Details
Title Mt. Pleasant E. Park, John Macpherson 1761 [graphic] / [Official Photographer, 730 City Hall].
Publisher Philadelphia
Date [ca. 1926]
Physical Description 1 photograph : gelatin silver ; sheet 19 x 24 cm (7.5 x 9.5 in.)
Description Exterior view depicting the country house built 1761-1765 for Captain John Macpherson after the designs of Thomas Nevil in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. Shows the front entrance to the mansion, covered in ivy, and flanked by outbuildings. Macpherson, a privateer during the Seven Years’ War, purchased the estate with profits from these operations. Free white and Black laborers, indentured servants, and at least four enslaved people of African descent, whose names are unknown, worked on the plantation. In 1779, General Benedict Arnold purchased Mount Pleasant for his wife Peggy Shippen, but they never occupied the house. In 1792, General Jonathan Williams purchased the mansion. The City of Philadelphia purchased the property from the Williams family in 1869. On behalf of the city, the Philadelphia Museum of Art restored the house in 1926.
Notes Title from inscription on mount.
Date inferred from photographic medium.
Purchase 1989.
Description revised 2022.
Access points revised 2022.
Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited.
Subject Arnold, Benedict, 1741-1801 -- Homes and haunts.
Macpherson, John, 1726-1792 -- Homes and haunts.
Williams, Jonathan, 1750-1815 -- Homes and haunts.
Dwellings -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Mansions -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Plantations -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Slavery -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Geographic subject Mount Pleasant (Philadelphia, Pa. : Estate)
Fairmount Park (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Genre Gelatin silver prints -- 1920-1930.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| photo - Official Photographer [P.9260.329]
Accession number P.9260.329