Civil War era blockade runners and nineteenth century warships.

The islands of Ascension and St. Helena in the South Atlantic are periodically plagued by roller events with rapidly forming waves and catastrophic outcomes.

In this edition of Beyond the Frame, we explore a grouping of 4 small oil paintings by the artist Milton J. Burns painted between ca. 1875 and 1925. Though this grouping was very likely never intended by the artist, they work together to tell a greater story, allowing the viewer insight into the life of the artist, and even an interpretive narrative of the life of a fisherman.

Our Speakers Bureau is composed of staff and experienced volunteers who bring vastness, importance, and energy of maritime topics and initiatives to various groups in the Hampton Roads area. 

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.