Cannon House Office Building: A Congressional First

• A Congressional First
• Cannon Rotunda
• Cannon Caucus Room
• Furnishing the Building
  
• Cannon Room 311
• Peace (The White Squadron in Boston Harbor)
• Speaker Cannon

Peace (The White Squadron in Boston Harbor)

This large painting in Cannon Room 311 depicts the Squadron of Evolution, part of the transition to steel shipbuilding. Sporting fully rigged masts and steam engines, the ships were painted white above the waterline and nicknamed “the White Squadron.” The squadron toured ports in America, Europe, North Africa, and South America, demonstrating the U.S. Navy’s technological prowess as well as its commitment to protecting the nation’s merchant fleet.

Peace was painted by well-known American marine painter Walter Lofthouse Dean in 1893. It originally hung in the hearing room for the House Committee on Naval Affairs in the Capitol and was moved to this room in 1919.

Peace (the White Squadron in Boston Harbor), by Walter Lofthouse Dean, oil on canvas, 1893 Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives