File:Ships Through the Ages (12).jpg

English: BPLDC no.: 09_03_000070

Subtitle: Hollandia; schooner; Hendrik Hudson's Half Moon

Creator: King, Frederic Leonard (American painter and illustrator, 1879-1947)

Date created: 1934-1935

General format: oil on canvas

BPL Department: Special Collections, East Boston Branch Library

Dimensions: visible image 22 ½ x 81 ¾ in., framed 25 ½ x 84 ¾ in.

Description: (left to right)

Hollandia This ship was built during Holland’s naval supremacy of the 17th century. Like many Dutch vessels, it was superior to those of other nations in two important details: it had larger cargo space and it could be handled by a much smaller number of men. This ship was the type used by Peter Stuyvesant.

Schooner This picture represents the early schooner type of 17th century vessel, which had two masts, rigged fore and aft.

Hendrik Hudson's Half Moon This was one of the many ships that were used in an attempt to find a short cut to China by a westerly route. Hudson, an English captain employed by the Dutch, undertook the voyage in 1609. He sailed up the Hudson River in September of the same year, and this river was later named for him, but he had to give up the idea that he had discovered the much-sought-after passage to the Orient.

Notes: The description above was written in 1935. Ships Through the Ages, originally four murals painted by Frederic Leonard King between 1934 and 1935, was commissioned as part of the Public Works Art Project for the Jeffries Point Branch of the Boston Public Library. In 1956, the Jeffries Point Branch closed, and each mural was divided into multiple paintings and relocated to the East Boston Branch Library where they are currently on display; however, several sections of the murals are missing.