Bits of nature and some art products, in Fairmount Park, at Philadelphia, Penna.
Title
Bits of nature and some art products, in Fairmount Park, at Philadelphia, Penna
Description
Volume of compiled prints and drawings by lithographer, etcher, and artist Augustus Kollner primarily depicting landscapes of Fairmount Park and originally published in his "Bits of Nature ...," one of four volumes in his 1878 series of small folio pictures. Also contains views of Philadelphia and Bucks and Montgomery counties. Several of the prints also show park and riverscape; residences and estates; animals, including canal mules, horses, cows, and dogs; park visitors, including an African American family, children, and persons on foot and on horseback; steamboats, rowboats, and other vessels on the Schuylkill River; and rock formations. Other views show wharf workers at lunch and a cliff-side residence at North Twenty-Seventh Street near the park., Mount Pleasant Mansion was built 1761-1765 for Captain John Macpherson after the designs of Thomas Nevil in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. Macpherson, a privateer during the Seven Years’ War, purchased the estate with profits from these operations. Free white and Black laborers, indentured servants, and at least four enslaved people of African descent, whose names are unknown, worked on the plantation. In 1779, General Benedict Arnold purchased Mount Pleasant for his wife Peggy Shippen, but they never occupied the house. In 1792, General Jonathan Williams purchased the mansion. The City of Philadelphia purchased the property from the Williams family in 1869. On behalf of the city, the Philadelphia Museum of Art restored the house in 1926., Titles include Thos. Moore’s Cottage, Phila. Park; Schuylkill River, Fairmount Park, Phila. (Columbia Bridge); Prospect from Ridgeland and Fairmount Park, Phila.; (In Fairmount Park) Sweet Briar Mansion, in 1843; In Ravine near Sweet Briar Fairmount Park, Phila.; Schuylkill River below the Falls, Fairmount Pk. Phila.; Belmont and Waterworks. Mount Pleasant, Fairmount Park, Philada.; In Wissahickon Valley, Fairmount Park, Philada.; Peters Island, Fairmount Park, Philada.; Schuylkill Riv. above Fairmount Dam, Philada. in 1843; Phila. 1842; Schuylkill River Pa.; Pt. Pleasant, Pa.; Near Willow Grove Penna.; Life Scenes in Fairmount Park; Near East Park, Phila./ "S.E. corner 27th & [Arben?]"; Schuylkill Valley Pa (dated 1893).; Delaware Riv. [Easton?]; Life Scenes in Park; City Wharf Scene (dated 1894); and West Phila [illegible] near Sweet [Briar?] West Phila., Title from title page., Maroon leather binding, stamped in gilt on cover: Bits of Nature. A. Kollner., Spine stamped: Bits of Nature. Kollner., Prints variably signed AK; A. Kollner; A. Kollner fc.; From nate. and etchd by A. Kollner; and Kollner, fect., Titles on the stone or plate. Some annotated with inscribed titles., Two of prints [*Am 1878 Kol, 2086.F.15 and 16] printed on recto of proofs. Proofs depict "Life Scenes in Park" and "The Christian Soldier.", Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Kollner advertised four volumes of small folio pictures, including "Bits of Nature and Some Art Products, in Fairmount Park ..." in 1878. Several of the lithographs from this volume were based on sketches he executed in the 1840s.
Creator
Kollner, Augustus, 1813-1906
Date
[1878-1894]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Kollner [*Am 1878 Kol, 2086.F]