Volume 61, Number 1 (2008) Winter

U.S.S. New Mexico (BB 40), an oil painting by Walter L. Greene. Launched on 13 April 1917, the battleship New Mexico was commissioned on 20 May 1918, in time to escort President Woodrow Wilson home from the Versailles Peace Conference. Designated flagship of the newly organized U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1919, New Mexico was to receive six battle stars for World War II service; the ship is pictured as appearing in 1925.

Walter L. Greene (1870–1956) was an architect, artist, and prolific illustrator, known for his masterful use of color and detail in portraying technological subjects, notably locomotives and warships. The painting, which belongs to the U.S. Navy Art Collection in Washington, D.C. (by whose courtesy it appears), hung in an exhibit—“Command of the Sea: Highlights from the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, U.S. Navy Art Collection, and the U.S. Naval War College Museum”—at the Newport Art Museum in Newport, Rhode Island, in July—August 2007