COLUMBIA, c. 1903
Carlton Theodore Chapman (1860-1925)

In his final year as commodore, 1899, Commodore Morgan headed a syndicate of three that included former Commodore Edwin D. Morgan and C. Oliver Iselin to build a new boat, COLUMBIA. The two Morgans (who were distant cousins) entered COLUMBIA in the 1901 defense trials, and, though an underdog against Iselin's new Herreshoff CONSTITUTION and Lipton's SHAMROCK II, she became the Cup's first two-time winner. Commodore Morgan brought COLUMBIA back in 1903, but she was beaten by RELIANCE. The artist, Carlton Chapman, was a student of naval architecture and studied art at the National Academy of Design and the Académie Julien in Paris. His reputation for maritime art landed him in Cuba with the U.S. Navy sketching the Spanish-American War for Harper's magazine. Commodore Morgan collected Chapman's work. The Club presented him with a painting similar to this one as a Christmas gift in 1903.