Famine Fleet
American Relief to Russia in 1891–92

The papers of the American Relief Administration’s operations in Soviet Russia contain numerous images of American ships delivering food and medical supplies to starving Soviet citizens in 1921‒23. These include photographs, posters, and artworks, both expert and amateur. One of the two official posters created by Moscow artists for the ARA in 1922 depicts a crowd of ragged peasants on a dock stretching out their hands in supplication toward an approaching ship flying the American flag; the caption reads, “America to the starving people of Russia” (Америка голодающим России).

Америка голодающим России, chromolithograph by Larionov, 1922. Poster Collection RU/SU 1213. Digital Record.
Америка голодающим России, chromolithograph by Larionov, 1922. Poster Collection RU/SU 1213. Digital Record.
Three watercolor paintings ornamenting the covers of ARA reports of feeding operations in Ukraine depict American ships in the bay of Odessa. In expressing appreciation to their American benefactors, children in port cities on the Baltic and Black Seas made drawings of American relief ships accompanied by touching words, such as one captioned “Gratitude to the ARA for their attention to children” (Благодарность Аре за внимание к детям от Сережи Прокопенко), signed by Seriozha Prokopenko, a young boy who depicted an ARA ship in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.

Благодарность Аре за внимание к детям от Сережи Прокопенко [Gratitude to the ARA for their attention to children], signed by Seriozha Prokopenko, 1923. Box 522, folder 1, ARA Russian operational records (23003).
Благодарность Аре за внимание к детям от Сережи Прокопенко [Gratitude to the ARA for their attention to children], signed by Seriozha Prokopenko, 1923. Box 522, folder 1, ARA Russian operational records (23003).

Appreciation to the ARA, 1923. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscription: "Warm greetings and sincere thanks to the American people from a student at the Shevchenko School who received a children’s ration at ‘ARA' dining room No. 6, Bolshaya Morskaya 32 [Sevastopol, Crimea]."

Appreciation to the ARA, 1923. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscription: "Warm greetings and sincere thanks to the American people from a student at the Shevchenko School who received a children’s ration at ‘ARA' dining room No. 6, Bolshaya Morskaya 32 [Sevastopol, Crimea]."
Appreciation to the ARA, 1923. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscription: "Warm greetings and sincere thanks to the American people from a student at the Shevchenko School who received a children’s ration at ‘ARA' dining room No. 6, Bolshaya Morskaya 32 [Sevastopol, Crimea]."





Report of the Card Statistical Bureau of the Child Feeding Department ARA in Odessa Town, 1923. Cover watercolor by W. Baltz. Box 145, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscribed "To Mr. C.R. Howard, From the Employees of the Child Feeding Division of the A.R.A. in the city of Odessa and the Districts. 31 January 1923, Odessa." Latin motto translates to "He who gives swiftly gives twice."
Report of the Card Statistical Bureau of the Child Feeding Department ARA in Odessa Town, 1923. Cover watercolor by W. Baltz. Box 145, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscribed "To Mr. C.R. Howard, From the Employees of the Child Feeding Division of the A.R.A. in the city of Odessa and the Districts. 31 January 1923, Odessa." Latin motto translates to "He who gives swiftly gives twice."

Report on the Work of the American Relief Administration in Odessa and Odessa Gubernia 1923. Cover watercolor by W. Baltz. Box 145, folder 3, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscribed "To James F. Hodgson, District Supervisor - Odessa, Odessa, May 29th 1923." Latin motto translates to "He who gives swiftly gives twice."
Report on the Work of the American Relief Administration in Odessa and Odessa Gubernia 1923. Cover watercolor by W. Baltz. Box 145, folder 3, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscribed "To James F. Hodgson, District Supervisor - Odessa, Odessa, May 29th 1923." Latin motto translates to "He who gives swiftly gives twice."

