Item Info
Media Type: Lithographs
Source: Print and Picture Collection
Notes:
Hand-colored lithograph, published in Philadelphia by J.T. Bowen, 1840.
Notes:
John Caspar Wild (1804-1846)
Swiss-born and Paris-trained artist, John Caspar Wild moved to Philadelphia in 1832. He travelled around the city, creating watercolors of newly built and impressive buildings, using them as the basis for lithographic prints, which could be reproduced in great numbers. With his partner J. B. Chevalier he issued a series of 20 prints, released in monthly parts in 1938 as Views of Philadelphia and Its Vicinity.
Wild's prints were originally issued in parts - four prints each month for the first five months of 1838. The 20 plates were followed by the four panoramas from the State House steeple. This was followed by the second edition (still in 1838), which consisted of all 20 plates in one bound volume. "Poetical illustrations" of each image were written by Ezra Holden and Andrew McMakin, the proprietors of the Saturday Courier. Holden wrote the prose and McMakin wrote the poetry.
Not long after the Views of Philadelphia was published, Wild moved west to St. Louis and turned his focus to that city and the Mississippi Valley. The copyright and lithographic stones to view his Views of Philadelphiawere bought by J. T. Bowen, who published another edition in 1838 and a new edition of the work with hand-colored plates in 1848. Wild died in Davenport, Iowa at the young age of 42.
Notes:
From: Views of Philadelphia, And its Vicinity, published by J.T. Bowen from a J.C. Wild painting.
State House [Independence Hall] Designed by Edmund Woolley and Andrew hamilton. Built 1732-53.
[CAPTION] Lith of J.T. Bowen, Pha. STATE HOUSE Published by J.T. Bowen at his Lithographic & Print Colouring Establishment, 94 Walnut St, Phila. Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1840 by J.T. Bowen in the Cls. Offe. of the Dt. Ct. for the En. Dt. of Pa.
Notes:
The Old State House was commenced in 1729, and finished in 1734; and its amplitude and magnificence are conspicuous emblems of the public spirit of those days. The scenes which were enacted within its consecrated walls will forever remain indelibly written in our Colonial History; and the immortal group, who so firmly placed their signatures to the great instrument of perpetual freedom, have been placed, by the genius of Trumbell, in a time-honored painting, that America will cherish so long as there is a spark of the patriotism of our forefathers remaining upon these shores.
-Ezra Holden, Views of Philadelphia and Its Vicinity, 1838
Creation Year: ca. 1840
Geocode Latitude: Geocode Longitude:-75.150433
Geocode Latitude:39.949095
Creator Name: Bowen, John T., approximately 1801-1856? - Lithographer
Wild, J. C. (John Caspar), approximately 1804-1846 - Artist
Woolley, Edmund, 1695-1771 - Architect
Hamilton, Andrew, approximately 1676-1741 - Architect