Details
Title Inger, Christian
Alternate title Inger, Charles
Date b. ca. 1814-ca. 1895?
Description Christian Inger, born ca. 1814 in Germany, worked as a lithographic artist in Philadelphia, 1854 - ca. 1895. Inger arrived in the United States at the port of New York with a five-year-old Charles Inger (his relationship undetermined) on the ship "City of Washington" on August 15, 1854 and soon thereafter settled in Philadelphia.
Beginning in the mid 1850s, Inger worked predominately with P. S. Duval, creating the early chromolithograph "Hoskins, Hieskell & Co. Importers & Jobbers of Fancy and Staple Dry Goods" (ca. 1854) designed with fellow artist and lithographer Louis Haugg. Inger continued in the employ of Duval to the mid 1860s, when the prominent printer wrote in an August 1864 letter to lithographic artist Albert Newsam, "Mr. Inger is also with us but has not so much to do. Great many artists and printers have gone to the war. Business had been very brisk for several months past but it is very slack now, there is scarcely anything to do."
Between the 1850s and 1870s, Inger also delineated lithographs printed by the prominent firms Herline & Hensel and Thomas Sinclair as well as in 1859, with his son Egmont, operated Inger & Son at 429 Walnut Street. During this era, Inger's works included portraits, painted art reproductions, especially Revolutionary and Civil War scenes, and bird's eye views of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, including the impressive "Birds eye view of Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, with the buildings of the International Exhibition 1876" printed by Thomas Hunter, and published by Inger & Hensel (905 Market Street). Inger continued in the trade until the mid-1890s. His name last appears in the Philadelphia city directories in 1895.
Inger was in Philadelphia by 1854, the year he married a younger Philadelphia woman Jane (b. ca. 1835). They resided north of Center City in Ward 14 by 1860 with two young children, Ida (b. 1856) and Albert (1858-1862). In the 1870s, Inger resided on Ogden Street (Ward 14), where four more children were born. By 1880, he had moved farther north to 1803 North Twenty-first Street (Ward 29), where his widowed daughter Ida Starr returned with her son, George (b. ca. 1873), to reside with her parents and siblings. By 1895, possibly the year of his death, Inger resided at 2323 Sharswood Street (Ward 29).
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
References See Duval, P.S.; Haugg, Louis; Inger, Egmont; Herline & Hensel; Newsam, Albert ; and Sinclair, Thomas S.
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Census 1860, 1880
Groce & Wallace, 339
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
Peters, 235
Philadelphia Business and City Directories, 1858-1895 (intermittently)
WWWAA, 1684