Report of the Card Statistical Bureau of the Child Feeding Department ARA in Odessa Town, 1923. Cover watercolor by W. Baltz. Box 145, folder 1, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Latin motto in top right corner translates to "He who gives swiftly gives twice."
Report of the Card Statistical Bureau of the Child Feeding Department ARA in Odessa Town, 1923. Cover watercolor by W. Baltz. Box 145, folder 1, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Latin motto in top right corner translates to "He who gives swiftly gives twice."

Thanks to America, from Vanya Egorichev, March 18, 1923. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscription translates to: Thanks to America / I thank America for feeding us all this time and for continuing to feed us. When I taste the bread-soup-cocoa-and kasha, I think of your ARA. Greetings, America, from Vanya Egorichev. Bolshaya Morskaya Street, house no. 32, ARA Kitchen No. 6, manager N. S. Krivokhina. March 18, 1923. City of Sevastopol.
Thanks to America, from Vanya Egorichev, March 18, 1923. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscription translates to: Thanks to America / I thank America for feeding us all this time and for continuing to feed us. When I taste the bread-soup-cocoa-and kasha, I think of your ARA. Greetings, America, from Vanya Egorichev. Bolshaya Morskaya Street, house no. 32, ARA Kitchen No. 6, manager N. S. Krivokhina. March 18, 1923. City of Sevastopol.
As it happens, this was not the first time that grateful Russians had occasion to show appreciation for American humanitarian aid by employing the symbol of ships bearing lifesaving food in a time of famine. In 1892, a prominent Russian maritime painter of Armenian descent born in Crimea, Ivan Aivazovsky (1817–1900), made a gift to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, of two of his oil paintings—The Relief Ship and Distributing Supplies—inspired by American humanitarian aid delivered to Russia during the famine of 1891‒92.

“Distributing Supplies and The Relief Ship: A Pair, 1892,” Sotheby’s auction catalogue, Russian Art, New York, April 15, 2008, lot 36.
“Distributing Supplies and The Relief Ship: A Pair, 1892,” Sotheby’s auction catalogue, Russian Art, New York, April 15, 2008, lot 36.
That famine, while not nearly as large as the one thirty years later, was significant: 36 million people were affected, of whom about 20 million, mostly peasants, were in dire distress. The mortality rate in the starving regions increased between 25 and 30 percent, resulting in 406,000 excess deaths.1 American aid, privately collected, was delivered by the Famine Fleet, as it became known, consisting of five ships loaded with relief supplies gathered from all US states.
American humanitarian aid to Russia during the famine of 1891‒92 was by far larger than that provided by any other foreign country. Scholars estimate that the value of American contributions amounted to 2 million rubles, or $1 million; American ambassador Charles E. Smith estimated that the American donations could sustain more than 700,000 people for one month.2 News of the crop failure in Russia and the dire situation of the peasants did not prompt an immediate response in the United States. Several factors were involved. To start with, Americans at this time had come to view the Imperial Russian government as despotic and therefore unworthy of assistance, however innocent its citizens might be. Recent antisemitic pogroms in the western regions of the Russian Empire, which triggered a wave of Jewish emigration to the United States, exacerbated that image of cruel tsarist tyranny. Perhaps influenced by the testimony of visitors to Russia’s major cities, where the famine was inconspicuous, some articles in the American press claimed that stories out of Russia about the severity of the famine were exaggerated.

President Benjamin Harrison by Eastman Johnson, oil on canvas, 1895. White House Collection/White House Historical Association. Digital Record.
President Benjamin Harrison by Eastman Johnson, oil on canvas, 1895. White House Collection/White House Historical Association. Digital Record.
Against this background, the US Congress declined to finance freight costs for relief ships to Russia, and its discussion of an appropriation of funds for humanitarian aid went nowhere. President Benjamin Harrison’s request for an appropriation of $100,000 to provide flour to Russia passed in the Senate but ran into stiff winds of opposition in the House of Representatives when the measure was debated in January 1892. “Can we have a friendship between tyranny and liberty, between Asiatic despotism and modern civilization?” asked a representative from West Virginia before answering his own question: “There is no friendship and can be no friendship between such opposing forces.”





