Midwinter Remembrance

As we enter midwinter, take in this snowy Photo of the Week of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park from 1926. This monument was created by Stanford White and Adolph Alexander Weinman in 1908. It memorializes the roughly 11,500 captives who died aboard British prison ships in Brooklyn’s Wallabout Bay during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). The conditions on the ships were horrific, leading to more deaths aboard than throughout all the battles combined. The dead were thrown overboard or buried in shallow graves along Brooklyn’s shores. In 1808 the recovered remains were moved to a tomb on what is now Hudson Avenue, and were relocated again in 1873 to a crypt in Fort Greene Park. White and Weinman’s monument marks the site of this crypt, which is typically opened only to the families of the martyrs. 

Dig into prison ship history through the many resources at the Center for Brooklyn History, including books, archives, and the former Brooklyn Historical Society’s podcast Flatbush +Main. 

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We welcome appointments to research our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.