Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

Merrimac Destroyed at the Burning of the Norfolk Navy Yard, April 19th 1861

Artist Benjamin Adworth Richardson (American, 1833-1909)

CultureAmerican

Dateca. 1907

MediumOil on canvas

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

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

Object number54.5.1

Not on view

DescriptionThis painting depicts the USS Merrimac, a steam frigate, burning and sinking at Gosport Navy Yard. 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. Lent 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 black and white in the book IRONCLADS OF THE CIVIL WAR; p. 13; American Heritage Publishing Co., 1964. J.H. Robertson. "War Comes To Norfolk Harbor, 1861," VIRGINIA CAVALCADE. Vol. 50, no. 2. 04/2001: pp. 64-75; ill. p. 72. Craig L. Symonds and Harold Holzer, "Who Designed CSS Virginia?" _MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History_ 16, no. 1 (Autumn 2003): 6-14. _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) pp. 9-15. ISBN: 978-1-4259-9199-9