Portraits of sea captains are poignant reminders of the hazards and hardships posed by the oceangoing trades during the nineteenth century. Perhaps more than any other single community, men who followed the seafaring professions relied on painted portraits to function as a surrogate presence in their homes, as voyages frequently lasted years and men did not always survive to return home. This is one of several similar portraits of sea captains painted by Sturtevant J. Hamblin, who established himself in Boston with his brother-in-law, William Matthew Prior. The two were the primary practitioners of a schematic style of portraiture “without shade” that could be completed quickly and at modest cost to the client.

The art of scrimshaw—embellished keepsakes made from organic materials derived from whales and other marine mammals—is largely a by-product of the American whaling industry. Operating from such ports as Nantucket, New Bedford, and Sag Harbor, whaling flourished from about 1830 through the early twentieth century. Making scrimshaw helped to fill time and deflect the complex emotional dynamics that characterized male crews confined onboard ship for long periods of time. The act of carving also enabled sailors to maintain an emotional link to loved ones on distant shores by fashioning various tokens as gifts. Beginning scrimshanders started with a simple project like a plain walking stick and moved on to more ambitious work as their skill increased.

The Chicago artist Henry Darger led a very private existence. The full breadth of his work was discovered only after his death by his Chicago landlord, artist and industrial designer Nathan Lerner. Darger is best known today for around 300 single-sheet and panoramic multi-sheet watercolors related to his writings, notably the 15,000-page epic, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. After the death of his mother, Darger was relegated to a notorious Illinois asylum for children. The depredations of the institution left an indelible mark on the sensitive boy and he escaped in 1908. During his journey by foot back to Chicago, Darger experienced a terrifying tornado. This formed the basis for a fictionalized account of a twister named “Sweetie Pie” that occupies more than 4,000 pages in a written narrative. The watercolors included in the exhibition depict extreme weather conditions that continued to occupy Darger: lightning strikes, storm clouds, wind, and rain.

Coffee, tea, and chocolate were introduced into England by the late seventeenth century, and coffeehouses quickly became centers of social and business interaction. By the eighteenth century, these establishments were imitated in America, where they offered current newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets and served as meeting places for social, political, military, religious, and secular activities. E. Fitts Jr. has not been identified, but his painted trade sign indicates the coffeehouse on one side and his store on the other. In addition to a large stock of hats, reams of fabric, and dry goods, the store may have offered some food or drink, as there are barrels stacked on one side and the shelves have a variety of pottery vessels.