We deeply respect ARA Kitchen No. 6. Evgenia Shadrina, Pupil of the 4th class of the Koltsovsky School. Box 522, folder 4, ARA Russian operational records (23003).
We deeply respect ARA Kitchen No. 6. Evgenia Shadrina, Pupil of the 4th class of the Koltsovsky School. Box 522, folder 4, ARA Russian operational records (23003).

Thanks to the ARA from student E. Sereda, 19th Soviet School in the name of T. G. Shevchenko [Sevastopol, Crimea]. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003).
Thanks to the ARA from student E. Sereda, 19th Soviet School in the name of T. G. Shevchenko [Sevastopol, Crimea]. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003).
US government aid was obstructed, but this did nothing to discourage private initiatives already under way. To inspire sympathy for suffering Russian peasants, philanthropically minded Americans evoked memories of the support that the Imperial Russian government had shown the United States during the Civil War. In 1863, Russia, seeking to avoid naval conflict with its European rivals, arranged for its Baltic and Pacific fleets to winter in the ports of New York and San Francisco, thereby providing moral support to the Union side in the conflict. Almost all humanitarian appeals in 1891 and 1892 referred to the idea of America’s debt to Russia, simplifying the circumstances of 1863 while suggesting symmetry between the two situations: thirty years earlier, Russian ships had arrived in the United States in its hour of need, and now America’s Famine Fleet must sail in order to return the favor.

The Russian Fleet Commanded by Admiral Lisovski in the harbor of New York, 1863. Stereograph published by George Stacy. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-stereo-1s04886).
The Russian Fleet Commanded by Admiral Lisovski in the harbor of New York, 1863. Stereograph published by George Stacy. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-stereo-1s04886).
The first large-scale humanitarian aid was started by the editor of the magazine Northwestern Miller, William C. Edgar, who on December 4, 1891, published an appeal to the millers of Minnesota and “every miller east of the Rocky Mountains” to transport as many sacks of flour as possible to his agents in New York for shipment to Russia.3 Soon Nebraska joined the movement with 1,350,000 pounds of corn, accompanied by instructions in Russian for how to cook this food, which was unfamiliar to Russian peasants.

Off for Russia (the ship Missouri of the famine fleet), 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 14. Hathi Trust Record.
Off for Russia (the ship Missouri of the famine fleet), 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 14. Hathi Trust Record.
On March 15, the Missouri, loaded with five and a half million pounds of flour and corn gathered from more than half of the states, left New York for the port of Libau (in modern-day Latvia), on the Baltic Sea. Edgar accompanied the cargo. The Missouri became the second ship to sail in the Famine Fleet. The first, the Indiana, departed Philadelphia on February 22, 1892, George Washington’s birthday, carrying five million pounds of flour. It was sponsored by a committee established in Pennsylvania by Governor Edwin S. Stuart, with the active participation of Rudolph Blankenburg, a Quaker businessman and a future mayor of Philadelphia. On April 23, another ship loaded with relief supplies gathered by that organization, the Conemaugh, departed for Russia.
Right: Event poster, 1892. B. F. Tillinghast Papers, Box 1, Folder 18, State Historical Society of Iowa.
Iowa was another center of humanitarian aid for Russia, an effort spearheaded by the editor of the Davenport Democrat, Benjamin F. Tillinghast, secretary of the Iowa Russian Famine Relief Committee. As in the case of Nebraska, Iowa’s aid consisted mostly of corn. The head of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton, supported the launch of another Iowa-based committee—the Iowa Women’s Auxiliary Committee to the Red Cross—a group of twelve women that collected financial donations in churches and schools and organized benefit concerts and plays. Iowa’s humanitarian efforts resulted in a shipment of three thousand tons of corn on a vessel called the Tynehead, accompanied by a smaller ship called the Borodino, to Riga (today the capital of Latvia).
The last ship in the Famine Fleet to sail, the Leo, which left New York for St. Petersburg on June 13, was sponsored by the editors of the Christian Herald magazine: a well-known pastor named Thomas De Witt Talmage and Louis Klopsch, a Prussian-born journalist and publisher. They had earlier sent a portion of their relief supplies with the Conemaugh. Talmage and Klopsch, who both sailed on the Leo at their own expense, received a most cordial reception in Russia, where their help was very much welcomed. Talmage was even granted an audience with Emperor Alexander III.

