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Go Figure! (-Mermaid Follow Up)

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Second Mermaid Figurehead
Second Mermaid Figurehead

这篇文章将致力于第二美人鱼our collection! This figurehead is a gilt mermaid with a greenish bronze tail and long flowing brown hair. I particularly like this mermaid because she was carved into the into the trail-boards of the the bow, something fairly abnormal for most other figureheads. As mentioned last post, the second half of the “Go Figure!” series will look at the darker side of mermaids, even though this mermaid does not appear to be scary or mean. I chose this mermaid to do this side of the creatures because the fin-like detail towards the end of her tail, give off a less human side than the other one did and show a more ‘evil’ aspect of mermaids.

The darker side of mermaids is the side that I have heard more tales about, and personally find it to be more interesting. I like that these women are seen as objects of beauty, but they have a dark twist. The most common of mermaid folklore says that these sea nymphs sing entrancing songs and use their beauty to lure sailors out to sea.Read more

Collections

Go Figure!

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“A Mermaid” by John William Waterhouse, 1901.

For this post in “Go Figure!” I wanted to look at the two mermaids we have in our collection. For centuries myth and legends of mermaids have been told around the world, so I want to take this chance to share some stories and let you all know about the two ladies we have here in our collection.

The myth and folklore of mermaids have been around since 1000 B.C.E. While their whereabouts and intentions have differed through the years, this week I want to focus on the kinder and more gentle side of mermaids, since I think this particular figurehead has a sweet composure. For the next post, I will discus our other figurehead, and while she does not look the least bit frightening, I still think she is up to something.Read more

Collections

Go Figure!

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Irish Queen

Hey all! This is the first post of a new series that I thought would be interesting, “Go Figure!” This will be a collection of various figureheads from our collection that are not on display at this time. Our first figurehead is called the Irish Queen, and is the torso of a woman with ornate details.

This particular figurehead has an interesting and mysterious past, and her origins are still being tracked down. Given the name Irish Queen because the detail on her belt resembles clovers, it is still unknown if she is in fact from Ireland (some say it represents Wales). There are currently three possibilities of who this woman is and/or what she represents 1) it’s personification of Ireland, 2) the pirate queen Grainne O’Malley, or 3) none of the above (i.e. no idea). What we do know is that who ever had created her, paid close attention to detail.Read more

Collections

Mysteries in the Collection

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From time to time, we deal with items that are considered “Found in Collection” pieces. This doesn’t mean that we never knew these items existed and just came across them suddenly. (Although this does happen occasionally) Typically these things were dropped off by an anonymous donor or left behind after a curator moved on to retirement or another institution. So we end up with things without a history of ownership or use. Sometimes, we don’t even know for sure what the heck the item is and have to spend a great deal of time doing research to figure it out.

Recently, 32 World War II posters became the latest Found in Collection items to gain our attention. For the last 59 years they have been stacked in drawers and labeled “unaccessioned” or non-collection pieces. They originally were donations from the Virginia War Museum that we received in 1954. Over the years, curators knew they existed, but no one considered them good additions to the collection. Probably because some were duplicates of posters we already owned. Or maybe because of the fragile nature of the paper and the large sizes involved. While some posters were as small as 8 x 10, others are larger than 40 inches tall. It may seem strange, but the long term and undisturbed storage is one of the best things that could have happened to the posters.Read more