In 1815, the USS Franklin was commissioned bearing a figurehead carved by William Rush depicting the ship’s namesake. Pauline A. Pinckney in American Figureheads and Their Carvers, devotes a chapter to Rush whose influence, she said, "was greater than any contemporary craftsman and left an imprint which was felt through the first half of the nineteenth century when carving as a craft was at its best.” The ship was broken up in 1853, and some of its material was used to construct a new, screw frigate USS Franklin, which was commissioned in 1867. The new ship also featured a figurehead that looked very similar to the original but was carved by a lesser-known artist, Woodbury Gerrish. Both figureheads ended up at the United States Naval Academy Museum, but only one remains there today. Through a happy accident, the museum retains the original, more prestigious figurehead.
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| Images of the two Franklin Figureheads a published in American Figureheads and Their Carvers by Pauline A. Pinckney with their bases being the most distinguishing features. The following photos will demonstrate which is which. |
The figurehead of the screw frigate, after a roundabout journey, ended up at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Its first stop was the Naval Home in Philadelphia whose governor, Admiral Albert Gleaves, was simply looking for a ship's figurehead, any ship's figurehead, for the grounds. The Naval Home essentially provided a retirement home for sailors and Gleaves reached out to the Naval Academy in December 1929 about its collection of figureheads. The academy was replacing the deteriorating USS Delaware figurehead with a bronze cast, so Gleaves asked if he could have the wooden original. Naval Academy Museum Curator H. F. Krafft responded that the original was "so rotten inside that it is a mere shell and would not last long out doors" but suggested "as there are two nearly identical figure-heads of the U.S.S. 'Franklin,' one of them could be sent to the Naval Home." A figurehead was sent shortly thereafter.
By November 1937, however, the Naval Home's new governor, Admiral Harris Laning, asked if he could return the Franklin figurehead. While admitting the relic was "highly prized by the US Naval Home," he concluded that it was "out in the open and naturally is exposed to all conditions of weather" and "cannot but deteriorate rapidly out of doors." While arrangements were being made for the figurehead's return, the Franklin Institute stepped in and requested it as a loan "especially for use at the coming celebration in Philadelphia in May 1938." The loan was worked out, incidentally without the academy's knowledge or involvement, and the figurehead went on display at the Franklin Institute.
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| Late 1800s photo of the old Naval Academy mess hall with three figureheads on display. On the left is the USS Delaware, under the left portico is the USS Franklin, and under the right portico is the USS Constitution. The 1853 Franklin was still in service when this building was razed so it must be the 1815 figurehead on display. |
During this time, the academy museum believed it retained the newer Franklin figurehead, and that it was the more noteworthy of the two. How and when the two got mixed up while they were both at the academy from 1915 to 1930 is unclear, but undated photos in the museum's accession files show the 1815 figurehead sitting on a pedestal labeled "USS Franklin, 1853" on a terrace outside of Bancroft Hall. Another photo shows the 1815 figurehead on the 1853 pedestal in Luce Hall. A third photo from a different time shows the 1853 figurehead sitting unlabeled on a shelf in the same location in Luce Hall. Adding to the confusion at the time of the Naval Home's request, the 1853 pedestal was empty because the 1815 figurehead had been placed on the Delaware figurehead's pedestal in front of Bancroft Hall while the later was away to have its bronze replacement made. The 1853 Franklin figurehead was still on display in Luce Hall. When Krafft suggested sending one of the Franklin figureheads to the Naval Home, he chose the Luce Hall figurehead, which he thought was the older one, sending the vacant pedestal suggesting the date on it "should be painted out or changed from 1853 to 1815."
A dearth of records helps explain why the museum mistakenly valued the newer figurehead over the older. Krafft had noted that the records for the older figurehead were lost, and Pinkney's study of American figureheads wasn't published until 1940. As a result, Krafft made his recommendation more on the history of the ships. The older Franklin's only "historical significance was her use for many years as a receiving ship," Krafft said, whereas the younger one had served as "Admiral Farragut's flagship in his triumphal cruise to Europe." Where Krafft was pretty certain he knew which figurehead was which, his successors weren't so sure. During the discussion about the figurehead's return from the Naval Home, H.J. Ray from the academy museum sent a memo to the superintendent admitting "due to the lack of records there is some doubt as to which figurehead adorned the bow of the first Franklin."
