Vessel was later renamed J.G. Emmons, and served immigration facilities on Ellis Island.
With the nameboard and pennant so prominent there is no mistaking who the subject is, the sidewheel steamship JOHN BIRKBECK. Interesting to note that both end with a period after the name, as do the obvious initials on the forward flag staff. Built in Athens, New York in 1854, the sidewheeler initially served as a tow boat, but was soon converted to passenger service. In this capacity, and later renamed J.G. Emmons in the 1880s, the ship served the immigrant center at Ellis Island until 1912. Bard painted an earlier version of the steamship which resides in the New York Historical Society, and a later one in private hands circa 1860. The version here, in the National Gallery has the two men on the forward deck engaged in a fistfight![1]
Original in National Gallery of Art as of 1997. Also reproduced in Mariner's Museum and Peluso, Anthony J., Jr., The Bard Brothers -- Painting America under Steam and Sail, Abrams, New York 1997 ISBN0-8109-1240-6, at page 51. A version painted circa 1860.
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