The painting above was originally presented to our board of directors by N. Robert Underhill at the 2001 meeting depicted on the home page of this website. Robert commissioned an artist at his expense to produce a representation of Captain John Underhill that he envisioned would show his true demeanor as a soldier with a commanding nature. As such, Robert requested that the painting's nameplate should read as below:
THE FIRST MUSTER — An artist’s depiction of Captain John Underhill
calling the first muster of the Militia on the Commons at
Salem, MA on December l3, 1636.
This was after it was found that the previous painting of the Captain was actually identified as Anthony Van Dyck's portrait of Viscount Stafford, now in the Museum of Art of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The complete story of this finding is in our Archives & Libraries / Not Capt. John Underhill selection.