By Museum Collections Staff
This month, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is excited to open the Ernest Haas Collection to the public online. With 31 paintings and numerous sketches, the Ernest Haas Collection contains high-quality paintings of well-known historical events like “The Last Gunboat” (depicting the sunken Revolutionary War gunboat Spitfire) and “Phoenix Sinking” (depicting that fateful night in September 1819 which ended in the destruction of one of the lake’s early steamboats). The collection also includes landscape scenes such as “Hardscrabble Farm” and “Winter Chores,” painted during the later years of Haas’ prolific career.
This collection is made available online through CatalogIt, an online Collections Management System (CMS) designed for museums to manage collections internally, documenting, and preserving, and it also lets museums share collections virtually with the public. The CatalogIt HUB is the interface used to make these internal collections viewable to the public. Affectionately described by Museum staff as a perfect blend of Excel and Instagram, CatalogIt displays primarily as a photo archive, with historical context and appearing when an item is clicked. Earlier this year, we listed the Valcour Bay Research Project Collection online using this tool. And going forward, Museum staff look forward to more collections, including artwork, artifacts, and maps, being made available for online viewing.
This move highlights the Museum’s dedication to accessibility and provides a closer look at Haas’ extensive documentation of Lake Champlain history. Haas’ work is known throughout the region for its captivating style (of course) but also for their unique angle in documenting many of the lake’s most important historical events.
When it was announced in September 2023 that Haas (known by many as “Ernie”) would be donating a portion of his original works to the Museum, executive director Chris Sabick said of the artist, “Ernie’s talent for capturing the beauty, action, and vibrance of some of the most important moments in Lake Champlain’s history is amazing, especially those moments which don’t have any surviving contemporary illustration,” and that, “For our visitors, experiencing Ernie’s art transports them back in time to the moments we interpret here at the museum, and makes our work of teaching maritime history that much more powerful.” Read more about the donation of Haas’ collection here.
Haas uses old photographs and historic records to inspire his artistic process. Paintings in the collection feature maritime scenes from the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the canalboat and steamboat eras of the 19th and 20th centuries on Lake Champlain, as well as landscapes from throughout New England. In addition to original artwork and prints, Haas donated two boxes of research and reference materials used in the development of his Lake Champlain-related paintings. While not online, these notes are linked to the collection.
This release is especially timely as the Museum’s Key to Liberty exhibit has just closed to the public for renovations. While you wait to see what revolutionary changes are in store for the new exhibit, we hope you’ll explore these magnificent depictions of maritime history online.
Click on the screenshot below to explore the online collection:
