Author: Jeanne Willoz-Egnor

In this post, I thought I would give you a deep look behind-the-scenes to see a process museum staff frequently undertake, but most people don’t get to see: what’s involved in packing an object for travel.  In this instance, the object is the 1906 Lipton Cup for the first Ocean Race to Bermuda. You might remember the Lipton Cup was one of the winners of the 2017 Bronze Door Society annual dinner. The Bronze Door Society sponsored the conservation of the Lipton Cup to the tune of $30,000.00.

It took several months to find a conservator (we chose Conservation Solutions, Inc.) and finalize the contract for the work, which will take most of the money budgeted for the project: $29,290.  Once this part of the process was complete our next task was to troubleshoot how to transport the trophy to the CSI.  You’ve seen the thing—with all those delicate frilly bits and the crack in the main spindle we couldn’t just wrap it in a little padding and lay it on its side in a box (we’d need another $30,000 to repair the damage that caused!).  Unfortunately, we only had $700.00 left in the budget to cover the packing expenses—which is a pittance when it comes to packing art.  Creating a customized crate usually costs anywhere from $1,000.00 to $10,000.00 or more depending on the object and its size or complexity.  As an example, Peabody Essex Museum just spent $12,281 to crate our Kronprinz Wilhelm painting for travel between Newport News, Massachusetts, London and Dundee, Scotland.  Granted, the 1906 Lipton Cup isn’t as big, but it gives you an idea of what it costs to crate a complex object.   Read more

Last fall, the Slominski and Lawton families of Garner, North Carolina were vacationing in a remote area of Cape Lookout National Seashore when they noticed small objects bobbing in the surf.  They collected a few of the items, and for roughly thirty minutes many more examples of the same item continued to float by.  Not knowing what they were, they limited their collecting to about fifteen pieces.  The items gathered were delicate glass tubes with a thin tube at the top containing a graduated paper scale, with a larger air-filled chamber at the middle, and a small bulb at the bottom filled with little lead pellets held in place by a cotton plug.

During the recovery, one of the fragile items fractured and from it they recovered a paper scale with the words “Sea Water G. Tagliabue New York.” Despite seeing what they described as a “hundreds” of the items in the surf, when they walked down the beach to see how many had washed ashore they couldn’t find anything—no complete pieces, no broken glass, no loose paper scales…nothing.  It was as if the bobbing items had simply vanished into thin air.   Read more

As I mentioned in my last post, Valentine’s Day wasn’t always hearts and flowers, sometimes it was a day of blood and guts.  On this day in 1779 the Hawaiians killed one of the world’s most important explorers, Captain James Cook.

Cook started out as a surveyor in the Royal Navy in 1768 and after being commissioned a lieutenant led an expedition that took scientists to Tahiti to document the transit of Venus (during the voyage they also explored the coast of New Zealand and Australia). Beginning in 1772, Cook commanded a major mission to the South Pacific and over the next three years explored the Antarctic region, charted the New Hebrides, and discovered New Caledonia.  In January 1778, he made his first visit to the Hawaiian Islands possibly the first European to ever visit the islands.   Read more

Valentine’s Day isn’t always a day of hearts and flowers. Captain James Cook was killed by the Hawaiians on Valentine’s Day.  February 14th also happens to be the anniversary of one of my favorite naval battles—the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. The battle was fought during the French Revolutionary Wars at a time when it seemed like everyone on the planet hated the English. It happened in 1797 when a fleet of 15 British ships battled 25 Spanish ships that were escorting a convoy to Cádiz, Spain.

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The Sailor Made exhibition finally opened this past weekend. We had so many wonderful objects to choose from and such a small space to fill that we sometimes had to make some really difficult choices about what to include and what to cut from the display.  In one instance, the choice wasn’t too difficult because the piece, a watch stand made by whaleman Charles B. Tobey of Nantucket, is probably the most significant piece of scrimshaw in the collection.

The English settlers in Nantucket were involved in whaling by about 1640, although they were probably not the first nor the most successful.  In 1712, after being caught in a storm and blown far offshore, whaler Christopher Hussey discovered a new species of deep-sea whale—the sperm—which produced oil of unsurpassable quality and in great quantity.  By 1715, Nantucket had six large sloops cruising deep waters and by 1775 Nantucket had 150 whaleships at sea. As these whalers spread throughout the Atlantic they learned of vast herds of sperm whales in the Pacific and Indian oceans.  In 1791, the first six of many Nantucket whalers rounded Cape Horn for the Pacific hunting grounds.   Read more