Commodoer Perry at Black Rock, 1969, sgraffito (detail)
Lobby, West Hertel Middle School, Buffalo, NY

In this section of the mural the four figures in the foreground are those of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, Shipbuilder Thomas Eckford (center), Perry's manservant, Hannibal and Eckford's Chief Clerk. Perry came to the village of Black Rock, now part of Buffalo, in the spring of 1813 to acquire five of the nine warships with which he successfully engaged the British in the Battle of Lake Erie and thereby gave the United States control of the Lakes., which Prof. Slawinski described as the first sgraffito-al fresco in North America. On the right, a man is seen rolling a barrel of salt, an important item of trade,