Above, this dockyard model ofa 74-gun ship was completed by shipwright Augustin Pie in 1755. It took over one year to build and was used for educational purposes at the Academie de Marine in Brest. Open on its starboad side, it affords a view of the hold and gun decks. The figurehead is Minerva holding a compass and a ships plan. Walnut and pear wood, scale 1124, length: 268 cm (8 ' 9 '12 ''.)
to the fine arts with an extensive addition of drawings, marble busts and paintings. New dockyard models were regularly added as new ships were designed and built. Franyois Edmond Paris was appointed director in 1871 and undertook an ambitious acquisition policy. He travelled around the world twice, bringing back plans of all types of vessels, and ordered more than 230 models built, mostly nonEuropean boats, but also pleas ure and fishing craft from the No rth Atlantic and Mediterranean. H e also added numerous volumes and ship 's plans to the library. In the early 1900s the ethnographic 26
collection was dispersed and a sizeable collection on merchant vessels was started and continued to grow through donations from various shipping companies and shipyards. Between 1939 and 1943 the Musee de la Marine, as it was then called, moved from the Louvre to the Palais de Chaillot. It was further expanded with collections from various ports , primarily work from model and sculpture workshops. Today the Musee National de la M arine, with its head office and main site at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, also has seven large exhibition centers along the coast, all under the French Ministry of Defence. .t
For information on the addresses, phone numbers and web sitesfor the First USA Riverfront Arts Center and Peabody Essex Museum, see the "Calendar" on page 47.
PLEASE JOIN NMHS TRUSTEES AND STAFF on Wednesday, 8 May 2002 for a special tour of the exhibit (3: 004:30PM) at the First USA Arts Center, Wilmington D E, followed by a reception with light refres hments (cash bar) to 6:00. The cost for the event is $25. RSVP to NMHS at 800 221-6647 xO. If yo u plan to stay overnight, we can send yo u lodging information .
SEA HISTORY I 00, SPRING 2002