interpreting historic works of art, viewing the paintings and then seeing film footage of these things actually occurring.”
Collis Huntington virtually created the modern city of Newport News by running his railroad there, then creating the shipyard. A small village sprang up nearby and was incorporated in 1896, the same year the shipyard opened. “It was my original intention to start a ?shipyard plant in the best location in the world,” reads a quote from Huntington on one wall of the exhibit, “and I suc-ceeded in my purpose. It is right at the gateway to the sea.” That gateway became a huge embarkation point during the world wars as hundreds of thousands of troops shipped off to Europe. They were welcomed home to the city’s waterfront by a victory arch, built in the style of Paris’s Arc de Triomphe.
The museum’s most compelling feature for me (hardly