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| Magnified section of the previous photo showing the Franklin figurehead. Comparing the base in this image to those in the two above photos from Pinckney's book, the figurehead on the right is the one carved by William Rush from the 1815 ship. |
Correcting the mistake began with a request for photos of the two figureheads in 1938. Philadelphia physician William Bradley was compiling a reference book of artwork depicting historical physicians from the city, and Ben Franklin's interest in medicine qualified him for Bradley's work. He had found that William Rush carved one of the figureheads and was trying to determine which was which. The superintendent responded to Bradley's request for photos of the two figureheads with the observation that "there has been considerable difficulty in the identification of these two figureheads and quite a bit of misinformation about them" and proceeded to supply more misinformation by directing Bradley to the Franklin Institute for a better look at the older figurehead.
Bradley did go to the Institute and reported to the superintendent that "a name appears on the figurehead in the Franklin Institution which reads like 'Garrish.'" Concluding the name would be that of the carver and observing that Rush died twenty years before the construction of the new Franklin, Bradley assumed Rush's figurehead was still at the academy and that figurehead belonged to the older ship. In his letter to the superintendent trying to clear up the confusion, Bradley noted "it is really important to know whether or not the figurehead in your possession was carved by William Rush, as this would greatly add to its interest and value."
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| Contemporary drawing of the 1815 Franklin by W.A.K. Martin from the National Archives as published in Books Afloat and Ashore by Harry R. Skallerup. The figurehead is pictured surrounded by a decoration similar to the one incorporated into the base of the 1853 figurehead. Could this drawing have been the source of confusion between the figureheads? |
There is no record of a reply to Bradley in either the archives or the museum's accession records, but it appears to have prompted some undercover fact-finding by the academy museum's curator, H.A. Baldridge, a retired Navy captain. In a 1945 letter to the Franklin Institute's director, Baldridge reported visiting the institute in 1938, the same year as Bradley's investigation, "as a mere spectator in civilian clothes on leave," and asking the Curator of the Maritime Section about the figurehead's carver. The curator pointed out a partially painted over signature under the right shoulder but said it was Rush's signature. However, at some point between 1938 and 1945, an expert from the Philadelphia Museum of Art examined the signature and declared it was signed by Gerrish.
Therefore, when Baldridge requested the return of the Franklin Institute's William Rush figurehead in 1945 for the academy's 100th anniversary, the institute's director was perplexed. Reluctant to part with it because it "arouses much interest among our visitors, particularly the school children," the director, Richard W. Lloyd, asked Baldridge if he was sure it was carved by Rush. It was then that Baldridge told the story of his visit and Lloyd relayed the findings of the art museum's expert. To settle the question, institute staff brushed graphite over the signature, and "the letters W. Gerrish appear very distinctly cut into the wood." Baldridge replied to this report, "as far as I'm concerned, this attribution is correct and acceptable for our records."
So, after nearly 30 years of confusion, several relocations, numerous letters, and a clandestine museum visit, the Franklin figureheads and their carvers were correctly identified. The epilogue to the story is that the academy museum still tried to get the Franklin Insitute's figurehead back in 1945 because it was, as Baldridge put it, "more valuable to the Naval Academy for several reasons," although he did not elaborate. Appeals were made up the chain of command, all the way to Under Secretary of the Navy Ralph A. Bard, but apparently came to nothing as the figurehead stayed in Philadelphia. In 2020, the Naval Academy Museum formally deaccessioned the figurehead, so it now truly belongs to the Franklin Institute. But the older, more notable, and now well documented Franklin figurehead carved by William Rush remains on display in the Naval Academy Museum.
Sources:
Figureheads/Correspondence. RG405.2.1 Office of the Superintendent - Correspondence, Entry 39b General Correspondence 1845-1989, Museum/Memorials and Exhibits Box 1. Special Collections & Archives Department, Nimitz Library, United States Naval Academy.
15.3 Franklin figurehead. Accession file. United States Naval Academy Museum.
70.3 Franklin figurehead. Accession file. United States Naval Academy Museum.
Pinckney, Pauline A. American Figureheads and Their Carvers. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1940.
Skallerup, Harry R. Books Afloat & Ashore : A History of Books, Libraries, and Reading among Seamen during the Age of Sail. Hamden, Conn: Archon Books, 1974.
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