The battle at Bunker's Hill near Boston, June 17th, 1775
Title
The battle at Bunker's Hill near Boston, June 17th, 1775
Description
Commemorative print after John Trumbull's historical painting based on his eyewitness account of the battle while serving as a commissioned officer during the American Revolution. Dramatically depicts the scene of American Major General Joseph Warren's death proceeding the Americans' retreat from the hill. Amidst a melee of activity, Warren lays dying in the arms of an American militiaman who fends off a bayonet pointed down over his body by an English soldier. British Major John Small restrains the bayonet of his soldier as Americans Captain Thomas Gardner, holding a musket, Major Andrew McClary, and Colonel William Prescott stand guard over their fallen compatriot. Behind Small, British Major John Pitcairn, mortally wounded, is held up by Lieutenant William Pitcairn and to the far right American Lieutenant Thomas Grovesnor stands en guarde shielding an armed African American man usually identified as Peter Salem, credited as the fatal shooter of Pitcairn, but more likely Grovesnor's enslaved man. British Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and Lieutenant Francis Lord Rawdon, flag in hand, continue the charge in the background. Other American soldiers involved in the battle include: Colonel Israel Putnam who gallantly leads the retreat; Rev. Samuel McClintock; Major Willard Moore, as well as an African American soldier, possibly Peter Salem. American Lieutenant Colonel Moses Parker and British Lieutenant Colonel Sir Robert Abercromby lay dying., Title from item., Theodore Sizer's The works of Colonel John Trumbull (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 95., The Library of Congress' An album of American battle art, 1755-1918. (Washington, D.C.: The U.S. Printing Office, 1947), 27-30., See Elisa Tamarkin, Anglophilia: deference, devotion, and antebellum America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 137-8 for Peter Salem misidentification., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Muller, was a renown German painter, engraver, and professor, commissioned, following the refusal of the English artist community, to engrave Trumbull's historic painting. Muller completed the painting in 1786 at his mentor Benjamin West's London studio.
Creator
Müller, Johann Gotthard, 1747-1830, engraver
Date
1798
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - American Revolution [1142.F.4]
The battle at Bunker's Hill near Boston June 17, 1775
Title
The battle at Bunker's Hill near Boston June 17, 1775
Description
Book illustration after John Trumbull's historical painting based on his eyewitness account of the battle while serving as a commissioned officer during the American Revolution. Dramatically depicts the scene of American Major General Joseph Warren's death proceeding the Americans' retreat from the hill. Amidst a melee of activity, Warren lies dying in the arms of an American militiaman who fends off a bayonnet pointed down over his body by an English soldier. British Major John Small restrains the bayonnet of his soldier as Americans Captain Thomas Gardner, holding a musket, Major Andrew McClary, and Colonel William Prescott stand guard over their fallen compatriot. Behind Small, British Major John Pitcairn, mortally wounded, is held up by Lieutenant William Pitcairn and to the far right American Lieutenant Thomas Grovesnor stands en garde shielding Peter Salem, an armed African American soldier who discharged the fatal shot at Pitcairn. British Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and Lieutentant Francis Lord Rawdon, flag in hand, continue the charge in the background. Other American soldiers involved in the battle include: Colonel Israel Putnam who gallantly leads the retreat; Rev. Samuel McClintock; Major Willard Moore, as well as several other free African American soldiers. American Lieutenant Colonel Moses Parker and British Lieutentant Colonel Sir Robert Abercromby lay dying., Published in John Howard Hinton's The history and topography of the United States of North America,... [LCP *Am 1834 Hinto, 11860.Q.1] and later editions., Printed below title: Vol. I. page . 226., Original painting at Yale School of Fine Art, New Haven, Connecticut., Described in Theodore Sizer's The works of Colonel John Trumbull (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), p. 95., Described in The Library of Congress' An album of American battle art, 1755-1918. (Washington, D.C.: The U.S. Printing Office, 1947), p. 27-30., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of the Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014., Access points revised 2021., Description revised 2021., Gift of Dolly Maass, 2002.
