Construction of our old Small Craft Building. About 11 years ago it was replaced with a newer, more efficient building where a good amount of our small craft is now displayed.

This image shows men in our ship model shop repairing a group of our figureheads on January 23, 1940. Many of our figureheads came to the museum in rough shape and so needed a bit of work to make sure that they were stable enough to be displayed. As our old photos show, we used to have a large number of them on the wall of our Great Hall.

To change it up a bit, we have this colored photo from 1973/74 showing our Great Hall with the USS Lancaster Eagle figurehead by John Haley Bellamy in the foreground. In the far left corner the first order lighthouse lens from Cape Charles is visible. It, much like our eagle, is one of the first artifacts visitors see when entering the museum.

Our last photo shows a corner of the Great Hall in 1959, showcasing several figureheads and large paintings by Thomas Skinner on the wall. It’s nice to see a corner like this as most shots are from the front of the gallery, showing the USS Lancaster Eagle (like the image above).