1898 Kurz Allison View of the Destruction of the Battleship Maine, Havana, Cuba

The most dramatic illustration of the Destruction of the U.S. Battleship Maine in Havana Harbor - the trigger point of the Spanish American War. This striking full-color chromolithograph view illustrates the horror, magnitude, and suddenness of the battleship's explosion. In the upper left, a vignette of Havana Harbor shows the location of the Maine when she exploded. A second vignette in the upper right illustrates the grizzly work of recovering the bodies. Portraits of Admiral Montgomery Sicard (1836 - 1900), who ordered the Maine to Havana, and the ship's captain, Charles Dwight Sigsbee (1845 - 1923) appear at top center. Text below the main image describes the event.

Sinking of the Maine

To this day, no one really knows what happened with the U.S.S. Maine. The Maine, under Captain Charles Dwight Sigsbee (1845 - 1923) was sent to Havana on January 25 to protect American interests during the violent Cuban War of Independence (1895 - 1898). She was a powerful ship, an armored cruiser with two gun turrets and steam propulsion. Commissioned in 1895, the Maine represented the pinnacle of American naval engineering. The ship exploded without warning at 9:40 PM on February 15, 1898, killing 75% of the crew - Sigsbee and most of his officers, at the opposite end of the ship from the explosion, survived. Four separate military investigations followed with limited conclusions, but in a triumph of yellow journalism, the American news media claimed a Spanish mine destroyed the ship - using it as a catalyst to further American support for Cuba's anti-colonial insurgency. Later investigations suggest that the bituminous coal used to fuel the Maine gave off some explosive methane that spontaneously ignited, triggering a more powerful secondary explosion in the magazine. Regardless of the cause, the Maine incident led to the slogan 'Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!' and the outbreak of the Spanish-American War.

The Spanish-American War

The Spanish-American War was fought between Spain and the United States between April 21, 1898, and August 13, 1898. The war started after the USS Maine suffered a massive explosion and sank in Havana Harbor. Tensions had been rising between the two countries for some time, with the U.S. showing support for Cuban independence while Spain defended its unpopular Colonial-era stance. The war lasted just 10 weeks in a decisive American victory. After the fighting ended, the U.S. received the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico, along with Cuba, as a U.S. protectorate. Cuba and the Philippines were later given their independence.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired effect. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it emerged as the dominate method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery. It was likely intended as a partner piece to a very similar view of the Battle of Manila (Geographcus: ManilaBayBattle-kurzallison-1898)

Publication History and Census

Extremely rare in this larger format chromolithograph edition. We are aware of another, later, 8 x 11 inch edition that is more common. The Library of Congress has an example in one-color lithograph. Although there are color images of this view online, we see no definitive references to physical holdings. The view does appear in the OCLC, but only in digital format, with no actual examples cited.