File:Ships Through the Ages - Ships of the line, Pennsylvania and Cumberland.jpg

English: BPLDC no.: 09_03_000080

Subtitle: Yacht, America; Ships of the line, Pennsylvania and Cumberland

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 76 ¼ in., framed 25 ½ x 79 ¼ in.

Description: (left to right)

Yacht, America The sailing yacht is the blue ribbon craft of the sea, and American yachts have never failed in the supremacy that was first won by the schooner yacht America in English waters in 1851. Since then a long line of schooner and sloop-rigged yachts have defeated the pick of the English yards in their vain effort to lift the historic America's Cup. The America set a record for speed early in her career when she crossed the Atlantic to Havre, France in 17 1/2 days.

Ships of the Line, Pennsylvania and Cumberland It was the appearance of this type of 19th century vessel that finally broke the power of the famous Barbary pirates of North Africa, who sailed from Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis exacting great tribute from all nations.

Notes: The description above was written in 1935. In 1983, an Australian yacht broke the American’s winning streak. 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.