4x5 transparency scanned on Hasselblad Flextight X1 by Ed Pollard-2012.

Merrimac in Dry Dock Being Converted into The Iron Battery Virginia

Artist Benjamin Adworth Richardson (American, 1833-1909)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1907

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)

InscribedSigned lower right "Richardson".

Credit LineGift of The Brothers Anson T. and Philip T. McCook

Object number54.5.2

Not on view

DescriptionThis painting depicts the hull of the USS Merrimack (a steam frigate, see painting 54.5.1) being converted into an ironclad in Portsmouth, Virginia naval facility's granite dry dock. Two men stand on the ironclad, while another walks from the dock to the ship with lumber. The primary color is gray; the foreground depicts a cobblestone dry dock with a building on the left; the background illustrates the river with two ships sailing and a few houses. One of a series of small paintings copyrighted by G. Richardson (a son) and reproduced on post cards and put on the market at the time of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition.

Label TextBenjamin Adworth Richardson American, 1833–1909 Merrimac Destroyed at the Burning of the Norfolk Navy Yard, April 19th 1861, ca. 1907 Merrimac in Dry Dock Being Converted into the Iron Battery Virginia, ca. 1907 Virginia Passing Fort Norfolk, March 8th 1862, ca. 1907 Virginia Sinking the Cumberland March 8th, 1862, ca. 1907 Virginia Engaged in Battle with the Monitor in Hampton Roads March 9, 1862, ca. 1907 Destruction of the Virginia May 11th, 1862, ca. 1907 Oil on canvas Gifts of the brothers Anson T. and Philip T. McCook 54.5.1–6 As a young man during the Civil War, Benjamin Richardson volunteered for the Confederate military and served aboard the ironclad CSS Virginia. He later operated an art supply business in Norfolk and created paintings of his own. This series chronicles the short career of the Virginia, including its beginnings as the USS Merrimac, its transformation into an ironclad, its service during the famous Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862, and its destruction by the Confederates (to keep the ship out of Union hands). These small works may have been painted expressly for reproduction as postcards to be sold as souvenirs at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition.Exhibition History"Sacred Sites, Then and Now: The American Civil War," Chrysler Museum of Art, May 1 - August 30, 1998. Sent to the Chicago Historical Museum until May 1951; Willoughby Baylor House, Jan. 1970; lent to Naval Museum in 1984; in Confederate Sea Power Exhibition -- installed with other local history materials in Hist. Gallery. "The Civil War: Visual Perspectives, Then and Now," Waitzer Community Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, April 6 - July 24, 2011. "The Norfolk Rooms," Willoughby-Baylor House, Norfolk, VA, opened August 16, 2014.Published ReferencesPublished in the Sunday PILOT, 2/28/54; Reproduced in color in the book IRONCLADS OF THE CIVIL WAR; p. 18; American Heritage Publishing Co., 1964. Craig L. Symonds and Harold Holzer, "Who Designed CSS Virginia?" _MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History_ 16, no. 1 (Autumn 2003): 6-14. Edward L. Ayers, Lewis L. Gould, David M. Oshinsky & Jean R. Soderlund, _American Passages: A History of the United States, 3 Edition_ (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2006), 418. ISBN: 978-0495050155 _Civil War in Hampton Roads: Battle of the Ironclads_, Writer/Host: John V. Quarstein; Prod./dir.: Cynthia Pardy, 55 min., Norfolk, VA., WHRO, 2007, DVD. Mayo O. Stevens, _Jamestown Exposition: Light on the Past_ (Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2007), 9-15. ISBN: 978-1-4259-9199-9 THE CIVIL WAR: A COLLECTION OF U.S. COMMEMORATIVE STAMPS 1861-1865 (Washington, D.C.: A Time-Life Book published for the United States Postal Service, 1995), p. 18, reproduced in color. The Historical Card Company. TIME TRADERS: THE CIVIL WAR CARD SET. Pomeroy, Ohio. Winter 1998/1999: one of a set of 200 cards. National Park Service, _Industrial Heart of the Confederacy_ DVD (Pittsburgh, PA: Argentine Productions, 2012). Avis Elizabeth Johnson, "The Other Lee," _America's Civil War_, March 2013, 58.