Detail View: JCB Archive of Early American Images: Preparation for War to defend Commerce. The Swedish Church Southwark with the building of the Frigate Philadelphia.

Accession number: 
65-230
Record number: 
65-230-30
JCB call number: 
*D800 B617 / 1-SIZE (copy 2)
Image title: 
Preparation for War to defend Commerce. The Swedish Church Southwark with the building of the Frigate Philadelphia.
Creator 1: 
William Birch & son
Creator 1 role: 
Drawn Engraved & Published by
Place image published: 
Philadelphia
Image publisher: 
Sold by R. Campbell & Co. No: 30 Chesnut Street
Image date: 
1800
Image function: 
plate [29]
Technique: 
engraving, hand coloring
Image dimension height: 
23.2 cm.
Image dimension width: 
29.3 cm.
Page dimension height: 
33.9 cm.
Page dimension width: 
40.9 cm.
Materials medium: 
ink, colors
Materials support: 
paper
Languages: 
English
Description: 
View of a shipyard with men building a warship using cross saw, axes or adzes, pullies and levers. Built environment includes ramp, dwellings, sentry box, and church.
Source creator: 
Birch, William & Son
Source Title: 
The city of Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania North America: as it appeared in the Year 1800 consisting of twenty eight plates
Source place of publication: 
[Philadelphia]
Source publisher: 
Published by W. Birch, Springland Cot, near Neshaminy Bridge on the Bristol Road
Source date: 
1800
notes: 
Birch wrote in his introduction that this last plate was meant to represent Philadelphia in "the exertion of naval architecture to protect" commerce. The frigate Philadelphia was built at Humphreys' shipyard in response to the United States preparations to defend its commerce in the Mediterranean. No longer under the protection of the British royal navy or the alliance with France, American merchantmen were forced to pay annual tribute to the Barbary states to sail in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1801, the pasha of Tripoli declared war on the United States and a naval "squadron of observation" consisting of three frigates--the President, the Philadelphia, and the Essex--and a sloop was sent by President Thomas Jefferson to the Barbary coast. The Philadelphia ran aground in the Tripoli harbor and was captured. Stephen Decatur boarded her in 1804 and burned her to keep the warship from falling into the hands of the enemy. The church in the background, Gloria Dei or Old Swedes' Church, was built between 1698 and 1700.
Time Period: 
1751-1800
References: 
Teitelman, S. R. Birch's Views of Philadelphia, plate 29; Snyder, M.P. "William Birch," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 73, p. 271-315; Shadwell, W.J. American Printmaking, 88; http://www.mariner.org/usnavy/06/06a.htm (Feb. 2004)
Provenance/Donor: 
Acquired in 1965.
Owner and copyright: 
©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912
geographic area: 
North America
Subject Area: 
Artifacts, industry, and human activities
Subject Area: 
Geography, maps, city views and plans
Subject headings: 
Philadelphia (Pa.)--Pictorial works