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The Legacy of USS Mayflower: Private and Presidential Yacht, US Navy Warship, Merchant Ship

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From The Mariners’ Museum and Park collection P0001.022-01–PY755

Several years ago, I first learned of USS Mayflower, a presidential yacht. I was studying about the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Conference at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. I was curious but didn’t have time to delve into the ship’s history.

Since then, I keep “bumping into” stories about this ship as I study and learn more about other topics. I read Erik Larson’s Dead Wake about the sinking of Lusitania and then read more about Woodrow Wilson’s relationship with Edith Bolling Galt. Turns out, they spent much of their time getting to know one another while on board USS Mayflower.   Read more

Uncategorized

Beyond The Frame: The Fun of It

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“Portrait of Anna Vaughn Hyatt” Marion Boyd Allen, 1933. Oil on Canvas. Photo by Brock Switzer/The Mariners’ Museum and Park.

“Every French sculptor has done his Joan of Arc, and is sure to, so that she’d been done in light of every imaginable form as far as I could see. And my challenge was to get a composition that was original, that hadn’t really been done before. That was the fun of it.” – Anna Hyatt Huntington, 1964 Oral Interview for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Women in Art

As a woman, especially one in the art world, I get a lot of joy from seeing women supporting each other, building one another up and celebrating their achievements. I also love finding women in art history, they’re all too often forgotten and overlooked in favor of their male counterparts, take Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Leyster, or Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun for example – three of the few female names included in Art History. Judith Leyster and other Dutch female artists were only recently included in the Rijksmuseum Gallery of Honor – their contributions to Dutch art finally recognized after more than 3 centuries.   Read more

Staff Voices Uncategorized

Abuzz with Activity in the Bumblebee Learning Garden

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2021 City Nature Challenge (https://citynaturechallenge.org/)

2021 City Nature Challenge Results

The last time I posted, it was the City Nature Challenge (CNC), an international bioblitz! In 2021 the Hampton Roads area did pretty well considering we are still coming out of a pandemic. There is also always room for improvement– stay tuned for our exciting CNC efforts for 2022!    Read more