AFA Summer 2021

Summer 82 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com The United States Exploring Expedition (1838–42) was intended to establish the country as a global naval power and world-class scientific authority. Artwork produced on the expedition visualized America’s expanding territorial and political interests in the Pacific. The expedition left Hampton Roads, Virginia, with six naval ships carrying more than 340 sailors, scientists, and artists for a four-year voyage to traverse the Southern Pacific region. The painting of the flagship USS Vincennes amid giant icebergs and a menagerie of Antarctic sea creatures in an unpeopled wilderness portrays the process of territorial discovery as the expedition provided evidence that Antarctica was indeed a continent. In contrast, the view from a ship’s deck as the expedition arrives at a busy harbor suggests a scene in the Fiji islands devoid of any impact from prior American voyages there. US merchants had been living and trading in Fiji since the 1810s, exchanging sandalwood for guns and creating political alliances that pitted one chief against others for Americans’ strategic gain. Titian Ramsay Peale (1799–1885), Town of Mathwalta / Island of Venua Levul Viti’s / US Ship Peacock, 1840–49. Oil on wood, 10 × 14 inches. Peabody Essex Museum; Gift of Mrs. Anna Glen Butler Vietor, 1984 (M20223). © 2020 Peabody Essex Museum. Photography by Kathy Tarantola. Artist from United States, after Captain Charles Wilkes (1798–1877), USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, about 1842. Oil on canvas, 23½ x 35½ inches. Peabody Essex Museum; Museum purchase, 1902 (M265).