EXCLUSIVE: Surgeon Guillou’s sketches that also show uniforms of officers and enlisted men pre-1841

[Father V]

So in my recent post publishing the Academy’s collection of M1830 & M1841 swords for the first time anywhere, the subject of Surgeon Guillou came up, his sword being one included: https://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/404546-exclusive-usna-annapolis-academy’s-collection-full-length-photos-of-m1830-and-m1841/ (post #10, 2nd sword of the M1841 type). While doing my standard Google search for further information on him, a hit came up on his papers which are at the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. https://cpparchives.org/repositories/2/resources/122 and this entry in particular:

 

“Two of Charles F. Guillou's sketchbooks and some unbound drawings, 1838-1872, are in Series 2. The sketchbooks function as pictorial logs of Guillou's naval voyages. The first sketchbook documents the United States Exploring Expedition's voyage from the Azores to South America (including descriptions of Guillou's experience at Tierra del Fuego), Tahiti, Hawaii, Fiji, Oregon and California, and Mexico, from September 1838 to January 1842. The "Columbus" sketchbook covers the voyage from Brooklyn, N.Y., to South America, Hong Kong, Amoy in China, Japan, Hawaii, California, and Chile, from May 1845 to October 1847. …”

 

Upon request, they provided a list of the sketches, provided here for future inquiries:

Guillou vol.1 sketchbook index.pdfGuillou vol. 2 sketchbook index.pdf

There is a 3rd collection of unbound drawings but they aren’t relevant here, as they don’t show people. I submitted a list I thought might include people in close enough detail to make a difference. Of that list, only a small number were actually verified by the staff to have potential interest given my goals, and of those, only one doesn’t actually depict Naval personnel. Here’s the list by volume and number as shown in the indices above:
 

Vol 1 

20. Attempt at relief by kites to party on shore at Good Success Bay, Tierra del Fuego

21. Lieutenant H J Hartstein's dash at Good Success Bay

24. Bivouacking 

71. United States’ Ship Peacock, in the ice

72. Iceberg, as seen from quarter deck of Peacock 

 

Vol 2 (post 1841)

1. Brooklyn Navy Yard

65. ”All hands to prayer”

 

More detailed analysis and caption at each sketch.

 

First, required statements. As these have never been scanned before, for them to furniture them to me and publish them here for the first time anywhere, I had to agree to certain things and pay a fee for staff time. Copyright is a separate issue from ownership of the images. I do not own them and cannot provide permission to publish them further. For that you’ll need to contact them. Here’s their info page: https://muttermuseum.org/our-work/historical-medical-library/library-policies

 

For future reference the manuscript is MSS 2/253 which I’m asked to repeat in each caption for each image, but here is the fuller entry online: https://cpparchives.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/15375

 

20.

 

Full caption: “Attempt at relief by kites to party on shore at Good Success Bay, Tierra del Fuego, South America. March 17th, 1839.” Charles F. Guillou papers, MSS 2/253. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. There’s also a reference “vol 1. p. 141.” repeated twice as well as the number 25 repeated twice. From a uniform perspective, we see wide brimmed hats and perhaps short overcoats (no floppy collar, but a vertical seam running down the front center). By the terms of the agreement, I’m not allowed to manipulate the image, but detail shots are generally not considered such. The events depicted are discussed here among other places (free hourly checkout): https://archive.org/details/greatunitedstate00will/page/101/mode/1up (pg 101)

 

 

This could be a sou’wester type hat, though from these sketches it need not be especially given the relatively flat crown and relatively flat brim. I would guess they are wearing short overcoats, as there is a line down the center front and no wide collar down the back. There also appear to be front pockets towards the bottom of the coat, or at least one on the wearer’s right.

 

21. Two actual sketches labeled a & b.

“Lieutt Hartstein's dash for relief of shore party at Good Success Bay, Tierra del Fuego, South Amer. March 17th, 1839.” Charles F. Guillou papers, MSS 2/253. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. The “b” sketch is labeled “March 28, 1839” . Both bear indexing numbers. We’ll need some detail shots to discuss uniform. 
 

From a:

From b:

The “a” sketch not only has wide brimmed hats, but the brim is positioned noticeably upwards and the crowns mostly rounded. While it could be straw tarpaulin, this one I think is more likely something like a sou’wester, especially given that the clothes are colored by fewer hatch marks unlike the “b” sketch, thus probably indicating lighter colored clothes, including as achieved by linseed oil treatment. Straw hats are less likely in cold weather as well (Tierra del Fuego is at the extreme south end of South America). The “b” sketch is harder to determine on headwear. At least one is wearing an upwards oriented wide brim, but some others could be flat hats or something else. We need not look for complete uniformity in what the men choose to wear in every situation, especially for non-shipboard operations like this. The tops are also difficult to identify but there are definitely no floppy collars.

24.

 

“Bivouacking in Tierra del Fuego, at Good Success Bay. March 21, 1839.” Charles F. Guillou papers, MSS 2/253. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Also indexing numbers. The personnel aren’t in uniform but were most likely members of the expedition. Given the events depicted previously their ordinary clothes may not have been available or may be drying as one of the things in the scene is a large drying rack.

