N.C. Wyeth's illustration from Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" (New York, 1919) is among the images of pirates featured in the Beinecke Library exhibition "The Very Picture of Transgression," on view Sept. 6-Oct. 31.

Exhibit explores fusion of fact
and fiction in pirate portrayals

The pirate — a figure that has captivated the public imagination for hundreds of years — is the subject of an exhibition opening on Thursday, Sept. 6, at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The exhibition will remain on view through Wednesday, Oct. 31.

From the earliest trials to recent Hollywood films, from journalistic accounts to comic books, the image of the pirate comprises a mixture of fact and fiction, reality and mythology, history and legend. The exhibition explores this fusing of history and imagination, and shows that one of the central, defining characteristics of the pirate image is the transgression of boundaries — be they of behavioral norms, gender roles, laws or other codes that define normative identities within a society, according to the show’s organizers. A common image, for example, is of the glamorous, rum-guzzling, long-haired and patch-eyed pirate.

The centerpiece of the exhibition — titled “The Very Picture of Transgression: Visions of Pirates Since 1650” — is Frank Schoonover’s painting of Blackbeard, which — with its mixture of representation and imagination — is typical of pirate imagery since the time of buccaneers. Schoonover is one of many artists, authors and musicians who have contributed to the development of the living mythology of the “Golden Age” of pirates. The exhibition as a whole explores that myth-making process through a look at the pirate’s adaptable image as a transgressor of the law, society and even of representation itself, as the pirate transforms into an icon of various abstract ideas.

The “Golden Age” of Western piracy (circa 1650-1730) is often portrayed through the adventures of the buccaneers, pirates based in the Caribbean. Henry Morgan, the most successful of all the buccaneers, was even knighted, appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica, and vaulted into eternal notoriety by Alexander O. Exquemelin’s account, “Bucaniers of America” (1678). On view in the exhibition are some of the anonymous woodcuts that illustrate Exquemelin’s stories, including iconic portraits of Morgan, Bartolomew Portugues, Rock Brasiliano and Francis Lolo ­nois. These images were reproduced repeatedly over the years with slight variations, and became the means by which the most popular pirates were known to people across the globe.

Also on view is “A General History of the Pyrates” (1724) by the obscure captain Charles Johnson (by some accounts a pseudonym of Daniel Defoe). Johnson describes the Atlantic pirates, including Blackbeard, “Calico” Jack Rackbam and “Black” Bart Roberts, who threatened the commerce of the burgeoning British Empire for over a decade at the end of the War of Spanish Succession in 1713. According to Johnson, these infamous freebooters — many of whom were rebellious sailors — flew the skull-and-crossbones and attacked any ship from any nation, earning them the epithet “villains of all nations.” Included in Johnson’s book are the stories of two cross-dressing female sea rovers, Ann Bonny and Mary Read, who simultaneously transgressed legal codes and gender boundaries.

The earliest historical accounts of the lives of pirates were supplemented in the 18th century by representations in other media, including plays, songs and operas. Among the items on view from this period are Hans Turley’s book “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality and Masculine Identity” and John Gay’s comic opera “Polly” (1729), the sequel to his well-known ballad-opera “The Beggar’s Opera” (1728). In this opera, the virtuous Polly dons men’s clothing to escape her role as servant-cum-mistress. Polly’s transgressive behavior becomes the vehicle for social satire when she is taken for a West Indies pirate and pursued by the same would-be captors. Though comic operatic in form, “Polly” draws from the kind of real events described by Johnson in his “A General History of Pyrates.”

In the 19th century and later, there was an explosion of art, literature and performance works devoted to pirates. Pirates were often portrayed as exciting adventurers who were willing to follow their dreams of buried treasure into new territories, note the exhibit organizers. Examples of representations of pirates in this period in the exhibition are Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island,” Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance” and J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.” Other printed documents and original art from Beinecke’s collections illustrate the evolving image of the pirate and its shifting role in music, theatrical arts, adventure tales and reportage.

The Beinecke Library, 121 Wall St., is open for exhibition viewing 8:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday; and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. The exhibition will remain on view through Oct. 31. The library is closed on Sept. 3 (Labor Day). For further information, call (203) 432-2972 or visit the library’s website at www.library.yale.edu/beinecke.

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