Historian Jonathan W. White tells the riveting story of Appleton Oaksmith, a swashbuckling sea captain whose life intersected with crucial moments of the mid-19th century, most importantly the extraordinary lengths the Lincoln Administration went to destroy the illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Our Conservation and Collections teams pulled this amazing Chinese silk tapestry out of storage to photograph it and learn more about its unique story. They discovered something really cool along the way... and, we can't wait to uncover more.