The Ocean-Going Tug "May McWilliams"
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “The Ocean-Going Tug "May McWilliams"” now? Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 9B, Washington, D.C. Yes, on view now. Checked September 25, 2026.
Washington, D.C., United States
RoomLuce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 9B
Open now· until 7:00 PM
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Antonio Jacobsen spent his free time at New York’s harbor and along the Hudson River, painting pictures of vessels as small as tugboats and as large as transatlantic liners. A close look at this painting of the tugboat May McWilliams shows the captain in the top cabin at the front of the vessel and a single passenger at the rear. Harbor captains used tugboats as early as the 1700s to escort larger ships through narrow or complicated passages.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Details
- Accession number
- 1966.83
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Image: Smithsonian American Art Museum — CC0