The Ocean-Going Tug "May McWilliams"
Antonio Jacobsen
ca. 1895
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
Accession Number
1966.83
Tags
May McWilliamstugboatsea
About this artwork
Antonio Jacobsen spent his free time at New Yorkâs harbor and along the Hudson River, painting pictures of vessels as small as tugboats and as large as transatlantic liners. A close look at this painting of the tugboat May McWilliams shows the captain in the top cabin at the front of the vessel and a single passenger at the rear. Harbor captains used tugboats as early as the 1700s to escort larger ships through narrow or complicated passages.