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Photo # NH 97973:  USS Omaha in the Piscataqua River, circa the 1880s

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Omaha (1872-1915)

USS Omaha, 2394-ton Algoma class wooden screw sloop built at the Philadephia Navy Yard, was commissioned in September 1872. For the rest of that decade, she served on the South and North Atlantic Stations. After being laid up during the first years of the 1880s, she was returned to active service and sailed for the Asiatic Station in 1885. Omaha spent some five years in the Far East, returning to the United States in 1891. She was then placed out of commission at the Mare Island Navy Yard.

Though her seagoing days were over, in about 1895 Omaha was given further employment as quarantine ship at San Francisco, California. For nearly two decades the old ship lay at anchor in San Francisco Bay, providing a valuable service during a time in which offshore quarantine was the only defense against the importation of infectious diseases. This duty ended in 1914 and Omaha was stricken from the list of Navy ships in July of that year. She was sold for breaking up in April 1915.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Omaha (1872-1915).

For images of USS Omaha during her later years, see:

  • USS Omaha -- As a Quarantine Ship, circa 1895-1914.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

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

    Photo #: NH 294

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    At anchor, circa the 1870s or 1880s.

    Donation of Rear Admiral Ammen C. Farenholt, USN (MC), 1931.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 520 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45216

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken circa the 1870s or 1880s.
    Published in "The Steam Navy of the United States", by Frank M. Bennett, page 625.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 465 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45217

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    Photographed in a harbor, probably between 1885 and 1888.

    Courtesy of the Honorable Abbot Low Moffat.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 570 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45218

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    At the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, circa the 1880s.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97973

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    In the Piscataqua River, off the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, circa the 1880s.
    Photographed by L.V. Newell, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 83KB; 530 x 765 pixels

    Note:
    See Photo # 97973-R-KN for a view of the reverse of the original print, showing the photographer's logo.
    Photo # NH 55845 is a wider angle version of this image.

     
    Photo #: NH 55845

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    In the Piscataqua River, off the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, circa the 1880s.
    Photographed by L.V. Newell, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

    Courtesy of N.F. Toczko, 1972.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Note:
    Photo # NH 97973 is a cropped version of this image.

     
    Photo #: NH 49987

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    In port, circa the 1870s or 1880s.
    Note that she is rigged as a ship in this view.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 480 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 43226

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    Montage of the ship and her officers, circa early 1873, while she was serving on the South Pacific Station.
    Photographed by Spencer, Artista, presumably in a South American port.
    Officers in the lower center are (left to right):
    Lieutenant Commander Smith W. Nichols;
    Captain John C. Febiger, Commanding Officer; and
    Surgeon John C. Spear.

    Courtesy of Captain Raymond Spear, USN, son of Surgeon John C. Spear.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 135KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 58909

    USS Omaha
    (1872-1915)

    Marine Guard paraded on deck, while the ship was docked at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, during the 1880s.
    Note the bugler and drummer at left, with a IX-inch Dahlgren gun behind them.

    Received from the Portsmouth Navy Yard, 1935.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 123KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 86165-KN (Color)

    "Reception of the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World ... The Procession Passing through the Narrows"

    Hand colored engraving, after an artwork by J.O. Davidson, depicting the mid-1880s arrival of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, which was to be erected on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
    Seen are the French warships Isere (foreground, painted white) and Flore (ahead of Isere, firing a salute). At right, largely hidden behind gun smoke, are USS Alliance and USS Omaha.

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

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 520 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 95874

    Warships rigged for mourning


    In the Hudson River, New York, seen from Manhattan Island, probably during the funeral of ex-President Ulysses S. Grant in August 1885.
    Ship at the far right is USS Powhatan. If the event is actually Grant's funeral, the three sloops of war in the center are (from left to right) USS Alliance, USS Swatara and USS Omaha. The Revenue Cutter at left may be USRC U.S. Grant.

    Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1986.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 594 pixels

     
     

    For images of USS Omaha during her later years, see:

  • USS Omaha -- As a Quarantine Ship, circa 1895-1914.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 26 June 2002