Tucked away at Archives II in College Park, Maryland, in Record Group 45: Drawings of Naval Vessels and Equipment (NAID 635610), is a series of magnificent ship drawings known simply as “The Ware Collection”. Named for Charles Ware, the artist that created them, the collection offers a high degree of detail and an eye-catching splash … Continue reading Lynxes and Alligators and Ships, Oh, My! The Ships of the Ware Collection
Record Group 19, Camouflage Design Drawings for U.S. Navy Commissioned Ships, U.S. Merchant Ships and British Ships (NAID 566727) contains some of the more colorful ship designs to ever sail in a military fleet. It is in this record group is where you will find the color and design templates for British Dazzle Camouflage. There are … Continue reading Now You See Me, Now You…..Still See Me? Hand-Painted British Dazzle Camouflage Templates from WWI
Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a series of sailing directions found in RG 456, Foreign Sailing Directions. These volumes are mostly smallish, bound books published by individual governments and collected by the Defense Mapping Agency and its predecessors from approximately 1892 to 2005. Some of the volumes have English translations, … Continue reading A Brief Glimpse of the German Empire Through the Lens of a State Seal
