Tinted lithograph print depicting four of the ships from Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to Japan at anchor in Naha (written on the print as ‘Napha’) with a view of the city in the distance. Inscribed: ‘Napha From the Sea / From nature by W. Heine. Shipping by Lieu. H. Walke. / J. Queen del.’ / P.S. Duval & Co. Phil[adelphi]a’.

Naha is a city on Okinawa, the largest island in the Ryukyu Islands. The Ryukyu Kingdom (known historically in English as Lew Chew) was an independent kingdom from 1429 until it was formally annexed by Japan in 1872.

The print is based on a drawing by James Queen (1820/1–1886), after an on-the-spot sketch by Peter Bernhard Wilhelm Heine, better known as William Heine (1827–1885). A German-American world traveller, writer and artist, Heine was the official artist on Commodore Matthew Perry’s expedition to Japan in 1852. Queen was a Philadelphia artist, lithographer, and chromolithographer. He worked with the publisher P. S. Duval for most of his career. This print was published as an illustration in the official voyage publication, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan (Washington: Beverley Tucker, 1856), opposite page 309.

Perry’s expedition embarked for Japan with the intention of securing a trade treaty through threats and displays of US naval power. They stopped in Naha in May 1853. Perry later returned to the island several times and signed a trade agreement with the Ryukyu Kingdom on 11 July 1854.