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Ad Code: 4
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An example of work by Frederick Nelson Atwood
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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Biography from AskART:
| Frederick Nelson Atwood
Born 1844 in Barnstable, Provincetown MA
Died before 1900
FN Atwood descended from the Atwood family, one of the first groups of settlers in Barnstable MA. His Grandfather was a mariner and his own father was a fisherman who died when he was nine years old. His mother remarried and it is believed he spent a good portion of his youth around Edgecomb, Maine.
By profession he was an interior decorator painter. Atwood descendants still have samples of decorating designs used to show potential customers. The 1880 Boston Directory said he was "of Kennebunk, Maine" with a Boston street address. Maine was the area that inspired him to paint the coastline, shipwrecks and ships using mainly gouache watercolor and some oils. It is believed he was a self-taught painter and he also took a great interest in invention. Family descendents also have portfolios of early flying machine designs or prototypes.
His most well known work is the gouache watercolor painting of the USS Maine painted in 1895. It currently hangs in the Naval Historical Center in Washington DC.
In 1999, Mr. Frank Sente published an article in American Philatelist citing this painting as the basis for the "Battleship" revenue tax stamp that was used to raise funds for the Spanish American War in 1898.
According to "An Overview of US Scott Listed Revenue Stamps" by Bob Hohertz,
when the Tax Act of 1898 was passed to help finance the Spanish American War there was not much time to put together the necessary stamps before its effective date. As a result, provisional overprints on postage stamps were prepared, R 153 - 160. The series of low values of the regular issue bore the picture of a battleship, R161-172, while higher values featured Commerce and portraits, R173-194. These were used until 1902. Another series RB 20-31 Proprietary stamps used the same image.
In 1898, the painting of the Maine was copyrighted by Chicago businessman Brigadier General Harris A Wheeler, and reproduced as Spanish American war memorabilia with the result that this painting was probably one of the most extensively used as a representative of the Spanish American War theme of "Remember the Maine". A July 27,2003 auction at Thomaston Auctions sold a type of Folk Art memorabilia of the USS Maine in oil on tin with the American flag and the words "Union forever" for $475.
He has been known to sign his works as FNA as well as FN Atwood and in some instances may be unsigned.
Submitted by Ione Smith, great grand daugher of the artist
Sources include:
R. Bradley Potts Atwood Genealogy www.genesisgenealogy.org
Claudette Maerz's Atwood Ancestors
1880 and 1888 Census
Thomaston Auction Place Galleries, Thomaston Maine
http://www.thomastonauction.com/catalog.php?AuctionNumber=22 Lot #512
Ted Brown President Brown Marine Service, Inc. www.brownmarine.com/MAINE.htm
Mr. Bob Hohertz www.rdhinstl.com/revs.htm
www.rdhinstl.com/rev/rcomp3.jpg
Mr. Frank L. Sente Director of Administration American Philatelic Society
Mr. Gale Munro Curator Navy Art Collection
Ione Smith -- Great granddaughter
Larry Atwood Great Grandson
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