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Way Back Wednesdays

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9-Old Small Craft Bldg

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.   Read more

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Way Back Wednesday

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Dec 23, 1974, Re-enlistment at naval memorial plaque

This image from December of 1973 shows a re-enlistment in front of Navy Memorial Plaque.  Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the two gentlemen, but behind them to the right you can see a little bit of our walking beam engine from the steamboat Albany.

To people who have seen our courtyard, this should look somewhat familiar.  In 1972, the museum used part of the courtyard area to create the Gibbs Gallery, an exhibition celebrating William Francis Gibbs.   Read more

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Way Back Wednesdays

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Sept 1974, Soviet scientists being shown the Crabtree models by August F. Crabtree

Our first image this month shows a group of Russian Scientists getting a tour of the museum in September of 1974.  The man second to the left is August Crabtree, who made a number of beautiful models that are currently on display in our galleries, and is showing one of them to the group in the picture.  We also have an online exhibition for those who cannot make it to the museum.

Here we have the museum’s six millionth visitor receiving a present from Director William Wilkinson on September 11, 1972.  In the background is a painting of Hornet (CV-8), a United States Aircraft Carrier.  The painting was done by Thomas C. Skinner, museum artist, ca 1942-1958.   Read more