BIRCH, William R. (1755-1834); Thomas BIRCH (1779-1851); William BARKER (1770-1805)

Plan of the City of 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 17 inches.

Plate 3 from the very rare first American colour-plate book, with views that are "uniquely valuable among American historical prints" (Martin Snyder).

The plan presents Philadelphia at the close of its decade as the national capital, with the city proper set between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers and the adjoining districts of Northern Liberties and Southwark marked at the margins. The rectilinear street grid, public squares, wards, wharves, and principal open spaces are clearly indicated, while the built-up density along the Delaware waterfront contrasts with the more open western blocks toward the Schuylkill. The scale is given as "100 Perches to an Inch," emphasising the plan's practical cartographic character within a book otherwise devoted to views of streets, public buildings, markets, churches, and civic life. As a separate surviving plate, this map is especially appealing for the way it distils Birch's larger civic project into a single image. The elaborate script title and emblematic arms align it with the decorative vocabulary of the view book, while Barker's compact urban engraving records the street plan, waterfront orientation, and municipal divisions of Philadelphia at the moment when the federal capital was passing to Washington. 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 3a).

Item #42953

Price: $3,500.00