The Mariners’ Museum and Park has glorious photographs in its collections, of course, many of them maritime. Despite the number of battle-at-sea images, many of the most striking visuals are vessel launches.

Documentary photography is a genre of the medium where the goal is to tell a story through images. The idea is to take photos that, viewed together, can give you a more complete understanding of an event, a person, or even just a location. A do

In the International Small Craft Center at the Mariners’, there’s a Portuguese Moliceiro, or Kelp Boat. This boat was one of the first 5 in our collection, accessioned in 1934. This moliceiro had a life on the water, felt the sun’s rays and was used and loved by the kelp gatherers.

While I was looking for information on a different painting, I saw this one of Anna Vaughn Hyatt (later to be Huntington). I was enamored with it and when I discovered the artist behind this painting, Marion Boyd Allen, is female, I might have done a little happy dance.

Looking at this work, “Rescue of the Crew of the USS Monitor by USS Rhode Island, December 31, 1862” by artist William Richardson Tyler is an experience best enjoyed over a few minutes, at least.

When you look at Edward William Cooke’s 1856 painting, “Violent Squall on the Adriatic”, it becomes so much more than a painting of a fishing boat, instead it comes to life and plays out like the dramatic climax of a movie.