The Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to the United States in 1824 was a cause for huge celebration, sparking the manufacture of all kinds of commemorative souvenirs: dinner sets, watch ribbons, belt buckles, and even ladies’ gloves with buttons that bore his portrait. The image on this cup plate shows Lafayette’s arrival at Castle Garden, in New York, aboard the steamship Chancellor Livingston. The ship was escorted by the Robert Fulton while six cannons fired a salute from the shore. The source of the view is a copperplate print drawn and engraved by Samuel Maverick, a member of a dynasty of New York engravers. The manufacturer copied the original design very closely; however, the view is slightly cropped. Maverick’s circular composition appears to have been originally intended to decorate a commemorative snuffbox. (Maverick’s father, Peter Rushton Maverick, famously engraved gold presentation snuffboxes, one of which is in the Gallery’s collection; see inv. no. 1930.1100.)