The first study for the woodcut "Shipyard" is in India ink on rag board. Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is a river city founded in 1623. The South End, which includes Strawbery Banke, is one of the early colonial settlements along the Piscataqua River. It was not until the 1850s that vessels were regularly constructed in Portsmouth's South End. Launching the merchant ship Sarah E. Pettigrew marked a new era in shipbuilding on the Piscataqua River, and the Marcy-Pettigrew shipyard constructed some of the finest vessels. The drawing is a study for the woodcut "Shipyard," made in the early 2000s from the top of the Pierce Island Bridge, looking down onto the La Cava Lobster Company, surrounded by wharves and early American houses. La Cava Lobster was recently razed, and the old neighborhood is now primarily residential. It still retains a sense of its past commercial importance along a protected shore.