FEATURED OBJECT

To celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, we invited members of our community to each select an object in our permanent collection and explain why they thought it was significant—either for Delaware’s history or our contemporary moment. We will share their responses throughout 2026. These also will appear on wall labels as part of our exhibition “Reflections: 25 Objects for 250 Years of Delaware History.”

Stanley Arthurs (1877-1950)

Captain Barry

Born in Kenton, Delaware, Arthurs studied under illustrator Howard Pyle and worked out of a studio at his school in Wilmington. When Pyle died in 1911, Arthurs purchased the studio. He continued to live and teach there for the rest of his career. One of the nation’s foremost illustrators in the early 20th century, Arthurs also painted murals for the State House in Dover and produced paintings for DuPont Company calendars and the DuPont Magazine.

Arthurs often specialized in illustrating historical texts and sought to make clothing and other details as accurate as possible. This image was published in Deep Water Days, a collection of maritime legends. Here, Revolutionary War hero Captain Barry is peering through a spyglass to examine two ships that had been silently following his own.

Community Curator Response by

Andrew J. Lyter

Curator of Maritime History & Director of External Affairs

Historic Lewes

Stanley Massey Arthurs’ Captain Barry graced the pages of the 1929 seafaring anthology, Deep Water Days, brilliantly depicting the steadfast resolve of the “Father of the United States Navy”. Arthurs’ illustration shows Barry aboard the frigate Alliance in 1781, staring down HMS Atlanta and HMS Trepassey, minutes before he was severely wounded in battle. With his crew close to surrendering, Bary demanded “No Sir, the thunder! If this ship cannot be fought without me, I will be brought on deck.” The sight of their wounded commander inspired the crew of the Alliance to a notable victory. Barry’s presence turned the tides of the battle.

Bred to the sea in the fishing village of Rosslare, Ireland, Barry would gain early experiences afloat through the merchant service and Royal Navy before immigrating to the American colonies at the ripe age of fifteen. Reaching the revolutionary capital, Barry took up the cause and sailed from Philadelphia aboard the Lexington, as the first captain commissioned by the Continental Congress. Fueled by a zeal for liberty and leading an inherently dangerous life at sea, he spent the early years of the war serving on Delaware River and Bay, earning the respect and admiration of friend and foe alike. In his 1776 correspondence with Lord Dunmore, Captain Andrew Snape Hamond of the Royal Navy bemoaned the dangers of the shoals and shallow waters of the Delaware, lamenting that “Mr. Barry is at present master of [these waters.]”

Over the course of his illustrious life, Barry spent seventeen years serving the navy of his adopted country, earning the rank of commodore in 1797. Few men truly embodied the prospect of opportunity in the young American republic and ideals of the revolutionary Atlantic like Commodore John Barry.