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

Pennsylvania Hospital, in Pine Street Philadelphia

Pennsylvania: W. Birch, Springland Cot, near Neshaminy Bridge on the Bristol Road, 1799. Hand-coloured copper engraving on laid paper. Sheet size: 13 7/8 x 17 inches.

Plate 26 from the very rare first American colour-plate book, with views that are "uniquely valuable among American historical prints" (Martin Snyder).

This finely composed view shows Pennsylvania Hospital from Pine Street, set behind its brick perimeter wall and framed by mature trees. Birch gives the scene the character of a lived urban space: pedestrians pass along the wall, a mounted figure and attendant occupy the shaded foreground, and the hospital buildings rise beyond with careful attention to their Georgian and Federal architectural forms. Pennsylvania Hospital, founded in 1751 by Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin, was the first chartered hospital in what became the United States. Birch's view records the institution at an important moment in its architectural development, shortly after the addition of the west wing in 1796 and before the 1804 completion of the central section. 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 26a).

Item #42958

Price: $1,800.00