United States Ironclad Baron de Kalb

anonymous, c. 1862 - in or before 1863

Gepantserde kanonneerboot op een rivier, gedeeltelijk onscherp. Het schip heeft geschutpoorten in de zijden, een toren voor scherpschutters, twee schoorstenen, dekhuizen. Manschappen zijn te zien aan dek. Schip ontworpen door James Buchanan Eads. Handgeschreven opschriften onder foto.

  • Artwork typephotograph
  • Object numberNG-MC-1323
  • Dimensionslength 41.3 cm x width 54.4 cm
  • Physical characteristicspaper

anonymous

Photograph of a United States Ironclad

United States of America, c. 1862 - in or before 1863

Inscriptions

  • inscription, bottom left:600 Tons / 13 Guns
  • inscription, bottom centre:United States Iron-Clad Gunboat / Baron de Kalb / Launched October 12th 1861
  • inscription, bottom right:Constructed / by James B. Eads

Provenance

…; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1323


Entry

Framed black-and-white photograph of the ironclad gunboat Baron de Kalb in a river.

The photograph is partly out of focus but shows the gunboat with guns in the sides, a turret for snipers, two funnels, deckhouses and troops on deck.

The American ironclad Baron De Kalb was designed by James Buchanan Eads (1820-1887). During the American Civil War (1861-65), the City class ironclad was assigned to the Western Gunboat Flotilla from 1861 to 1863, when it was sunk by a Confederate torpedo (i.e. mine) on the Yazoo River. Baron De Kalb was originally named the Saint Louis, but was renamed in 1862, after the Bavarian-French Baron Johann von Robais (1721-1780), born Kalb, who was a Major General in the Continental Army during the American War of Independence (1775-1783).


Literature

J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1323


Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Photograph of a United States Ironclad, United States of America, c. 1862 - in or before 1863', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200419743

(accessed 12 December 2025 04:16:41).