For a while, the images of the Black men who built our Museum remained anonymous, despite our efforts to try to identify them. All we really had to go on was that they worked here. So that is where we started.

Able, courageous, and experienced, Franklin Buchanan was perhaps the most aggressive senior officer to join the Confederate Navy. His strategic flair, discipline, and heroic qualities made him respected and admired by all those around him. After being put in command of CSS Virginia, Buchanan led efforts that resulted in the Confederacy’s greatest naval victory before being appointed as the first Admiral in the Confederate Navy and selected to command the naval defenses in Mobile Bay, Alabama. As Admiral, he oversaw the construction of multiple ironclads and was on board CSS Tennesee during its battle against David Glasgow Farragut’s Union Fleet in 1864.

We're familiar with aircraft pilots, but did you know that ships have pilots too? In this special episode of Beyond the Frame, we take a peek into the career of ship pilots as told through Former Maryland Pilot and Artist Captain Brian Hope's work, Boarding a Liberty ship - 1947.

CSS Nashville played an important role in the Confederate search for European recognition.

History is filled with ages that are tied to the innovation of materials: The Stone Age, The Bronze Age, and The Iron Age. We are currently in The Plastics Age. Plastics have changed so much in our daily lives. Plastics are around us all the time.