Dressed in a high-collared wool uniform with a corporal’s rank insignia sewn on his right sleeve, Benjamin Harrison Splowne had reason to beam.

Artifacts are more than the sum of their parts. Rather than seeing artifacts as just things, we should instead see them as silent storytellers, enlightening whoever may listen with tales of their making, their application, and their eventual retirement from use.

Major changes to 19th-century seaboard weaponry forced the transition from wooden ships to armored vessels. By the dawn of the 20th century, every major warship would be made of steel – steam-powered and armed with rifled guns – a new way of waging war at sea.