Title |
Watson, J. F. (John Frampton) |
Alternate title |
J. F. & C. A. Watson |
|
J. F. Watson & Co. |
Date |
ca. 1805-1866 |
Description |
John Frampton Watson, born ca. 1805 in Philadelphia to merchant Joseph Watson and Margaret Rodman, worked as a lithographer
and printer in Philadelphia 1833-1866. He began his career in lithography with his brother Charles Augustus Watson in 1833.
By 1835, an advertisement for the new lithographic establishment of J. F. & C. A. Watson at 62 Walnut Street appeared regularly
in the "Philadelphia Inquirer" and emphasized "that cards &c. engraved on stone for all the practical purposes of business,
are equal to those on copper, and at one third the cost." Early works by the firm included the plates "Grisly Bears [sic],"
"Ground Squirrel," and "Argali" published in the third volume of the "Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports"
(1833).
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J. F. & C. A. Watson also printed sheet music covers and maps, along with an 1834 lithograph of Chadds Ford delineated by
Swiss artist and lithographer John Caspar Wild in 1834. By 1837, C. A. Watson had withdrawn from the business. However, John
Frampton continued to operate from 62 Walnut Street, where he published "Tippecanoe and the Thames" with Philip Banks as J.F.
Watson & Co. in 1840. Between 1843 and 1847, Watson operated from 80 1/2 Walnut Street, near Fourth Street, and subsequently
from the southeast corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets, where he remained until his death in 1866.
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Little is known about John Frampton Watson, except that he embarked on a government-funded expedition to the South Seas in
1830, possibly as a draughtsman, with Jeremiah N. Reynolds. In the late 1830s and early 1840s he resided on High (i.e., Market)
Street, including 207 High Street, according to an 1837 city directory listing and his address on his 1842 proposed membership
cited in the Franklin Institute Board Meeting Minutes. He married Susan Abbott Newbold Penny in 1846 and resided with her
in a hotel in the Dock Ward of the city by 1850. They lived at 257 South Ninth Street in 1858, and by 1866, boarded at 739
Spruce Street, where Watson died ca. 1866. His widow provided the address in an "Illustrated New Age" (June 21, 1866) advertisement
asking for all debts to be paid to the Watson estate.
|
Is part of |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
References |
See Wild, John Caspar and Watson, C. A. |
Has format |
LCP-Watson-DrawingsWatercolors-357M.jpg |
Call number |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
Bibliographic citation |
Census 1850 |
|
Charles Henry Jones, Genealogy of the Rodman Family 1620-1886 (Philadelphia, 1886), 84. |
|
Groce & Wallace, 665 |
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Illustrated New Age, June 21, 1866 |
|
Last, 237 |
|
Library Company of Philadelphia research file |
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Log Cabin, September 12, 1840 |
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Peters, 397 |
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Philadelphia Inquirer, December 17, 1835 |
|
Stanton, The Great United States Exploring Expedition (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1975), 26. |
|
WWWAA, 3481 |
Image file |
LCP-Watson-DrawingsWatercolors-357M |