Newspaper Notice on Commodore Perry
Newport, Rhode Island, December 1, 1826 — Frame: 13 x 12½ inches; sight: 6 x 6 inches
 
A period newspaper notice detailing the funeral arrangements for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry upon the return of his remains to Newport in December 1826. Among the most revered naval commanders of the War of 1812, Perry secured lasting national fame through his victory at the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813, a decisive engagement that ensured American control of the Great Lakes and produced one of the defining declarations of the war: “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”
 
Perry died in Trinidad in 1819 while on diplomatic service to Venezuela and was buried there with military honors. Seven years later, following an Act of Congress, his remains were returned to Newport aboard the USS Lexington for ceremonial reinterment. Printed in advance of those observances, the present notice reflects the extraordinary national esteem still accorded Perry in the postwar years and offers an evocative contemporary record of the public commemoration surrounding one of the early republic’s most celebrated naval heroes.
 
Condition: Excellent; not examined out of frame.