71.

 

“U. S. Ship Peacock in the ice. January 24th, 1840 ?,” Charles F. Guillou papers, MSS 2/253. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Index numbers top right. I think one of the men (dressed like the others and doing manual labor) must be wearing a flat cap given the flat top on the wide crown. (2nd from the left). All of the men seem to have a tucked uncollared tops.

 

 

72.

The text on this one is tricky being pencil on dark background. The transcription of the bottom text as interpreted by the staff is “Iceberg, as seen from quarter deck of Peacock.” Charles F. Guillou papers, MSS 2/253. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Additional text after that not as clear but the index has “after collision.” In the image I think it’s “Iceberg, as seen from the quarter deck, after the Peacock…collision…January…1840.” All of the ellipses indicate I’m unsure what if anything is there.
Top text is even more sketchy (forgive the pun). “…at…officers - gulf direction, quarter deck … port bulwarks.” Index numbers are more legible.

 

As for uniform, it’s reasonably clear that the man on the left is wearing an unvisored flat cap, and loose bottomed trousers with a relatively high waist. Whatever top he has on seems to have a small collar visible from the back. The next man over is wearing a long overcoat which has a very high flipped up collar. That collar seems to have a fastener of some kind of the wearer’s left side. When the collar would be flipped down, this would be invisible, just as later overcoats would hide a detachable throat latch in the same location, though it’s not clear that this fastener is detachable at all, Seems to be incorporated into the garment. This long overcoat also has at least one pocket into which the man has placed his left hand. His hat seems a bit more floppy than the rest of the individuals by the number of shadings the good physician has put into it. It might even be depicting a rain cover. It’s also possible that this hat / cap has a visor / peak given the sharp diagonal line in front. He’s also wearing cuffed boots which rise to slightly below midway so shorter than he knee.

 

The man 2nd from the right has a wide brimmed hat with a rounded crown with a baggy opening on the bottom of the trousers and a short top. If he has a collar, it is a small one. The man on the extreme right is clearly wearing a visored / peaked cap with a flat wide crown, of the type discussed in my post about pre-measurement caps, has a tighter cut to the bottom of his trousers, and might be wearing a puffed collar jacket. They had what the secondary source called rubber life jackets. See again https://archive.org/details/greatunitedstate00will/page/101/mode/1up . I can’t tell what these might have been called at the time to find primary sources. It might also be a short jacket with a round collar.

 

Now my interpretation. I think this is two enlisted men (wide bottomed trousers) and two commissioned or forward warrant officers. In particular, although it is unclear whether the man in the long coat is wearing a visor hat, I think he’s an officer. The quarter deck was a place one could traditionally find officers and the man on the right isn’t centered or upright in his posture. The rest of the men seem occupied with some practical business, including the visor capped man with his hand upon the hat of the wide-brimmed hat wearing man. Regardless, this is the earliest unambiguous in-period artistic rendition of US Naval personnel in a long overcoat while on duty that I’m aware of currently.

Vol 2 (post 1841)

1. Brooklyn Navy Yard

 

“Brooklyn Navy Yard, Landing Camel and Rope ferry to Receiving Ship “North Carolina”, May 1845.” Charles F. Guillou papers, MSS 2/253. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. There are two additional smaller captions given to two buildings he’s sketched, or so I interpret them. “Naval Lyceum” and “Surgeon’s office and storehouse.” The Wikipedia article on the Yard https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_Navy_Yard mentions the founding of the Lyceum there in 1833, and the presence of the receiving ship North Carolina in 1845 (the personnel helped during a big fire in July).

One of the enlisted men (hauling in the rope) is quite clearly wearing a flat cap. While it’s passed the time of greatest interest, because it’s the same artist, its of interest because he’s drawing the rest of the men’s outfits in similar ways as to above, except here a squared off collar is a little more distinct. One of the men seated might be wearing a visor capped man with but it’s difficult to tell.
 

65.

The caption: ”All hands to prayer”, on board the U.S.S. Columbus. Sunday March 31, 1847. Valparaiso.

Charles F. Guillou papers, MSS 2/253. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
 

Because I’m a Catholic Priest and trained at one point to be a Navy Chaplain (though was never appointed), we have this image. The service is held below deck, the preaching chaplain (most likely) is in a civilian clergy uniform, which if you know anything about the history of uniform regulations when it comes to chaplains, sounds about right. The two officers we can see are seated upon chairs at far left & right. We know they are officers dressed for church because they wear the tail coat, sometimes called the body coat in later regulations, or even just the coat as described in the section on (full) dress uniform, along with epaulets. The men are starkly contrasted by being seated on raised planks or simple long benches. Some might be wearing a neckerchief, but it’s difficult to be certain. That diagonal front seen on some of the men does seem more like the traditional seaman’s collar with a neckerchief.

The two in the center are likely civilians temporarily onboard, as there is child standing next to the woman and the good doctor has noted they were at a port city.

 

What do you all think about these images?

[Father V]

Actually the one I said above didn’t depict Naval Personnel actually did but was from 1865 so not really relevant here. Sorry about the error.