This hand-colored illustration is from Instruction d'artillerie (1818-1831), part of the international nautical material housed at the Mariners' Museum Research Library and Archives in Newport News, Virginia. The beautifully illuminated manuscript belies its real objective: to explain the proper handling and embarkation of naval guns, ordnance, and related accoutrements and nomenclature. The cover image demonstrates the technique for using block and tackle to offload cannon through a warship's portholes.
Founded in 1930, the museum is "devoted to the culture of the sea." It features 13 permanent galleries with more than 60 small craft on display. The archives hold 50,000 vessel plans, one million pieces of printed ephemera, and more than 350,000 photographs on subjects such as steamships, lighthouses, yachting, and fisheries. The library maintains the finest collection of vessel registers in North America, 175 periodical subscriptions, 800 logbooks and diaries, and more than 74,000 volumes.