This painting depicts the Severn River, whose headwaters run from western Anne Arundel County to the Chesapeake Bay at Annapolis. It was painted for John W. McCoy, who presented it to the Peabody Institute in 1908, and added to the Collection of the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property when the state purchased the Peabody Art Collection in 1996. The painting was previously displayed in the Governor's Office in the State House, and was exhibited at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in 2009.

Hugh Bolton Jones was born and educated in Baltimore and began his artistic training at the Maryland Institute. Although he worked in New York in the 1860s and 1870s, Jones maintained close ties to his home state, keeping a residence in Baltimore and exhibiting his paintings. The beautiful Maryland countryside was inspiration for many of his early works.