14

A remarkable album with 152 photographs of 16 cities in the United States and Canada documenting a period of immense urban growth. 1872-73.

Albumen prints
This exceptional album contains 152 albumen photographs of twelve cities in the United States and four more in Canada, including New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, in addition to Niagara Falls and Mammoth Cave, many documenting a grand style of architectural growth during post-war period. Some pages with the city names and the date in pencil; mounted recto only; includes an eight-page manuscript list of photographs laid in. Oblong 4to, tooled morocco boards with gilt frame; backstrip perished, front and rear boards with edge wear and scuffing; some wear to mount edges.
Most images approximately 4 x 3 1/2 in. (10 x 8.5 cm.) and five 9 1/2 x 7 in. (24 x 18 cm.)

  • Provenance: Notes:
    All of these photographs--including original views from after the Chicago and Boston fires--are dated 1872 or 1873, making this one of the earliest compilations of grand-style urban photography in America. Canadian photographs from Montreal and Toronto were produced by Alexander Henderson and Octavius Thompson, respectively, and one from Quebec was taken by William Notman. While some of the images from U.S. cities were available in stereo view format, many are unknown. A manuscript list of two folded sheets (for eight pages, almost certainly prepared by the compiler) describes the photographs.

    The Canadian cities include Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. This is followed by 13 photographs of Niagara Falls.

    American cities include Chicago (16, including both the aftermath of the fire and the city rebuilt), Titusville (2 photographs, the nation's first oil boom town), Milwaukee (6), St. Louis (4), Cincinnati (4), Nashville (one, plus four of Mammoth Cave), Richmond (3), Washington, D.C. (14), Baltimore (6), Philadelphia, New York (19), and Boston (13).

    The Chicago images include four of the aftermath of the great fire of 1871 and are not apparently published elsewhere. Other images include University of Chicago, a post-fire McVickers Theatre, the new Chamber of Commerce building, the Reformed Church, the Union Park Church, Jefferson Park, and the interior of the Board of Trade. The images of D.C. include Pennsylvania Avenue, the U. S. Capitol, the Discovery of America sculptural group that once stood at the Capitol's east façade, both the Senate and House floors, the Apotheosis of Washington in the Capitol's Rotunda, the Smithsonian Institution, the Patent Office, and two views of the White House. Philadelphia images include Third Street below Chestnut (with the Telegraph Office) and of Broad and Arch, State, and Market streets, exterior and interior views of Independence Hall, the marble statue of George Washington that once stood outside Independence Hall, the Public Ledger building, Fairmont Park, and Girard College.

    Among the 19 New York photographs are five different shots of Broadway and four of Central Park, images of Wall Street and Park Row, the Custom House, the Stock Exchange, the Astor Library, the Fifth Avenue Hotel (each of the last two might be attributable to Peter F. Weil), and along the quay from Fulton Market. Finally, Boston is the last city in the album, with 13 photographs that include what appears to be an unrecorded panoramic view showing much the city's downtown in ruins following the catastrophic fire of November 1872. Other images include
    street views from City Hall and India Wharf, the Washington and Bunker Hill monuments, the
    Massachusetts State House, Beacon Street, and four views of Harvard in Cambridge.
  • Condition: For condition reports, email Deborah Rogal at [email protected]

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April 30, 2026 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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