Evolution of Navigation
Artist
Francis Davis Millet
Year1907
Classification
painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions68' x 30'
Location
Custom House
Baltimore, MD
- Series of murals, largest approximately 68' x 30' The integration of the mural panels to the decoration of the Call Room is very successful and well thought out. The Call Room is an impressive, light filled space with large arched windows filling the outside three walls. It is decorated with a series of painted canvases framed and separated by decorative molding that has been painted white during the recent restoration of the building. Throughout the room, the ornate plaster depicts motifs reminiscent of the products that would have been brought into the Baltimore Harbor such as fish, shellfish, corn and tabacco.
Ceiling: Entering Harbor, 10 sailing vessels; narrow unbroken border around the ceiling with the Great Seal of the United States in each corner, are tobacco, dogwood, magnolia, chestnut, Indian corn, pine, oak, maple trees and small panels depicting the origin and development of the steamboat, motives decorating each panel being seahorses and scallop shells. Beginning at SW corner and continuing to right, vessels are: on W side, Rumsey's waterjet propeller, 1785 and Fitch's sidepaddle boat, 1786; Fitch's wheel and screw boat, 1786; Fitch's Philadelphia and Trenton packet, 1788; and the "Charlotte Dundee" on the Clyde; on N side, Fulton's "Clermont", first steamboat on the Hudson, 1807; Steven's "Phoenix", first steamboat on Ocean, 1809; on E side, Fulton's "Paragon", 1811; the "Elise", first French Channel steamer, 1816; the "Superior", second Great Lakes steamer, 1822; the "Norwich", now in commission as a two-boat, 1836; and on S side, the "Bangor", coastwise steamer, 1840; and, the "Swallow", Hudson River passenger boat, wrecked in 1845. The Cove: panels illustrate development of shipping from earliest times to present; beginning at SW corner and continuing to Right, are: on W side, an Egyptian galley, about 1000 BC and a Greek galley, about 300 BC; a Roman galley, about 100 BC; Saxon, Danish, and Norman vessels, from 11th Century to 14th Century; French caravel, end of 15th Century; Pontifical galley, 1550, French war and Venetian galleys, 17th Century; the "Henri Grace a Dieu", English Man o' War, 1500; the "Black Pinnaco", English war vessel, 1587; the "Sovereign of the Seas", the first important English Man o' War, 1637; the "Golden Hiind", Sir Francis Drake's flagship, 1577; the "Princess Mary", launched in 1689 and wrecked in 1827; a yacht of the Dutch East India Company, 1650; an East Indiaman, 1788; a King's cutter, 1785; and, a three decker, 1790; N side: the "Union", first sloop to circumnavigate the globe, 1795; the "Mount Vernon" of Salem, 1799; a Baltimore clipper, 1800; an Irrawaddy riceboat, 1800; a Barbary pirate, 1797; the "Constitution", 1797; a Man o' War ketch, 1800; a snow, 1800; the "Clermont", Fulton's enlarged and perfected steamer, 1808; the "Demologes" or "Fulton the First", the first steam war vessel (designed by Fulton), 1814; E side: the "Savannah", first steamship to cross the Ocean, 1819; the "Chancellor Livingston", first important river and sound steamer, 1816; the "New York", one of the first important coastwise steamers, 1822; the "Sirius", first British steamer to cross the Ocean, 1838; the "Fulton the Second", second steam warship, 1837; Liverpool packet and tug, 1840; the "Great Republic", first large vessel to use double topsails, 1853; the schooner "H. H. Colo", 1843; a Chinese junk, 1825; the "Monitor", 1862, the "Ironsides", first important armored warship, 1863; the "Merrimac", or "Virginia", 1862; the "Hartford", Admiral Farragut's flagship, 1861; the "Joseph B. Williams", an Ohio River steamer, 1870; the "John W. Cannon", a Mississippi steamer, 1878; S side: the "Priscilla", a Long Island Sound steamer, 1894; a six-masted schooner, 1895; a Great Lakes schooner; the "Amasa Stone", a Great Lakes ore carrier; the "Olympia", Admiral Dewey's flagship; the "Vermont", and the "Baltimore"; the cup defender "Reliance"; the steam yacht "Kanawhn"; the "Saint Paul", of the American Line. Narrow panels over arches contain half-hitches, a clove-hitch, single and double carrick bends, a running bowline-knot and a square knot, with all ropes' ends "seized". Frames in middle of panels, with the Chesapeake Blue Crab at each end, illustrate small craft of various periods. Beginning at Southwest corner and continuing to right are: on W side: an Egyptian riverboat, about 4400 BC; Scandinvian fishing boat, modern; a Venetian gondola; a Dutch shallop, early 19th Century; Indian canoes; N side: Canadian batteaux, early 19th Century; East Indian state barge, late 18th Century; Erie Canal boats, 1825; E side: Dutch canal boat, 1800; stationer's barge, Thames River, early 19th Century; western river flatboat, middle of 19th Century; modern Chinese sampans; modern Alaska canoes; S side: modern lifeboat; torpedo boat-destroyer "Paul Jones"; and motorboats. Spandrels (triangular spaces) on each side of the arches illustrate small craft of various countries. Beginning at Southwest corner and continuing to right are: W side: Egyptian naggar and gehazi; Javanese probelinga and pekalonga; Zanzibar fishing boat and Chinese sampan; Persian Gulf boat and Japanese junk; Mindano fishing canoe and Sulu war canoe; N side: Nenam rico boat and East Coast trader; Peruvian balsa and Bahia fishing boat; Naples trawler and Venetian fishing boat; E side: Spanish and Portuguese coasters; Spanish folucca and Saint Malo fishing boat; Dutch and Belgian fishing boats; Norwegian and Danish fishing boats; North Sea stumpy and Thames hay barge; S side: Chesapeake Bay bugeye and Norfolk pilot boat, 1820; Maine pinkey and Chesapeake Bay skipjack; New England mackerel schooner and Chesapeake Bay canoe. Five lunettes on E side illustrate the most prominent types of vessels in the evolution of shipping. From left to right: Spanish caravel between two French caravels, end of 15th Century; the Baltimore clipper "Empress of the Sea", 1853, owned by William Willson & Sons, Baltimore; the "Mauretania", the steam yacht "Corsair", and a tug; a topsail-sloop, the British East Indiaman "Earl of Balcarras", end of the 18th Century; an English Man o' War between two Dutch vessels, beginning of the 17th Century.
During conservation it was discovered that not only did Millet sign his name on the banner of one of the ships (as previously reported somewhere), but he signed his name or "Lily Millet" on every, or nearly every, ship. Further research divulged that Francis Davis Millet married Lily Merrill in Paris in the Spring of 1879*, and thus it is his wife's name that is painted on a number of the ships in this mural.
*Reference: Joyce A. Sharpey-Schafer. "Soldier of Fortune: F. D. Millet, 1846-1912." Utica, New York: 1984, p. 54.
