The fine lithographs in the official Narrative of the Perry Expedition to Japan are perhaps the one feature of the narrative that make it so appealing to a diverse audience. Most were prepared by the artist, Wilhelm Heine, who was specifically selected to serve as the artist on the expedition. This page will give information on Heine to include his career/work before and after the expedition.

William Heine (Peter Bernard Wilhelm Heine) was a seasoned artist and illustrator when he joined the expedition at the of 25. Before he joined the Expedition to Japan, he was an artist and writer and taught art in the United States and Europe. He had also served as a counsular aide in Central America.

Heine was clearly a valued and extremely important member of the expedition. During important meetings, he was present. He was constantly dispatched with exploring parties and he recorded what he saw and encountered in paintings and writings. When the expedition was surveying wildlife, it was Heine who helped in trapping specimens and drawing the pictures of them. It was Heine's responsibility, along with Brown, to locate people and places of interest and record them so they could be presented for all to see in the official narrative of the expedition.

You can see the significant contribution of his work in the lithographs that accompany Volume I of the Narrative. This volume contains 90 full page lithograph prints (90 when you include the often suppressed Bath House lithograph) of these Heine was the artist on 63. While not always attributed to an artist, Heine was probably the artist responsible for many of the numerous woodcut type illustrations which add great interest and visual appeal to the Narrative. I believe Heine's energy and skill as an artist and illustrator contributed significantly to making the Narrative the renowned travel / historical book that it is considered today. It is impossible to tell how his work as a writer was weaved into the Narrative but it also surely was a significant contribution to the written account of the expedition.

At the outbreak of the Civil War Heine joined the Union army. He was promoted to the rank of general in 1864. After the war he served as the American consul in Paris and Liverpool. He died near his native Dresden.