Details
Title Bourquin, Frederick
Date 1808- May 25, 1897
Description Frederick Bourquin, born in 1808 in the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, was a pioneer Philadelphia lithographer who specialized in maps. Following immigration to the United States in 1817 with his brother Charles F. Bourquin, he resided in Bucks County, Pa. and New York as well as began his lithographic career at the Philadelphia firm of Kennedy & Lucas in 1829. A U.S. citizen as of 1834, he permanently located to Philadelphia ca. 1840 and gained employment with his brother at P. S. Duval's firm in 1842.
In 1849 Frederick became the foreman and from 1852 to January 1, 1857, a partner in the firm P. S. Duval & Co. Within a year, he partnered with Robert Pearsall Smith to form the map publishing establishment F. Bourquin & Company (602 Chestnut Street). The partnership was active until ca. 1863 when Bourquin became the sole proprietor of the business until his death in 1897.
In 1866, Bourquin moved his recently established firm from Sixth & Chestnut Streets to quarters at 104 Hudson Alley (now Carpenter's Court) behind 320 Chestnut Street where he remained until 1873. He then relocated to 31 South Sixth Street and occupied two large rooms employing, according to the demands of his work, between 6 and 20 skilled and experienced lithographers. Although he produced lithographic portraits and prints, his main business focused on the production of county maps and atlases. He succeeded Robert Pearsall Smith as the main producer in this branch of the trade after the latter's sudden retirement from the field in 1865.
According to Bourquin's advertisements, he offered "every facility for engraving, printing, coloring and mounting state and county maps, of the largest size." Throughout his map publishing career, he worked closely with the firm of Worley & Bracher and maintained professional connections with New York. By his 1882 credit report, he was "quite favorably regarded by the trade" and "considered honest and worthy of confidence" with an estimated worth of $5,000, which rose to about $12,000 in 1886.
Bourquin was an innovator in the field of lithography. He experimented with different methods of improving the transfer process for which the Franklin Institute awarded him a prize in 1847; introduced zincography to America in 1849; and worked with John Jay Smith, father of R. P. Smith, in the development of the Anastatic Press in 1846.
A resident of Camden, N.J. from the mid 1850's, Bourquin served on Camden's City Council during the 1870s and 1880s and as a Democrat in the New Jersey legislature in 1872. Married to Mary (b. ca. 1820), Bourquin had several children including four sons Frederick Bourquin, Jr., Gordon M. Bourquin, David L. Bourquin, and Charles L. Bourquin, involved in the lithographic and/or printing business. Bourquin died at his home in Camden, N.J. in 1897 and was survived by two of his sons.
Is part of Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Portrait from Joseph Jackson, "Some Notes Towards a History of Lithography in Philadelphia." (Philadelphia, 1900)
References See Bourqin, Charles L.; Bourquin, David L.; Bourquin, Frederick, Jr.,; Bourquin, Gordon M. ; Duval, P. S.; Kennedy & Lucas; Smith, Robert Pearsall; and Worley & Bracher,
Has format HSP-Bourquin-Jackson-LithInPhila.jpg
Call number Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers
Bibliographic citation Census, 1850, 1860 and 1880
Edwards, The Industries of Philadelphia, 140
Freedley, Philadelphia and Its Manufactures (1867 edition), 540
Groce & Wallace, 69
Henkels, Stan V., The Valuable Library of the Hon. Frederick Bourquin (1894), 717, preface
Jackson, Encyclopedia of Philadelphia, 1229-1230
Jackson, "Some Notes Towards a History of Lithography in Philadelphia." (Philadelphia, 1900), 17
Last, 168
Library Company of Philadelphia research file
Pennsylvania, Vol. 159, p. 82, R.G. Dun & Co. Collection, microfilm, Hagley Museum & Library
Peters, 101 (Note: Bourquin & Welsh is not a partnership with F. Bourquin)
Philadelphia Business and City Directories 1843-1888
Philadelphia's Leading Industries (1886), 252
WWWAA, 397
Young, 58
Image file HSP-Bourquin-Jackson-LithInPhila