In less than 60 years after the end of the Civil War, the city of Newport News was internationally known as a shipbuilding center with excellent port facilities.

Who was Marcus Garvey? Learn more about his significance not only to Black history and the world, but specifically to Newport News.

As it turns out, Slinkys have ended up on military ships, private yachts and possibly even in the children’s nurseries on cruise ships. And the Slinky has another surprising maritime connection.

Matthew Henson was a black explorer who sailed many expeditions, including one to the North Pole!

I found a small logbook dating from the Civil War kept by the captain of the steamer Andrew Harder. But my choice of Log 192 involved an inherent mystery we had hoped Thomas might be able to solve for us. Who was this diarist?

A mariner, through and through, the artist John Alexander Noble (1913-1983) devoted his life's work to the capture of scenes of mariners at sea, shipping, salvage, and decay. But of all of the ships he captured, in various phases of their life and death, it was the Spanish Bark, Guadalhorce, that he seemed to favor above all others.

If you’re reading this blog post, then, first, congratulations! You made it through 2021 or, as I’ve seen it called, 2020 part two. All joking aside, it has been a whirlwind of a year. Pandemic numbers ebbed and flowed like tides, and we all tried our best to return to some semblance of normalcy in our lives, most of us finding out that “normal” has changed.

We're on a mission to uncover the stories behind photos from the Ellis Parker Griffith Collection that were taken in Newport News, VA.