1931 Nantucket Lightship Charlestown Navy Yard Drydock Glass Negative (2) OOAK For Sale

1931 Nantucket Lightship Charlestown Navy Yard Drydock Glass Negative (2) OOAK

Pair of two (2) original, one-of-a-kind (OOAK) camera-original antique gelatin silver glass negatives captured in 1931: an extraordinary maritime photographic record of American navigational history: the famous Nantucket Lightship resting inside the historic granite drydock at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts, undergoing hull overhaul and repainting with the Bunker Hill Monument visible on the skyline.

Accompanied by the original period tan kraft darkroom morgue filing sleeve with contemporary newsroom documentation:

• The Sleeve Inscription:

  dry dock (contemporary red ink header)

  Name: Old Nantucket Lightship 1931

  Remarks: 2 (circled)

Historical & Maritime Context:

Marking the dangerous shoals 40 miles off Nantucket Island, the Nantucket Shoals lightship station was the most treacherous and iconic outer navigation beacon on the Atlantic seaboard, serving as the primary landfall marker for transatlantic passenger liners and merchant fleets entering New York and Boston sea lanes. Station vessels regularly returned to Boston Harbor and the Charlestown Navy Yard drydocks for bottom scraping, boiler overhauls, and topside repainting. These sequential negatives document shipyard riggers suspended on plank scaffolds actively repainting the vessel\'s hull lettering above the granite keel blocks, with the Bunker Hill Monument obelisk rising over the naval yard perimeter.

The two photographic plates encompass:

• Plate 1 — Hull Lettering & Staging Riggers: A sharp mid-ship broadside perspective showing shipyard painters on wooden staging planks suspended along the port hull, working across the oversized white station lettering, surrounded by cowl ventilators, steam funnels, lantern masts, and deck tackle.

• Plate 2 — Three-Quarter Bow View of Entire Basin: An expansive wide-angle view from the granite steps of the drydock, capturing the full lightship hull propped upright on heavy timber shores, displaying the cutwater bow, foredeck deckhouse, an American flag flying forward, and the Charlestown urban skyline behind.

• Tonal Fidelity: Rich continuous-tone silver gelatin gradation preserving the wet granite block textures, steel hull plating, ship rigging lines, and masonry details.

Specifications:

• Format: Pair of two (2) heavy antique silver gelatin press glass negatives, exposed directly in a field camera in 1931.

• Archive Ephemera: Accompanied by the original vintage tan kraft darkroom morgue filing envelope.

Please Note: This listing is for the two (2) original antique glass negatives and their period paper archive sleeve only. Any positive photographic images shown in this listing are modern inverted digital scans provided solely as a visual representation to show what finished photographs print like. No physical paper photographs, modern prints, or paper products of any kind are included with this purchase.

Condition:

Very Good to Excellent antique condition across both plates. Both heavy glass supports are structurally sound, stable, and completely intact with no cracks, fractures, chips, or glass breaks across either body. The silver gelatin emulsions are clean, sharp, and firmly adhered, retaining pinpoint optical sharpness across the hull, shipyard rigging, lettering, and Charlestown skyline. Displays authentic unexposed handling borders along the outer plate margins outside the primary image frames. Accompanied by the original period kraft morgue filing sleeve.

The glass plate negative measures 4 x 5In.
If you collect glass negatives, please check out our collection in our store. We are currently listing thousands of original glass photo negatives from this DJD collection through the remainder of the year. Follow our store, and feel free to reach out about any questions about the negatives in this collection.
Ships with extreme care in archival materials to ensure safe transit. Feel free to reach out with any requests or questions).
Combined shipping is available (with other glass negatives)