""Old Glory Rises Over Alaska," Calendar Illustration " Lot no. 3737
By Austin Briggs 1909-1973
1965 (Estimated)
20.50" x 27.38"
Oil on Board
Signed Lower Left
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Commissioned by Exxon for their 1965 "Great Moments in American History" calendar series, this illustration depicts the historic Transfer Ceremony at Sitka on October 18, 1867, marking Alaska's transition from Russian to American sovereignty. At the center, Prince Dimitrii Maksutova, the last Russian Governor of Alaska and Chief Manager of the Russian-American Company (RAC), is prominently featured, accompanied by his wife, Princess Maria Maksutova.
A dramatic anecdote surrounds the lowering of the Russian Imperial flag: it reportedly became entangled, then dropped, snagging on the bayonets of the Russian soldiers below. Overwhelmed by emotion, Princess Maksutova is said to have fainted into her husband's arms. While primary accounts confirm the Princess wept during the ceremony, her supposed collapse is likely a dramatization. The Maksutovas remained in Alaska for a year after the transfer, as Prince Maksutova oversaw the emigration of the remaining Russian population.
The full published caption reads:
“The 15-year-old son of Major General Lovell Harrison Rousseau raises the Stars and Stripes at Sitka, October 18, 1867 to mark the transfer of some 586,000 square miles of territory to the United States. Purchased from Russia at the insistence of Secretary of State William H. Seward for only $7,200,000, Alaska soon returned its purchase price a hundredfold in minerals alone and in 1959 became the forty-ninth state in the Union.”
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Austin Briggs was active/lived in Connecticut, Michigan. Austin Briggs is known for cartoonist, illustrator, genre.