[Horse-drawn cart with house in backgrd.]

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A horse-drawn cart stands before a house in this small wood engraving, which the record attributes to Alexander Anderson, the American engraver often called the first American wood engraver. The date is given only as "ca. 184-," so the print probably dates to the 1840s, though the record itself flags its caption-card information as unverified. Anderson worked in the period when wood engraving was becoming a common way to illustrate books, newspapers and magazines, and his small scenes of everyday rural and town life reflect that commercial trade. Look at how the cart and horse are cut with fine parallel lines, a detail that shows the engraver's care with a very small block.

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