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Boats and boating have played an important role from the early days of the dugout canoes. Originally made for transportation, then commerce, boats later became a part of our recreation, whether for personal pleasure or racing for glory. One thing that can be said about all boats is that they are things of beauty. Our Nautical Collection offers the browser many viewing delights.

 Four master designers and their work are revealed by author Franco Pace in his wonderful photo-filled books “William Fife: Master of the Classic Yacht,” “Sparkman & Stephens: Classic Modern Yachts” and “Herreshoff and his Yachts.” Fife, one of the great geniuses of yacht design, built his boats in Scotland between 1890 and World War II. His works are considered to be among the most beautiful, and most elegant and fastest ever built. Sparkman & Stephens was one of the most successful and influential yacht design firms in the history of the modern yacht. The partnership was noted for the breadth and dominance of its designs from 6-, 8-, and 12-metre boats to America’s Cup yachts and a renowned fleet of groundbreaking yachts. Nathaniel Herreshoff, one of the giants of early 20th-century yacht design, was an innovator, a bold thinker and a designer of graceful, beautiful racing yachts, many of which are still winning classic regattas today.

 “A Century Under Sail: Selected Photographs by Morris Rosenfeld and Stanley Rosenfeld” is compiled by a father-son team specializing in photographs of the America’s Cup. More than 200 monochrome photographs were chosen to celebrate a joining of great yachts and the sea from the perspective of legendary photographers.

 “Steamers, Schooners, Cutters & Sloops: Marine Photographs of N.L. Stebbins Taken 1884 to 1907” by W. H. Bunting is another photographic treasure.

Steam replaced sail for commercial purposes, and local racing craft was abandoned for more scientific designs at the turn of the last century. Stebbins’ photographs capture the changes in yacht design that took place in the northeastern waters and are all that now remains of some of the vessels that have all but vanished.

Beken of Cowes, a renowned three-generation family firm of nautical photographers, is represented in the collection by “Sailing Thoroughbreds, The Glory of Sail” and “A Hundred Years of Sail.” Beken photographs are recognized worldwide as portraits without equal.