Details
Title Magee, John L.
Date b. ca. 1820
Description John L. Magee, born in New York ca. 1820, was a mid 19th-century New York and Philadelphia artist, engraver, and lithographer, who specialized in cartoons and event prints. An apprentice of [James?] Ackerman, Magee executed lithographs for New York publishers, including James Baillie and Nathaniel Currier, 1840-ca. 1852. Early in his career, he also exhibited three original paintings at the National Academy of Design, including "The Mischievous Boy" in 1844, which he later printed as a lithograph. Magee also pursued engraving and between the mid 1840s and mid 1850s, Magee engraved illustrations for a number of children's picture books published by Turner & Fisher (Boston, N.Y., Phila., Baltimore). By 1850 he published cartoons from his own establishment at 34 Mott Street before relocating to Philadelphia after 1852.
Magee, not to be confused with stationer and envelope publisher J. (i.e., James) Magee, 316 Chestnut Street, began to be a listed "lithographer" in Philadelphia directories in 1855. Somewhat of an itinerant lithographer, he worked from the establishments of Thomas Sinclair (101 Chestnut), Benjamin F. Mifflin (217 Walnut Street), Frederick Pilliner (49 South Third Street), and John Hart (305 Walnut) as well as his own at 63 (i.e., 200 block) Walnut Street, 261 South Sixth Street, 22 South Fifth Street, and Third and Dock streets. In 1856, he issued his first local sensational news event print, "Terrible Conflagration and Destruction of the Steamboat New Jersey..." with Alfred Pharazyn and over the next ten years would become the near sole publisher of such prints in the city. Magee issued his last known event prints 1866-1867, including "The Second Great Match for the Championship..." depicting the Philadelphia Athletics and Brooklyn Atlantics. During this time, Magee also continued to design political cartoons as well as execute portraits, church views, and Civil War imagery for colleagues and as his own publications. After 1869, Magee appears to have departed from the trade although he was listed as a lithographer in the 1870 census.
Magee was married to Anne (b. ca. 1830) with whom he had three children, Emma (b. ca. 1850), Walter (b. ca. 1857), and Howard (b. ca. 1860). While working in Philadelphia, he resided predominately in South Philadelphia at 48 Passyunk Road (ca. 1857), the 100 block of Morris Street (1860-ca.1865?), and 1128 Carpenter Street by 1868, in addition to a brief residency in 1867 at the Jones Exchange Hotel (77 Dock street) near his printing studio. By 1870, Magee lived with only his children and had a personal estate of $350 (i.e., about $6000 in 2008); about three times more its value in 1860.
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
References See Hart, John; Pillliner, Frederick; Pharazyn, Alfred and Sinclair,Thomas.
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Census 1860, 1870
Groce & Wallace, 418
Last, 208
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Peters, 268
Philadelphia Business and City Directories, 1855-1867 (intermittently)
WWWAA, 2158