Creator
Archer & Boilly, engraver
Date
[1834]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department GC - American Revolution [P.2002.14]
Engravings by William Humphrys Scrapbook
Title
Engravings by William Humphrys Scrapbook
Description
Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs engraved by Philadelphia and London engraver William Humphrys. Contents include postage stamp proofs, book and periodical illustrations, tile pages, portrait prints, advertisements, and cut outs of banknote and certificate vignettes. Majority of graphics depict allegorical imagery or illustrations of genre, religious, sentimental, and literary scenes, some from the plays of Shakespeare. Illustrations include scenes of courtship; female friendship; children with animals; a ghoulish-looking woman with a torch; a European man smoking a hookah; Jesus Christ; Adam & Eve; and imagery from Edmund Spencer's "Faery Queen", John Milton's "Palemon's Story," and John Gay's "Thursday: or The Spell." Allegorical works depict the figures of Columbia, Minerva, Mercury, Neptune, Bounty, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Hope, and Apollo, as well as scenes with the American eagle; caducei for the "Liverpool Apothecaries Company"; citizens fighting a fire; cherubs charting a globe; Native Americans; a family; sailing ships; and symbols of farming, trade, and industry. Vignettes also show a portrait of Benjamin Franklin; Pocahontas saving John Smith; and a female warrior slaying a man of royalty captioned "Sic Semper Tyranus."
Engravings by William Humphrys
Title
Engravings by William Humphrys
Description
Scrapbook of print specimens and proofs engraved by Philadelphia and London engraver William Humphrys. Contents include postage stamp proofs, book and periodical illustrations, tile pages, portrait prints, advertisements, and cut outs of banknote and certificate vignettes. Majority of graphics depict allegorical imagery or illustrations of genre, religious, sentimental, and literary scenes, some from the plays of Shakespeare. Illustrations include scenes of courtship; female friendship; children with animals; a ghoulish-looking woman with a torch; a European man smoking a hookah; Jesus Christ; Adam & Eve; and imagery from Edmund Spencer's "Faery Queen", John Milton's "Palemon's Story," and John Gay's "Thursday: or The Spell." Allegorical works depict the figures of Columbia, Minerva, Mercury, Neptune, Bounty, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Hope, and Apollo, as well as scenes with the American eagle; caducei for the "Liverpool Apothecaries Company"; citizens fighting a fire; cherubs charting a globe; Native Americans; a family; sailing ships; and symbols of farming, trade, and industry. Vignettes also show a portrait of Benjamin Franklin; Pocahontas saving John Smith; and a female warrior slaying a man of royalty captioned "Sic Semper Tyranus.", Portrait prints, some probably from the British periodical "Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country," depict Israel Putnam; George Washington; Gustavus Adolphus; Mrs. Sloman, of Covent Garden Theatre in the Character of Baltimore; Thomas Carlyle; William Dunlop; Letitia Elizabeth Landon; D. M. Moir; and Henry Purcell. Scrapbook also contains an 1844 banknote specimen of "La Provincia de Buenos Aires" illustrated with vignettes of ostriches; ca. 1845 postage stamp proof depicting Queen Victoria after the Chalon portrait; a full-length portait of an unidentified man, possibly Humphrys; and an advertisement for the Philadelphia artist Joshua Shaw showing a man leading his horse down a bucolic path, as well as engravings after his work of a landscape and an advertisement for Cohen's Lottery Exchange Office, Baltimore., Title from stamp on spine., Morocco binding., Various American and British artists, including W. Chatfield, John Opie, Joshua Shaw, Robert Smirke, C. R. Leslie, Charles L. Eastlake, W. E. West, George Smithard, Carlo Dola, A.E. Chalon, J. Wood, J. Stephanoff, Pastorini, Alfred Croquis (i.e., Daniel Maclise), A. F. Tireggi, John James Barralet, J. Banks, J. M. Wright, Thomas Stothard, P. Williams, Camille Roqueplan, and R. Westall., Various American and British printers and publishers, including H. S. Singleton, J. P. Davis, and James Fraser., Manuscript letter