Details
Creator Brightbill, George M., collector.
Title Independence Hall postcards. [graphic].
Date 1900-1950
Physical Description 310 photomechanical prints (postcards): photolithograph; 9 x 15 cm.(3.5 x 5.5 in.)
Description Contains architectural images and copies of paintings depicting Independence Hall and the leading politicians associated with the Declaration of Independence. Architectural images include exterior views of the front facade on Chestnut Street; oblique views of the state building from Fifth and Sixth Streets and the rear elevation facing Independence Square showing the Commodore Barry Monument designed by Samuel Murray in 1908. The overwhelming majority of interior views portray the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed, also called the Assembly Room, Philadelphia Room, Declaration Chamber and Independence Chamber. Others include the banquet room, Supreme Court room, main stairway and the ballroom. Paintings include portraits of Robert Morris, Richard Henry Lee, Samuel Huntingdon, Thomas McKean and Benjamin Franklin and the signing of the Declaration by these iconic figures. Also depicted is a popular series called the Cradle of Liberty, a collage of exterior and interior images of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and George Washington.
Notes Contains 188 postcards printed in color and 97 printed in black and white. Also contains 25 linen postcards.
Built 1732-1748 by Andrew Hamilton and Edmund Woolley. Extensive renovations and additions completed incrementally between 1750 and 1973. Meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775-1783 and the site where the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.
Also identified as the Pennsylvania State House.
Digitized with funding from a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.
Subject Independence Hall (Philadelphia, Pa.)
City & town halls -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Monuments & memorials -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Plazas -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Geographic subject Chestnut Street (Philadelphia, Pa.) -- 520.
Genre Photomechanical prints -- Color -- 1900-1950.
Photomechanical prints -- 1900-1920.
Postcards -- 1900-1950.
Associated name Hamilton, Andrew, ca. 1676-1741, architect.
Associated name Woolley, Edmund, ca. 1695-1771, architect.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| Brightbill postcards [Independence Hall - 122 - 127]
Accession number 122-a01-a
123-a01-b
125-a10-a
126-a01-d