Visitors to Hoover Tower are invited to embark on a special journey through the Pacific theater of World War II via the newest exhibition presented by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. The Battalion Artist: A Sailor’s Journey Through the South Seas traces the wartime experiences of Natale Bellantoni, a gifted artist and member of the United States Navy “Seabees”—the tireless construction battalions that were formed after the attack on Pearl Harbor and played a vital role in America’s victory in the Pacific.
The exhibition spotlights the Natale Bellantoni papers, which contain watercolor paintings, sketchbooks, photographs, letters, and other wartime ephemera, along with posters and other materials from Hoover’s renowned World War II collections. Natale Bellantoni traveled extensively throughout the South Pacific as a member of the 78th Seabee battalion, allowing his personal documentation of the war to provide special insights into a generation of young American soldiers serving in the harrowing conditions of World War II.
The exhibition is organized and curated by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
More About The Battalion Artist
From the Hoover Institution Press
Read more about Nat Bellantoni and the 78th Seabees in this heavily illustrated book based on the Natale Bellantoni papers house at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Written by Janice Blake and edited by Nancy Bellantoni, who carefully searched her father’s extensive South Pacific collection for visual material that accurately reflects the context in which Natale Bellantoni’s wartime art was created.
