USS CONSTITUTION under construction

photo-engraving

PRINTS - ENGRAVINGS
Burns, Milton J.
before 1933
paper
sheet: 9-5/8 x 12-1/8 in.; image: 4-1/2 x 5-1/2 in.

Photo-engraving, half tone, engraver's proof of illustration by Milton J. Burns; thought to be USS CONSTITUTION (built 1797) under (re)construction, full length figurehead (Andrew Jackson), timber strewn on ground, group of men in foreground, workers on vessel and in background, walkway on right, port side view; signed in the plate lower left "BurnS." Appears to be the same as 1984.67.40. History of Andrew Jackson figurehead (1834): "The CONSTITUTION becomes embroiled in a political controversy concerning the installation of a new figurehead that depicts the current president, Andrew Jackson. Her original figurehead, representing the demi-god Hercules, was lost in a collision during the Barbary Wars and had been replaced for many years by a relatively simple "billet head" decoration. President Jackson is extremely unpopular in Boston at this time; feelings run so high that the commandant of the Boston Navy Yard has his life threatened over the issue. Despite an armed guard, a merchant skipper manages, under cover of a thunderstorm, to row across the harbor, climb onto the ship, and cut the head off the figurehead. The man personally returns the head to the Secretary of the Navy; the figurehead is repaired and graces the CONSTITUTION's bow for many years" (accessed 11/30/2006; http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/historyupdat.htm#1834).

2001.12.34