Description: city; water; transportation; watercraft
Label Text: The identity of the artist, whose initials are "H.B.L.", and of the harbor city shown in flames is unknown. The date, 1861, suggests that this may be a Civil War scene. It is possible that the painting represents a Union attack on a Confederate city early in the war, but the presence of an American flag in the picture argues otherwise. Various harbor cities known to have had major fires in or around 1861, such as Portsmouth, Virginia (a naval yard fire), and Charleston, North Carolina, have been investigated as the site depicted here. New Bedford has also been suggested. It is possible that the entire scene is an invention, but if so, it is a complex work of imagination.
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1990.5.14 |