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The First sea wall in Boston, completed about 1681, extended from the North to the South Battery to form a harbor defense ... – Antique Wall Art

The First sea wall in Boston, completed about 1681, extended from the North to the South Battery to form a harbor defense ..., [1940] — historic print
The First sea wall in Boston, completed about 1681, extended from the North to the South Battery to form a harbor defense ..., [1940]. Historic print from the Boston collection.

(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

The First sea wall in Boston, completed about 1681, extended from the North to the South Battery to form a harbor defense ... comes to life in this historic print, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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The First sea wall in Boston, completed about 1681, extended from the North to the South Battery to form a harbor defense ...

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A reconstruction rather than a view made on the spot, this color print imagines the first sea wall in Boston, built around 1681 to run from the North Battery to the South Battery and guard the harbor approaches. Its conjectural character matters: the artist drew on documentary sources to suggest how the waterfront looked in the late seventeenth century. The picture was reproduced in 1940 as a May calendar blotter for the First National Bank of Boston, which shows how the city's colonial past was used in mid-century civic and commercial imagery.

Created / published[1940]
Medium1 photomechanical print : col.
GenreAdvertisements 1940.Calendars 1940.Conjectural works 1940.Photomechanical prints Color 1940.
NotesIn calendar blotter for May 1940 used as advertisement for the First National Bank of Boston.
SubjectsSea walls--Massachusetts--Boston--1680-1690. Firsts--Massachusetts--Boston--1680-1690.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,076 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-170473

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