Date: Fri 01-May-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Maritime

Full Text:

A Maritime Album

w/cuts

NEWPORT NEWS, VA. -- Like treasured mementos bound in a family's prized

keepsake, The Mariners' Museum's latest exhibition, "A Maritime Album,"

breathes life into history, providing a rare, revealing photographic testament

to man's abiding devotion to the sea.

While the museum has become renowned through the year for its sizable holdings

of maritime objects and archives, the exhibition sheds light on a lesser

discussed segment of its collection, its bounty of photographs.

The exhibition, which continues through May 31, is slated to travel around the

country through the year 2000.

It showcases images of the fishing, sailing, and whaling traditions off

international shores; naval encounters and shipbuilding ventures; compelling,

intimate views that span the invention of photography and the advent of the

steamship more than a century ago to the recent years.

Guest curator and photographic historian John Szarkowski culled the museum's

archives of more than 600,000 images, considered one of the largest and most

comprehensive of its kind in the country, to settle on 100 of its best.

Szarkowski, who the New Yorker magazine named "the most influential figure in

the field of modern photography," took up residence at the museum in early

1996 to make his selections.

"It's such an interesting subject," he remarked, "and a wonderful collection

put together by scholars, curators, and amateurs who were interested in this

subject from a hundred points of view."

Mariners' Museum President and CEO John B. Hightower said Szarkowski infused

the project with a seasoned, ingenious insight. "His ability to bring you into

a story that a photograph tells and his remarkably practiced eye are really

fabulously illuminating," he observes.

Describing Szarkowski as a "pivotal force" in photography in the United

States, Thomas Moore, the museum's curator of photography, added, "He was one

of the few historians who really took a critical look at photography in the

sixties and brought it to the public's attention as away of documenting the

world around us and as a tool for an artist."

Szarkowski says his methods for uncovering the best the collection has to

share was simple. "When you look at a collection for the first time, you want

pictures that sell you something that you didn't know before, and you want

them to tell you that in a colorful and an economical way," he explains. "I

selected the pictures on the basis of how much they piqued my curiosity on the

issue."

The selections, which will fill two galleries of the museum, Moore notes,

"span the history of photography tracing technical and aesthetic developments

along the way. The photographs reflect a powerful testimony to which the sea

has permeated every aspect of national life."

The museum collection includes more than 279,000 photographic prints and

350,000 negatives and ranges from cyanotypes and daguerreotypes to albumen

prints, stereographs, gelatin-silver prints, and postcards, all of which

provide a diverse view of change in American maritime culture, economy, and

industry. An increasingly popular resource for scholarly research,

publications, video and film production, and exhibitions, the collection also

documents the history of technology and science, naval seapower, Native

American studies, Civil War naval vessels, and decorative arts.

Sponsored in part by Paine Webber Group, Inc, and Newport News Shipbuilding,

the exhibition is accompanied by A Maritime Album: 100 Photographs and Their

Stories, co-published by The Mariners' Museum and Yale University Press. The

catalogue includes an introduction by Szarkowski and essays written by Richard

Benson, dean of Yale University' School of Art. Its design is adapted from

Szarksowski's seminal publication, Looking at Photographs.

The Mariners' Museum preserves and interprets maritime history through an

international collection of ship models, figureheads, paintings and other

maritime artifacts. The museum is open from 10 am until 5 pm daily. Telephone,

757/596-2222 or 800/581-7245.

The Mariners' Museum, at 100 Museum Drive, is between Colonial Williamsburg

and Hampton/Norfolk/Virginia Beach.

Sidebar -- Seafaring Adventures

NEWPORT NEWS, VA. -- The Mariners' Museum, one of the largest and most

comprehensive maritime museums in the world, houses a treasure trove of more

than 35,000 items inspired by mankind's experiences with the sea.

For 67 years, the Mariners' has illustrated the spirit of seafaring adventure,

assembling a renowned and strikingly diverse collection of maritime artifacts:

figureheads, scrimshaw, hand-crafted ship models, decorative arts, prints,

paintings, and small craft from around the world.

The museum's permanent galleries hold treasures including the anchor from the

Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, Captain John Smith's map of the Chesapeake

Bay, and the polar bear figurehead from the vessel that Admiral Richard Byrd

sailed on for his antarctic expedition in the 1930s. Through the

interpretation of the museum's collection, which reflects man's use of the sea

for transportation, food, battle, and pleasure, visitors can discover

centuries of maritime history.

The first-order lighthouse lens from the Cape Charles lighthouse welcomes

visitors to the Mariners' Chesapeake Bay Gallery. Thematic exhibit areas

interpret the bay's early history, watermen, shipbuilding and military

complexes, navigation, commerce, and recreation. Historical photographs, a

working steam engine, fiber-optic maps, videos, and hands-on activities

complement the hundreds of maritime artifacts on display.

The Mariners' Age of Exploration Gallery chronicles the developments in

shipbuilding, ocean navigation, and cartography that made the voyages of the

Fifth through Eighteenth Centuries possible. Ship models, rare books,

illustrations, maps, navigational instruments, and other artifacts comprise

the exhibit. A hands-on Discovery Library allows visitors to examine

reproductions of early navigational instruments and books.

The jewel of the Mariners' Museum's collection is the Crabtree Collection of

Miniature Ships, one of its most popular exhibits. From a primitive raft to a

Venetian galleass decorated with 359 carved figures, these exquisitely

detailed miniature ships depict the evolution of boat building in an

unparalleled display of craftsmanship by artist-carver August F. Crabtree.

Other galleries include the William Francis Gibbs: Naval Architect Gallery,

which highlights the life and career of the designer of the record-setting SS

United States, World War II Liberty ships, and more than 6,000 naval and

commercial vessels; Small Craft Collection of more than 55 vessels from five

continents, including a gondola from Italy, canoes from Africa, and sampans

from China and Burma; and the Great Hall of Steam, which includes the anchor

and other artifacts recovered from the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor.

Complementing the museum's galleries is the film Mariner, which highlights

maritime activity the world over. Historical interpreters, including a model

ship builder, an Eighteenth Century sea captain, and a Nineteenth Century

whaler, appear regularly in the galleries, demonstrating nautical skills.

The museum's research library and archives, which are open to the public,

house more than 75,000 volumes, 600,000 historic photographs and negatives,

and one million archival items -- including the archives of Chris-Craft

Industries.

The museum shop offers maritime books, prints, jewelry, and gifts. Visitors

also can explore the 550-acre Mariners' Museum Park, which features the Noland

Trail, a five-mile walking trail with scenic sites overlooking Lake Maury.

A newly formed alliance between The Mariners' Museum and the South Street

Seaport Museum of New York City allows the two institutions to share

collections, exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and other

endeavors while retaining their individual control and autonomy. The

partnership will allow The Mariners' Museum to reach a larger audience by

displaying its exhibitions and collections in the Seaport Museum's

high-profile, high-visitation location in lower Manhattan.