What our eyes and minds understand – at a distance- as literal, changes with each approaching step we take. What was the solid form of a fisherman in his boat, dissolves into thousands and thousands of fractals of light and color.

Just hours away from reinforcing Ft. Sumter and hours away from saving Gosport Navy Yard, USS Pawnee eventually became a valuable blockader. This steam screw gunboat was involved in several major operations with the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and South Atlantic Blockading Squadron until the war’s end.

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.

In Frank Vining Smith's ca 1900-40 oil painting, The Wild Gulf Stream,  we explore the artist's muse and his inspirations through his depiction of a singular large wave that fills his grand canvas. His life led him to the waters' edge time and time again, and in this blog we explore what it is about a wave that calls us, too.