Snapshots of the Past

Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia – Vintage Wall Art

Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia, 1800 — antique engraving
Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia, 1800. Antique engraving from the Philadelphia 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

Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia comes to life in this antique engraving, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia

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The Arch Street Ferry was one of the crossings that carried travelers and goods over the Delaware River between Philadelphia and the New Jersey shore, and this hand-colored engraving shows its waterfront setting at the end of the eighteenth century. The English-born engraver William Birch and his son Thomas published the view in 1800 as the fourth plate of their series on the city, which documented Philadelphia's streets, wharves, and public buildings as they looked at the time. Birch's work is valued as a record of the port's daily life, when the river was the city's main commercial highway. The coloring, added by hand, varies from one impression to another, so the tones in any copy reflect that particular printing.

Created / published1800
Medium1 print : engraving, hand-colored.
SubjectsHand-colored engraving by Wm. Birch & Son. Illus. in: The City of Philadelphia...as It Appeared in the Year 1800..., 1800. Plate 4. Ref. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Wharves; Pa.--Phila.; Artists, Publ. I.; RBD; Shelf(4).
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,470 × 1,260 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-176935

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