Franklin selling his ballads in the streets of Boston / Charles E. Mills 1908. – Vintage Wall Art
(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
A window into the past: Franklin selling his ballads in the streets of Boston / Charles E. Mills 1908., preserved in this historic photograph. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.
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Franklin selling his ballads in the streets of Boston / Charles E. Mills 1908.
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A boyhood episode from Benjamin Franklin's life gives this scene its subject: the young printer's apprentice hawking verses through the streets of his native Boston. In his *Autobiography*, Franklin recalls writing ballads that his older brother James printed, then selling them himself, sometimes to the crowds gathered for hangings and other public events. Charles E. Mills painted the original work in 1908, and this print, issued around 1914 by the Detroit Publishing Co., reproduces that painting. Its value lies in showing how a future statesman's early years were tied to the cheap printed matter of colonial Boston.
| Created / published | c1914. |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 photographic print. |
| Genre | Paintings 1900-1910 Reproductions 1910-1920.Photographic prints 1910-1920. |
| Notes | J198444 or J198445 U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright by Detroit Publishing Co. Reproduction of painting by Charles E. Mills. |
| Subjects | Franklin, Benjamin,--1706-1790. Selling--Massachusetts--Boston--1910-1920. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,536 × 1,278 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-125716 |
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