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John Wolcott Adams
(American, 1874 - 1925)
Boarding the Vessel
1915
8 1/8 × 7 5/8 in. (20.6 × 19.4 cm)
2018.7
Gift of Mickey and Larry Magid, 2018
Not on view
John Wolcott Adams was already working as an illustrator when Howard Pyle invited him to join his prestigious school in Wilmington as a teacher. Showing off Adams’s specialty of pen and ink, this drawing is one of several illustrating Stephen Vincent Benét’s poem “The Hemp: A Virginia Legend” in The Century Magazine in 1916. The poem traces the legacy of a pirate named Captain Hawk and his eventual downfall at the hands of Sir Henry Gaunt. Rather than depicting a raiding band of pirates taking a ship, Adams here illustrates Gaunt’s men boarding Hawk’s vessel, bringing an end to the pirate’s reign of terror.
Illustration for same publication/Illustration for same publication