Illustration captioned: "The Christian Herald" Russian Relief Steamer, Leo, Loading For St. Petersburg. [With portraits of Rev. Dr. Talmage, Editor, and Louis Klopsch, Publisher]. The Christian Herald and signs of our times, June 15, 1892. Internet Archive Record.
Illustration captioned: "The Christian Herald" Russian Relief Steamer, Leo, Loading For St. Petersburg. [With portraits of Rev. Dr. Talmage, Editor, and Louis Klopsch, Publisher]. The Christian Herald and signs of our times, June 15, 1892. Internet Archive Record.
All the ships of the Famine Fleet reached Russia safely, and the relief supplies arrived in perfect condition, even though many skeptics had voiced concerns that corn could not withstand such a long journey. The only sorrowful event happened during the voyage of the first ship of the Famine Fleet, the Indiana, from New York to Libau. A mechanic named Atkinson, on deck during a storm, was injured and died. Having learned of this tragedy, citizens of Libau and readers of the newspaper the Russian Life gathered more than five thousand rubles and sent them to the mechanic’s family.4
All the American relief ships received a hearty welcome from Russians: cities were decorated with American flags, orchestras played American songs in ports and at the events devoted to the guests, and the ships’ crews and the philanthropists accompanying the relief supplies were presented with mementos by Russian officials and ordinary citizens. These celebrations, however, did not distract from the main purpose of the Famine Fleet; upon arrival in the Russian port cities, Americans found that everything was ready for the offloading of the cargo and its shipment by rail to the starving regions.

The Arrival of the American Steamer 'Leo' at St. Petersburg. Original drawing for Niva by G. Brolling, print by Rashevskii, Niva, July 18, No. 29, 1892, 649.
The Arrival of the American Steamer 'Leo' at St. Petersburg. Original drawing for Niva by G. Brolling, print by Rashevskii, Niva, July 18, No. 29, 1892, 649.
The general field agent of the American Red Cross, Dr. Julian Hubbell, who supervised the distribution of the corn delivered by the Tynehead, was impressed that 240 peasants from Riga, a region not affected by the famine, were on the dock anxiously awaiting the ship as it arrived in port. They immediately started to unload the vessel, working night and day without rest, while twelve women, equally motivated, sewed up the bags to prevent waste in handling.5 American humanitarian aid reached the starving villages in the fastest possible way, and in the end all the American donations, which amounted to 22.5 million pounds of flour and corn, probably saved thousands of lives.
Right: Map Showing Portions of Russia Affected by the Famine, 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 30. Hathi Trust Record.


US government aid was obstructed, but this did nothing to discourage private initiatives already under way. To inspire sympathy for suffering Russian peasants, philanthropically minded Americans evoked memories of the support that the Imperial Russian government had shown the United States during the Civil War. In 1863, Russia, seeking to avoid naval conflict with its European rivals, arranged for its Baltic and Pacific fleets to winter in the ports of New York and San Francisco, thereby providing moral support to the Union side in the conflict. Almost all humanitarian appeals in 1891 and 1892 referred to the idea of America’s debt to Russia, simplifying the circumstances of 1863 while suggesting symmetry between the two situations: thirty years earlier, Russian ships had arrived in the United States in its hour of need, and now America’s Famine Fleet must sail in order to return the favor.

