On April 25, 1908, Santa Barbara welcomed the Great White Fleet and it’s estimated fifteen thousand sailors with a tremendous Battle of the Flowers celebration parade on the Santa Barbara waterfront. The sixteen white battleships had been ordered by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 to cruise around the world on a peacekeeping mission. Upon its arrival, the fleet demonstrated its navigational skill by steaming into Santa Barbara in the tightest formation that battleships had ever achieved up to that time. The Fleet Festival continued for several days.
Battle of the Flowers, Fleet Festival, 1908
Alexander F. Harmer (American, 1856-1925)
Oil on canvas
20 x 36 inches
Gift of Glenn and Louise Idleman
xx.54.5