Commodore James Biddle and his Sketch Book

[4], 92 pages. Frontis illustration. Illustrations. Footnotes. Slight cover wear noted. This work first appears in the January, 1966 issue of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography and is republished separately in an edition of 600 copies. Nicholas B. Wainwright had a long and active association with The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He came to the Society in 1939 as a Research Librarian and in 1952 he became editor of the Society's journal, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. From 1965 until 1974, Mr. Wainwright served as the Society's Director. As Director Emeritus, he continued to write on subjects related to the Society and its collection. During the 1960s he wrote the Society's guide to its Thomas Penn papers and edited the diaries of Sidney George Fisher, a source often quoted by Philadelphia historians. Throughout his life, Mr. Wainwright was a prolific writer on a variety of other Philadelphia topics. His published studies ranged from histories of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Electric Company to studies of colonial homes and furniture and of local opposition during the Civil War. This article is the first account of Commodore Biddle based on his own papers. Mr. Charles J. Biddle of Andalusia kindly granted the author access to these manuscripts, which are mounted in sixteen volumes. In addition, there are also several logs kept by the Commodore as well as an interesting memorandum book of his at Andalusia. James Biddle (February 18, 1783 - October 1, 1848), of the Biddle family, brother of financier Nicholas Biddle and nephew of Capt. Nicholas Biddle, was an American commodore. His flagship was USS Columbus. He entered service in the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1800. Retained in the navy reduction of 1801, Biddle served in the war against the Barbary pirates. The ship he was in, USS Philadelphia, struck rocks off Tripoli, and along with his commodore, William Bainbridge, he was kept imprisoned for 19 months. During the War of 1812, Biddle was first lieutenant in USS Wasp. He was in command of the sloop USS Hornet in 1815 when she defeated HMS Penguin. In 1817, he was sent to the Columbia River in USS Ontario to formally take over the Oregon Country for the United States, which was completed in 1818. After the war, Biddle performed various duties in the Gulf of Mexico, the South Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. In 1830, Biddle and US consul David Offly negotiated and concluded a treaty with the Sublime Porte. The treaty was later used by U.S. diplomats to claim extraterritorial privileges for U.S. citizens in the Ottoman Empire. In December 1845, Biddle exchanged ratifications of the Treaty of Wanghia at Poon Tong, a village outside Guangzhou. The treaty was the first treaty between China and the United States. Commodore Biddle had an amateur artist from his ship, E. C. Young, prepare a book of drawings, many of which were based on episodes in the Commodore's career. This book he gave to his niece Adele in 1848. The book passed through several family generations. Forty-one of its eighty drawings were permitted to be reproduced for this work. The present publication is the first reproduction of the drawings from their finished state.…