The Russian Fleet Commanded by Admiral Lisovski in the harbor of New York, 1863. Stereograph published by George Stacy. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-stereo-1s04886).
The Russian Fleet Commanded by Admiral Lisovski in the harbor of New York, 1863. Stereograph published by George Stacy. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (LC-DIG-stereo-1s04886).
The first large-scale humanitarian aid was started by the editor of the magazine Northwestern Miller, William C. Edgar, who on December 4, 1891, published an appeal to the millers of Minnesota and “every miller east of the Rocky Mountains” to transport as many sacks of flour as possible to his agents in New York for shipment to Russia.3 Soon Nebraska joined the movement with 1,350,000 pounds of corn, accompanied by instructions in Russian for how to cook this food, which was unfamiliar to Russian peasants.

Off for Russia (the ship Missouri of the famine fleet), 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 14. Hathi Trust Record.
Off for Russia (the ship Missouri of the famine fleet), 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 14. Hathi Trust Record.
On March 15, the Missouri, loaded with five and a half million pounds of flour and corn gathered from more than half of the states, left New York for the port of Libau (in modern-day Latvia), on the Baltic Sea. Edgar accompanied the cargo. The Missouri became the second ship to sail in the Famine Fleet. The first, the Indiana, departed Philadelphia on February 22, 1892, George Washington’s birthday, carrying five million pounds of flour. It was sponsored by a committee established in Pennsylvania by Governor Edwin S. Stuart, with the active participation of Rudolph Blankenburg, a Quaker businessman and a future mayor of Philadelphia. On April 23, another ship loaded with relief supplies gathered by that organization, the Conemaugh, departed for Russia.

Event poster, 1892. B. F. Tillinghast Papers, Box 1, Folder 18, State Historical Society of Iowa.
Iowa was another center of humanitarian aid for Russia, an effort spearheaded by the editor of the Davenport Democrat, Benjamin F. Tillinghast, secretary of the Iowa Russian Famine Relief Committee. As in the case of Nebraska, Iowa’s aid consisted mostly of corn. The head of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton, supported the launch of another Iowa-based committee—the Iowa Women’s Auxiliary Committee to the Red Cross—a group of twelve women that collected financial donations in churches and schools and organized benefit concerts and plays. Iowa’s humanitarian efforts resulted in a shipment of three thousand tons of corn on a vessel called the Tynehead, accompanied by a smaller ship called the Borodino, to Riga (today the capital of Latvia).
The last ship in the Famine Fleet to sail, the Leo, which left New York for St. Petersburg on June 13, was sponsored by the editors of the Christian Herald magazine: a well-known pastor named Thomas De Witt Talmage and Louis Klopsch, a Prussian-born journalist and publisher. They had earlier sent a portion of their relief supplies with the Conemaugh. Talmage and Klopsch, who both sailed on the Leo at their own expense, received a most cordial reception in Russia, where their help was very much welcomed. Talmage was even granted an audience with Emperor Alexander III.

Illustration captioned: "The Christian Herald" Russian Relief Steamer, Leo, Loading For St. Petersburg. [With portraits of Rev. Dr. Talmage, Editor, and Louis Klopsch, Publisher]. The Christian Herald and signs of our times, June 15, 1892. Internet Archive Record.
Illustration captioned: "The Christian Herald" Russian Relief Steamer, Leo, Loading For St. Petersburg. [With portraits of Rev. Dr. Talmage, Editor, and Louis Klopsch, Publisher]. The Christian Herald and signs of our times, June 15, 1892. Internet Archive Record.
All the ships of the Famine Fleet reached Russia safely, and the relief supplies arrived in perfect condition, even though many skeptics had voiced concerns that corn could not withstand such a long journey. The only sorrowful event happened during the voyage of the first ship of the Famine Fleet, the Indiana, from New York to Libau. A mechanic named Atkinson, on deck during a storm, was injured and died. Having learned of this tragedy, citizens of Libau and readers of the newspaper the Russian Life gathered more than five thousand rubles and sent them to the mechanic’s family.4
All the American relief ships received a hearty welcome from Russians: cities were decorated with American flags, orchestras played American songs in ports and at the events devoted to the guests, and the ships’ crews and the philanthropists accompanying the relief supplies were presented with mementos by Russian officials and ordinary citizens. These celebrations, however, did not distract from the main purpose of the Famine Fleet; upon arrival in the Russian port cities, Americans found that everything was ready for the offloading of the cargo and its shipment by rail to the starving regions.

