Navy Art Assists Exhibit on Swedish-American Inventor
Story Number: NNS030409-15
Release Date: 4/12/2003 8:07:00 PM
By Miles Hadley, Naval Historical Center Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Naval Historical Center’s (NHC) Art Gallery has loaned five works from their collection to the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia, Pa., for an exhibition.
Titled “The Man Who Made the Monitor: John Ericsson, Engineer and Visionary," the exhibit will run from now until Dec. 28.
The five works consist of engravings of John Ericsson and John Dahlgren, the color lithographs "Monitor vs. Merrimack (Virginia)" and "Fleet of Monitor Ironclads," and a charcoal drawing by Vernon Howe Bailey titled "USS Dahlgren and Ericsson at the Pier."
Both Ericsson and Dahlgren were influential in the U.S. Navy during the 19th century and of Swedish descent.
John Ericsson (1803 – 1889), originally from Sweden, moved to England in 1826 where he pursued an engineering career. He was then persuaded to move to the United States, where he teamed up with Robert F. Stockton of the U.S. Navy.
The two developed USS Princeton, a then ultra modern screw propelled ship in 1844. However, an explosion of one of its heavy guns during a demonstration killed the Secretary of the Navy, a U.S. Senator, and three others. Although he was not responsible for the gun, this prompted Ericsson to move to the civilian design field.
The outbreak of the Civil War found Ericsson returning to the service of the Navy. Once back, he produced a revolutionary armored ship, USS Monitor, that carried two Dahlgren guns in a rotating turret.
Monitor subsequently fought in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads with the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia. This battle has been immortalized in many illustrations, and the period lithograph "Monitor vs. Merrimack (Virginia)" was loaned by the NHC for the exhibit.
To complete the exhibit loan, a charcoal drawing from 1941 by Vernon Howe Bailey, a noted Navy artist, was included for the exhibit. The subject of this piece is two World War II naval vessels named after the two Swedish Americans: USS Dahlgren (DD 187) and USS Ericsson (DD 440).
