Street scene based on a watercolor study by William Birch. Depicts Speaker of the House of Representatives, Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, on tour with a delegation of Native American men across from the second edifice of the New Zion Lutheran Church, built on Fourth Street below Cherry Street 1795-1796. The first church building, erected 1766-1769 to accommodate the overflow of the growing German congregation of St. Michael's Lutheran Church, was rebuilt in its original form following a fire in 1794. Scene also includes street and pedestrian traffic of a loaded horse-drawn dray and cart; and a laborer hauling a barrel upon his back. Native American delegations visited the city to pay respect and to negotiate land treaties when Philadelphia served as the nation's capitol. Muhlenberg lead a tour of several tribal groups in 1793., Illustrated in S. Robert Teitelman's Birch's Views of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: The Free Library of Philadelphia, 1982, rev. 2000), pl. 6., LCP holds related watercolor study. (LCP P.9666)., Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited.
Creator
Birch, William Russell, 1755-1834, engraver
Date
[1804]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Birch, William-Views of Philadelphia [Sn 6b/P.2276.12]