View on the Elizabeth River, Norfolk, Virginia

Description

Watercolor on paper drawing of "View on the Elizabeth River, Norfolk, Virginia", March 21, 1796, from the Latrobe Sketchbooks, by Benjamin Henry Latrobe. This scene features marshes, woodlands, and four schooners on the Elizabeth River. Latrobe emigrated from England to the United States in late-1795. After a four-month journey aboard the "Eliza", he spotted the Virginia coastline on March 3, 1796. After entering the Chesapeake Bay, the ship entered the James River, before turning south into the Elizabeth River, a six-mile estuary that leads to Norfolk, Virginia.