Paintings can offer a unique glimpse into history - but what happens when the artwork’s identifying elements are unclear? Solving these mysteries often takes extensive detective work, as with a painting of a 17th-century family that has confounded curators for 90 years! Has one of our curators finally cracked the case?

There was no formal naval intelligence system established during the American Civil War. While a few examples exist of Northern sympathizers, free Blacks, like Mary Louvestre of Portsmouth, sent messages to various Union commanders about the Confederate ironclad construction effort.

The discovery of a river boat in 1990 spurred a period of research into the Shenandoah Valley’s elusive single use boat, but 30 years later we find ourselves questioning the boat's identity… with Science!

It has been 109 years since the R.M.S. Titanic, at one point, deemed the “unsinkable ship,” struck an iceberg and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 2,205 passengers and crew members aboard, only 704 souls survived that fateful night. Passengers came to travel aboard the ship from all over the world, including approximately 300 from America. The Widener family was among this group of Americans.

A recent inquiry from the Assistant Professor of Mediterranean History and Archaeology at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World brought a really cool assemblage of watercolors in our collection to my attention. The images were painted by Joseph Partridge, an artist turned Marine stationed aboard USS Warren between 1827 and 1830.