Photographs of British lighthouses purchased for The Mariners’ Museum Collection in 1936 from Bertram M. Chambers, an admiral in the Royal Navy. Symbolically, lighthouses offer a message of hope and determination when facing adversity.

What’s History Bites, you ask? It is a fabulous food event that has served as the finishing touch of the Museum’s annual Commemoration of the Battle of Hampton Roads for the past 10 years!

Discover some objects made by – or purchased by – sailors as they were on long voyages away from their sweethearts!

WAVES fulfilled various positions and worked at Naval bases across the US, ranging from yeoman to chauffeur, baker to pharmacist, and artist to aircraft mechanic. Most WAVES worked in naval aviation units–maintaining aircraft, testing parachutes, and working as domestic air traffic controllers or weather specialists.

What did the California Gold Rush have to do with the whaling industry?  Albert M. Barnes, II, whose collection was donated to The Mariners’ Museum in 1986, created a list of 59 whaling vessels whose destiny was forever changed by the California Gold Rush.

After the Battle of Hampton Roads, USS Monitor gained the title of "The little ship that saved the nation".  The ship's newfound fame set off a "Monitor Craze" in the US, as hosts of vessels emerged with the same name. 

Multiculturalism incorporates ideas, beliefs, and people from many different countries and cultural backgrounds. This theme is built around our mission: we connect people to the world’s waters, because through our waters – through our shared maritime heritage – we are connected to one another.

This 1884 oil on canvas simply titled “Coast of Cornwall” by William Trost Richards, captures this complex moment where sea meets shore. In this seascape, there are no people, no ships, no record of time to detract from this moment. Richards