Title |
Mahan, Francis |
Date |
ca. 1790-1871 |
Description |
Francis Mahan, born ca. 1790 in Pennsylvania, worked primarily as a fashion lithographer, publisher and designer in Philadelphia
from 1829 to 1871. Trained as a tailor in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the mid-1810s "by making clothes of every
description, plain or fashionable, to suit customers," Mahan relocated and was proprietor of Francis Mahan & Co. in Philadelphia
(Chestnut Street Ward) by the late 1820s. He copyrighted and advertised protractors and his proof system "to impart the art
of garment cutting" to tailors, a system disputed by rival tailor and publisher Allen Ward in local newspapers beginning in
the late 1830s. In a newspaper war that endured many years, Ward accused Mahan of copying designs from old drafts of his work,
resulting in several design competitions; an injunction against Mahan by Ward in 1839; and a libel suit by Mahan against Ward
in 1840.
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By the 1840s both Mahan and Ward published fashion prints. The prints displayed in local tailors' shops depicted several figures
attired in seasonal fashions that often included prominent figures for credibility and made the lithographs collectibles.
Prominent figures in Mahan prints, which were often advertised in the local newspapers, included Henry Clay and James K. Polk
in 1844 and 1845 and Colonel May, "the hero of Palo Alto," (from a daguerreotype) in 1847. During the 1840s, Mahan also exhibited
fashion plates in the Franklin Institute Exhibition of American Manufactures (1848) and included an advertisement in the catalog
that claimed he had "near Six Thousand regular subscribers" to his plates. He continued to publish plates through the 1850s
and in the 1860 issued a print "which contain[ed] all the Presidential Candidates" for which he advertised in the "Public
Ledger" for canvassers.
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A listing for Mahan's tailor shop at 20 South Sixth Street appeared in city directories in 1831. The shop moved to Chestnut
Street in the early 1840s, with locations at 215, then 211, 186, 720, 911 and then back to 720 Chestnut Street. Mahan resided
within the same ward as his business, and by 1850 he lived in the hotel owned by Filbert I. Nagle at 18 South Sixth Street.
He moved to Camden, New Jersey in the 1860s, and returned to Philadelphia by 1871, after which time his name is absent from
city directories. He had one son, Phineas Jenks Mahan (1814-1875), who was an expert gardener and a soldier in Texas in the
mid-late 1830s. The younger Mahan was appointed by Richard G. Harrison of Philadelphia to secure contracts for bank note engraving
in Texas, which is where he subsequently moved his family by 1870.
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Is part of |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
Has format |
LOC-Mahan-PGA-Duval-ParisNewYorkPhiladelphiafashions-Dsize.jpg |
Call number |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
Bibliographic citation |
Census 1820, 1850, 1870 |
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Groce & Wallace, 419 |
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Last, 209 |
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Library Company of Philadelphia research file |
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Maryland Sun, August 27, 1840 |
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North American, September 4, 1847 |
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Peters, 270 |
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Philadelphia Business and City Directories, 1831-1871 (intermittently) |
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Philadelphia Inquirer, September 21, 1844 |
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Public Ledger, March 1, 1837; June 5, 1837 and September 4, 1860 |
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Star of Freedom (Pennsylvania), October 1, 1817 |
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WWWAA, 2160 |
Image file |
LOC-Mahan-PGA-Duval-ParisNewYorkPhiladelphiafashions-Dsize |