BIRCH, William R. (1755-1834); Thomas BIRCH (1779-1851)

Congress Hall and New Theatre, in Chesnut Street Philadelphia

Pennsylvania: W. Birch, Springland Cot, near Neshaminy Bridge on the Bristol Road, c. 1800. Hand-coloured copper engraving on laid paper. Sheet size: 13 7/8 x 16 7/8 inches.

Plate 20 from the very rare first American colour-plate book, with views that are "uniquely valuable among American historical prints" (Martin Snyder).

Birch's view records one of the most charged civic settings in the early republic. Congress Hall appears at left, the building in which the United States Congress met from 1790 to 1800 while Philadelphia served as the temporary national capital. The House of Representatives met on the first floor and the Senate upstairs; George Washington took the oath for his second term there, and John Adams' inauguration marked the first peaceful transfer of presidential power. Across Chestnut Street stands the New Theatre, later known as the Chestnut Street Theatre or "Old Drury." Opened in 1794, it became a central site for Philadelphia's theatrical culture, staging both British plays and works by American playwrights. Its placement opposite Congress Hall gives the plate particular resonance: Birch sets the institutions of government and public entertainment in direct visual conversation, while vendors, pedestrians, and carriage traffic animate the foreground. This plate is taken from the first and one of the most important of all American color plate books, the first book to be entirely produced and published in the United States. William Russell Birch, who conceived this splendid celebration of the city of Philadelphia, then the largest city in the United States, was a native of England. When he arrived in America in 1794, he brought with him a strong academic training in art which he used to found an engraving firm. Birch hoped that his carefully planned and executed portfolio would serve as an advertisement "by which an idea of the improvements of the country could be conveyed to Europe, to promote and encourage settlers to the establishment of trade and commerce."

Martin P. Snyder, "William Birch: His Philadelphia Views," in Pennsylvania Magazine of History, Vol. 73, No. 3, July 1949 (Snyder 20).

Item #42949

Price: $2,500.00