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.

In disassembling this object, we found a second print, a photogravure, hidden inside the frame that someone had used as a backing board. The lithograph then found its way into our Collection with the steamship.

What our eyes and minds understand – at a distance- as literal, changes with each approaching step we take. What was the solid form of a fisherman in his boat, dissolves into thousands and thousands of fractals of light and color.

At The Mariners’ Museum and Park, we believe that we are all connected by the water and by our shared maritime heritage. And through that connection, we are every one of us, mariners. That’s what we say. I’ll be honest with you, though. I didn’t really feel that.

Art is fascinating in the way that it allows us to peer into the mind of an artist, see the world through their eyes, through the lens of their creativity. But there’s something very special about an artist allowing us to peek into their memory, especially a life changing one like this.

Set your eyes on action images that transformed early 20th century photography.

In early 2019, an East Carolina University student, Jacquelyn Hewett, studied one of the figureheads in our Collection for her American Maritime Material Culture history class. The information she uncovered was enlightening and indicated that a change in the attribution of ship name was in order. While confirming her research, I uncovered the story of a wonderfully awesome woman I thought I would share with you!

In looking at this work, the concept of connection comes to mind over and over. I thought about what connection means to me and my mind immediately went to technology – WiFi, cell service, texts, and email.