Front of Boston Library, Franklin place – Historic Print
![Front of Boston Library, Franklin place, [between 1803 and 1827] — historic drawing](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/0b/0be3248c2266-L.webp)
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
This rare historic drawing captures Front of Boston Library, Franklin place in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
Front of Boston Library, Franklin place
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The drawing shows the front of the Boston Athenaeum's predecessor-era library building on Franklin Place, the detail that sets it apart from the city views around it: it is an elevation, a flat head-on design rather than a street scene. Its ink, graphite and wash give it a working-draftsman's clarity. Architectural drawings of this kind from 1800 to 1830 were often made to plan a building or to record one, and this sheet has sometimes been credited to Charles Bulfinch, the leading Boston architect of the period, though that attribution has not been settled. The verso carries calculations and a provenance stamp, and the urns on the front show faintly through the thin paper, a reminder of how the sheet was drawn and kept.
| Created / published | [between 1803 and 1827] |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 drawing : ink, graphite, and wash on paper. |
| Genre | Architectural drawings 1800-1830.Elevations 1800-1830. |
| Notes | Inscription on verso (page 6) includes calculations and provenance stamp. Drawing has not been definitively attributed to Bulfinch, but has sometimes been credited to him. In: The Bulfinch sketchbook. Title from item. Partial elevation. Copy negative of verso (page 6) shows near complete bleed-through of recto including urns covered by thin paper on recto. |
| Subjects | Libraries--Massachusetts--Boston--1800-1830. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 3,277 × 4,096 px · prints to 11 × 14 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-195113 |
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