The Arrival of the American Steamer 'Leo' at St. Petersburg. Original drawing for Niva by G. Brolling, print by Rashevskii, Niva, July 18, No. 29, 1892, 649.
The Arrival of the American Steamer 'Leo' at St. Petersburg. Original drawing for Niva by G. Brolling, print by Rashevskii, Niva, July 18, No. 29, 1892, 649.
The general field agent of the American Red Cross, Dr. Julian Hubbell, who supervised the distribution of the corn delivered by the Tynehead, was impressed that 240 peasants from Riga, a region not affected by the famine, were on the dock anxiously awaiting the ship as it arrived in port. They immediately started to unload the vessel, working night and day without rest, while twelve women, equally motivated, sewed up the bags to prevent waste in handling.5 American humanitarian aid reached the starving villages in the fastest possible way, and in the end all the American donations, which amounted to 22.5 million pounds of flour and corn, probably saved thousands of lives.

Map Showing Portions of Russia Affected by the Famine, 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 30. Hathi Trust Record.

Event poster, 1892. B. F. Tillinghast Papers, Box 1, Folder 18, State Historical Society of Iowa.
Event poster, 1892. B. F. Tillinghast Papers, Box 1, Folder 18, State Historical Society of Iowa.

Map Showing Portions of Russia Affected by the Famine, 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 30. Hathi Trust Record.
Map Showing Portions of Russia Affected by the Famine, 1892. From: William C. Edgar, The Russian Famine of 1891 and 1892 (Minneapolis: Millers & Manufacturers Insurance Co., 1893), 30. Hathi Trust Record.





Thank you from Sergei Iakovlevich Poliakov, School named after T. G. Shevchenko, Soviet School No. 19 [Sevastopol, Crimea]. Box 521, folder 3, ARA Russian operational records (23003).
Thank you from Sergei Iakovlevich Poliakov, School named after T. G. Shevchenko, Soviet School No. 19 [Sevastopol, Crimea]. Box 521, folder 3, ARA Russian operational records (23003).

March 16, 1923. We bring sincere thanks to America, ARA Kitchen No. 6. Shura and Lida Kulichenko. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscription in top right translates to: “The steamer is coming / And is bring products / Cocoa and kasha / To our ARA.”
March 16, 1923. We bring sincere thanks to America, ARA Kitchen No. 6. Shura and Lida Kulichenko. Box 521, folder 2, ARA Russian operational records (23003). Inscription in top right translates to: “The steamer is coming / And is bring products / Cocoa and kasha / To our ARA.”
In November–December 1891, the artist Aivazovsky, concerned about the starving peasants and looking to do his part, produced seventeen oil paintings and thirty-two watercolors as prizes in a Russian lottery to aid famine victims. In 1892, inspired by American humanitarian efforts, he also created the two paintings The Relief Ship and Distributing Supplies and brought them with him to the United States. The 75-year-old painter was to exhibit several American-themed canvases at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893, but he had other plans for the two paintings of American relief—they were gifts to thank the American people.
Most sources claim that the vessel depicted in Aivazovsky’s The Relief Ship is the Missouri, but in fact it is almost certainly the Leo, seen arriving in St. Petersburg.6 The strongest evidence for this is that Aivazovsky’s ship is almost identical to one that appeared in the popular St. Petersburg weekly magazine Niva, and the city skyline visible in the background much more closely resembles that of St. Petersburg than Libau or Riga, which welcomed the other four ships.7 Most likely, Aivazovsky wanted to create a general image of a ship in the Famine Fleet bringing food to the Russian people, a symbol of friendly altruism from a distant country. Thirty years later, the symbol of the relief ship would similarly inspire Soviet children fed by the ARA, whose drawings were composed with less skill than the master painter, of course, but whose appreciation was equally sincere.
The other famine-themed painting that Aivazovsky presented to the Corcoran, Distributing Supplies, is a very unusual work for this renowned master of marine art. It depicts a speeding troika (a Russian sleigh) bearing relief supplies entering a Russian village, its arrival heralded by a young man in a bright red shirt standing upright in the conveyance and holding aloft an American flag. Cheering peasants on both sides of the road greet the arrival, some of them falling on their knees at the sight of their much-anticipated salvation. One of the houses seen at left is decorated with three closely positioned Russian flags, their combined shape and colors resembling those of the American flag held by the young man escorting the troika; his gaze up at his country’s colors links the two symbols and thereby clinches the idea of collaborative friendship between the two countries. In presenting these two paintings to the Corcoran Gallery, Aivazovsky accompanied his gift with the following brief statement:
Gentlemen:
I personally desire to present to the Corcoran Gallery of Art at the national capital of this United States of America two of my paintings, hoping to express the hearty appreciation of the people of my country for the generous and timely assistance rendered by the United States government during the recent famine in Russia.
Yours,
I. Aivasovsky [sic], Professor of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia8

