Quest to Find the Painting of the Ship Brooklyn

Article Summary: Discovery how genealogical research skills and the standards of art provenance guided a research physicist to find the missing painting of the ship Brooklyn that played an important role in Mormon history.

Painting of the Ship Brooklyn by artist Duncan McFarlane had relevant Mormon history.

FAMILYSEARCH NEWSROOM FEATURE ARTICLE (14 March 2018)--In 1845, Mormon newspaperman Samuel Brannan was instructed by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a passenger ship that could transport approximately 240 Mormon emigrants from the eastern seaboard of the United States to the west coast (California achieved its statehood a little later in 1850).

More 160 years later, the Church engaged Dr. Lorin K. Hansen, an energy physicist and historian of early Mormons in the California territory, to help track down the location of an original painting of the ship Brooklyn in about 1995. A few black-and-white photographs of the painting existed, but the whereabouts of the original painting or its artist, remained a mystery.

At first glance, one might not make the connection between genealogical research techniques used by genealogy professionals to validate a person or familial relationship with the provenance protocol followed by curators of fine or historical art. However, very similar methods and approaches are used by the two professions.

Read the free article "Quest to find the Painting of the Ship Brooklyn" by Glen Greener to discover how Dr. Hansen used both genealogical research techniques and the discipline of tracing the art provenance to locate the current owner of the ship Brooklyn and the miracles that transpired to purchase it for the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah.