Cass county courthouse, Fargo, N.D.

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Fargo was the seat of Cass County, and this print shows its courthouse as a dignified public building at the center of a growing railroad town on the Red River. The Northern Pacific Railway reached the area in 1871, and Fargo expanded quickly after that, so the courthouse stood for the county's rising civic life. The image is a photogravure, an intaglio process that transfers a photograph to a copper plate for printing, which gives fine tonal detail and softness. The Albertype Company issued many such photomechanical views of American towns and landmarks. The caption card gives no date, so the exact year of the picture remains unknown.

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