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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- UNITED STATES --

Abel P. Upshur (1790-1844) --
13th Secretary of the Navy, 11 October 1841 - 23 July 1843

Abel Parker Upshur was born on 17 June 1790 in Northampton County, Virginia. He had an inconclusive formal higher education at Yale and Princeton, following which he studied law in Virginia and was admitted to the bar in 1810. After a brief time at Baltimore, Maryland, Upshur developed a thriving law practice in Richmond and was an active participant in state politics. He was elected to a term in the House of Delegates in 1812, was Commonwealth Attorney for Richmond, ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Congress, returned to the legislature in 1825, was an influential delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1829-30 and was elected to the Virginia General Court.

Upshur's political reach became national when John Tyler became President in 1841 and selected him to become Secretary of the Navy in October of that year. His time with the Navy was marked by a strong emphasis on reform and reorganization and efforts to expand and modernize the service. Among his achievements were the replacement of the old Board of Navy Commissioners with the bureau system, regularization of the officer corps, increased Navy appropriations, construction of new sailing and steam warships, and the establishment of the Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office.

In July 1843, President Tyler appointed Upshur as Secretary of State. On 28 February 1844, while joining the President and many other dignitaries for a Potomac River cruise on the new steamship USS Princeton, Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and several others were killed when one of the ship's guns exploded.

USS Abel P. Upshur (DD-193), 1920-1940, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy Upshur.

This page features our only images of Abel P. Upshur.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 54625-KN (Color)

Abel P. Upshur (1790-1844),
Secretary of the Navy, 11 October 1841 - 23 July 1843

Portrait by A.G. Heaton.

Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 54KB; 605 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 58906-KN (Color)

"Awful Explosion of the 'Peace-Maker' on board the U.S. Steam Frigate Princeton, on Wednesday, 28th Feby. 1844"

Colored lithograph, published by N. Currier, New York, 1844.
It depicts the explosion of a heavy gun on board USS Princeton, in the Potomac River, which killed or mortally wounded seven and injured about twenty people. Some of those present are identified below the image, including (from left): Mr. Wilkins; Mr. Perrine; Lieutenant Hunt; Representative Virgil Maxcy, of Maryland; Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur; Captain Beverly Kennon, Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair; Thomas Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy; Captain Robert F. Stockton; Sailors; Senator Phelps and Senator Thomas Hart Benton. Maxcy, Upshur, Kennon and Gilmer were among those killed. Stockton and Benton were among the injured.

Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 122KB; 740 x 545 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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29 May 2000