by Humphry completed January 10, 1865 to Anna Holloway pasted on opening page to scrapbook. Letter details his ill health, which in spite of, he still appreciates "the brightness of the sun, the greeness of the earth, and the beauty of extreme nature.", Some scrapbook pages contain manuscript notes identifying the genre of the specimen., Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1967, p. 55., William Humphrys (1795-1865), born in Dublin, immigrated to the United States early in his life and studied engraving under George Murray in Philadelphia. He worked as an engraver in the city circa 1815-1823 producing book illustrations, advertisements, and banknote and certificate vignettes. He also served as secretary for the Association of American Artists. Relocating to England, he produced similar work before returning to the United States in 1843. In 1845, he moved to Dublin to engrave "The Reading Magdalene" for the Royal Irish Art Union before returning to England where he worked as an engraver for the firm Perkin, Bacon, and Co. During this employ, he was noted for his re-engraving of the head of Queen Victoria for the 1 d postage stamp. Humphrys retired from engraving in his later years and worked as an accountant for the printing firm Novello & Co. He died at the Novellos' Genoa villa on January 21, 1865.
Creator
Humphrys, William, 1795-1865
Date
[ca. 1817-ca. 1845]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department albums - Humphrys [7607.F]
Washington's triumphal entry into New York, Nov. 25th, 1783
Title
Washington's triumphal entry into New York, Nov. 25th, 1783
Description
Historic scene from the close of the American Revolution depicting General Washington, carrying his hat in his right hand and holding the reins in his left hand, on horseback and triumphantly parading his troops through a crowded New York City street on November 25, 1783. Following him closely on horseback are his principal officers: Governor George Clinton, General Frederick William Augustus, Baron von Steuben, General Thaddeus Kosciusko, General Gilbert Motier De La Fayette, Alexander Hamilton, General Henry Knox, General Israel Putnam, General Nathaniel Greene, and General Horatio Gates. Army personnel in the back carry the St. George cross flag, the New England Pine Tree flag, and the Washington life banner. The exuberant spectators, comprised of prominent figures and everyday citizens, line both sides of the thoroughfare and cheer from the street, balconies, and windows and include: Martha Washington; the society ladies of the Republican Court including Mrs. Cornelia [Tappan] Clinton, Mrs. Anne Willing Bingham, Mrs. Elizabeth [Schuyler] Hamilton, Mrs. Sarah [Livingston] Jay, Mrs. Polly Caton, and Mrs. Abigail Adams; Native Americans of the Six Nations including Chief Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant); General Benjamin Lincoln; Thomas Mifflin; John Marshall; Reverend David Jones; Stephen Hopkins; Miss Bingham; Miss J. Marshall; Mrs. Hamlin; the personification of a free press as an older white man reporter; continental guards; an African American woman peddler seated and holding a basket of grapes; and an older white man veteran with a crutch., Title from item., Date from copyright statement: Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1860 by Geo T. Perry in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania., Copyrighted by George T. Perry., Pamphlet titled Description of the print entitled Washington's triumphal entry, New York, November 25th, 1783 (Philadelphia: George T. Perry, 1861) describes and provides a key to figures in the engraving. Copy of Library of Congress original housed with print. Link to digital version below in Koha Catalog., Peter C. Marzio's Chromolithography 1840-1900: The democratic art, pictures for 19th-century America (Boston: David R. Grodine, 1979), p. 27 and 283., Lib. Company. Annual report, 1973, p. 44-45., Accessioned 1979., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Part of digital collections catalog through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, Governor, 2013-2014.
Creator
Inger, Christian, lithographer
Date
1860
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department ***GC-American Revolution [P.2279], https://www.loc.gov/item/10031942/