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Fairmount [Waterworks on the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pa.] / from nature by J. Queen. – Historic Print

Fairmount [Waterworks on the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pa.] / from nature by J. Queen., 1856 — historic drawing
Fairmount [Waterworks on the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pa.] / from nature by J. Queen., 1856. Historic drawing 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

Few images capture their era like this historic drawing of Fairmount [Waterworks on the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pa.] / from nature by J. Queen.. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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Fairmount [Waterworks on the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pa.] / from nature by J. Queen.

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Fairmount Water Works, on the Schuylkill River just northwest of central Philadelphia, is the subject here, and the painter worked from the site itself, as the "from nature" note in the title indicates. The waterworks began supplying the city in the early 1800s, when a dam and a pumping station on the river lifted water into reservoirs and then into city pipes. Its Greek Revival buildings and landscaped grounds made it one of the best-known sights in the young republic, and visitors often traveled out to see the engines and the falls. The painting, dated 1856, records the works at a time when they were still central to the city's water supply.

Created / published1856
Medium1 drawing on layered paper watercolor.
GenreWatercolors American 1850-1860.Drawings American Color 1850-1860.
NotesForms part of: Marian S. Carson collection (Library of Congress). Published in: Gathering history: the Marian S. Carson collection of Americana / Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1999, p.87.
SubjectsFairmount Water Works (Philadelphia, Pa.)--1850-1860. Waterworks--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--1850-1860. Water supply--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--1850-1860.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan4,706 × 3,796 px · prints to 16 × 13 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-220279

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