Portrait of Ivan Aivazovsky by Dmitry Bolotov, 1876. Scientific-Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts.
Portrait of Ivan Aivazovsky by Dmitry Bolotov, 1876. Scientific-Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts.
It seems likely that Aivazovsky was unaware that America’s humanitarian aid came from private sources, not from the US government. From the very beginning of the crisis, when the first foreigners, two British Quakers, visited Russia to estimate the scale of the famine, the Russian government made it clear that it did not want help from the British or any other government but would welcome private aid. To be sure, Russian government officials and members of the Romanov family, especially the heir to the throne, Nicholas, met with American philanthropists who accompanied the Famine Fleet and expressed their gratitude for the assistance given. When the crisis was over, Tsar Alexander III sent a Russian flagship to the United States bearing gifts for American philanthropists. On May 27, 1893, this ship, the Dmitrii Donskoi, anchored in the Delaware River near Philadelphia, where the Russian ambassador, Prince Grigorii L’vovich Kantakuzen, Tsar Alexander II’s nephew the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, and other officials presented royal gifts to William Edgar and representatives of the Philadelphia Relief Commission, among them Dr. Hubbell and Francis B. Reeves, who had sailed to Russia with the Tynehead and the Conemaugh to distribute the relief supplies.9





The Relief Ship, 1892 by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817–1900), oil on canvas.
The Relief Ship, 1892 by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817–1900), oil on canvas.

Distributing Supplies, 1892 by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817–1900), oil on canvas.
Distributing Supplies, 1892 by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817–1900), oil on canvas.
The story of Aivazovsky’s paintings has a most interesting epilogue. On May 8, 1961, the Washington Post published a brief article titled “The Fish Room Gets 2 Russian Paintings,” which informed readers about an unusual act of “quiet diplomacy” performed by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.10 She had borrowed Aivazovsky’s two paintings from the Corcoran Gallery and hung them in the Fish Room (today called the Roosevelt Room) at the White House. This was on the eve of the Kennedy-Khrushchev summit meeting in Vienna, Austria. US-Soviet tensions were running high, and the summit, an occasion that Khrushchev used to bully the young president, went badly. It was followed by the construction of the Berlin Wall, which began on August 13 of that year.
It is not surprising that these paintings, which evoke a warmer period in the history of American-Russian relations, were put on display in one of the busiest conference rooms in the White House during a time of heightened tension in the Cold War, which culminated in the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. Aivazovsky’s paintings were meant to remind everyone of the feelings of mutual friendship that the two nations once enjoyed, feelings expressed not merely in words but in humanitarian deeds. Today, sixty years later, at the time of another tense juncture in Russian-American relations, perhaps there is inspiration—and hope—to be found in in the papers of the American Relief Administration, in the images of America’s famine fleet arriving in Soviet Russia’s ports one hundred years ago
Interactive photograph highlighting the Aivazovsky paintings in the Fish Room, August 28, 1963.

