The Noble Maritime Collection has opened the new exhibition E.F. Neilson (1865-1909): Paintings by a New Brighton artist in the Sailors’ Snug Harbor Collection. It features six 19th-century paintings of local maritime scenes, most of which have never been on public display.

The exhibition will be on view through Sunday, July 25, 2021, and an online version is available at noblemaritime.org.

E.F. Neilson was an amateur artist who painted maritime scenes from the North Shore of Staten Island in the 1890s.

“I have always admired Neilson’s paintings in the Snug Harbor collection and wanted to make his story and work known,” explained Megan Beck, the museum’s curator. “Conservator Halina McCormack helped make this exhibition possible by preparing each painting for display, and we are excited to share Neilson’s work publicly for the first time.”

“It is exciting to present a new exhibition in a time when so many cultural activities are on hold or presented virtually due to the pandemic,” said Executive Director Ciro Galeno, Jr. “Visiting the museum is a safe and socially distant activity, but for the first time we are simultaneously debuting an online version of this exhibition for those who feel more comfortable viewing it from home.”

Ernest Fiedler Neilson was born on August 4, 1865 in Hong Kong, then a colony of the British Empire. His father traveled the world as a tea merchant, but by the time he was 10 years old, his family settled into his mother’s family home on the corner of St. Peter’s Place and Richmond Terrace in New Brighton, Staten Island. This area of New Brighton is now considered part of St. George.

The Fiedler mansion, like many of the Sailors’ Snug Harbor buildings, was a grand Greek Revival building, with tall white columns on three sides of the front portico. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, large mansions like this were a common sight along Richmond Terrace.

E.F. Neilson was an early member of the Staten Island Museum, then called the Natural Science Association, and was a scientist, naturalist, and author of Reptiles of Staten Island and Northern New Jersey, published in 1881 when he was only 16 years old.

In 1894, under the leadership of Sailors’ Snug Harbor Governor Gustavus Trask, the Trustees of the retirement home started collecting maritime art for the benefit of the residents. The Trust ultimately collected over 100 paintings that hung in the halls of the dormitories and in administrative offices.

The Sailors’ Snug Harbor Trustees accessioned 15 of Neilson’s maritime paintings and they remain part of their collection. He often depicted maritime scenes from a local vantage point and would note his New Brighton location adjacent to his signature in the lower right corner of his canvases.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and in part by a Humanities New York CARES Grant with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal CARES Act.