It’s incredibly rare, it’s from the US Navy, it’s a key piece of the origin story for the longest serving, most produced military sidearm in world (not American, WORLD) history… and it’s in the collection of your Mariners’ Museum and Park!

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.

When salt gets into things it’s not meant to get into, it almost always causes problems, but the nature of the problem varies by material: organics (like wood, leather and cloth), metals (like iron and copper), and other inorganic materials (like ceramics, glass and stone).

An update on the conservation treatment for a bone-handled knife found in the concretion of the turret.

In order to conserve these complex pieces of machinery, a large part of our job is to disassemble them. This allows for appropriate treatment of the different materials.

Well…probably not the kind of Amazons you’re thinking about, these were the Amazon-class steam screw sloop’s HMS Daphne, Dryad and Nymph of the Royal Navy and the “hunt” occurred off the East Coast of Africa as they worked to suppress the African slave trade.

This weekend marks the annual Festa della Sensa in Venice. Although the festival didn’t start until 1965 it commemorates and recreates the ancient traditional ceremony of Sposalizio del Mar, the event in which Venice is symbolically married to the sea.

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!!!