The Burning of the Gaspee

The Burning of the Gaspee, an oil painting by Charles DeWolf Brownell (1892), depicts the destruction of the British schooner HMS Gaspee in the evening of June 9, 1772, by Rhode Island merchants and smugglers. The event was an inciting incident in the American Revolution and is still celebrated annually by Rhode Islanders. The original painting is held at the Rhode Island Historical Society.