Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - untitled (map of New York and Brooklyn)

Preview image of work. color lithograph on paper, untitled (map of New York and Brooklyn) 13040

2003.11.48

Recommend keywords

Help us make our collections more accessible by providing keywords to describe this artwork. The BCMA uses the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus to provide consistent keywords. Enter a keyword in the field below and you will be prompted with a list of possible matching AAT preferred terms.

untitled (map of New York and Brooklyn)

Export record as: Plain text | JSON | CDWA-Lite | VRA Core 4

Artist

J.H. Locher (19th century - )

Title

untitled (map of New York and Brooklyn)

Creation Date

n.d.

Century

mid-19th century

Dimensions

25 1/2 in. x 31 1/2 in. (64.77 cm x 80.01 cm)

Object Type

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

color lithograph on paper

Credit Line

Bequest of William H. Alexander

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2003.11.48

This sweeping bird’s eye view captures the bustling vitality of New York City in the 1850s, offering a snapshot of Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Governor’s Island prior to the city’s expansion in the years after the Civil War. Tall buildings and church towers are presented alongside commercial docks, encompassing the activity and industry that characterized the young metropolis. Published by J. H. Locher, the composition was modelled after a lithograph originally drawn by John Bachmann, a Swiss-American artist whose signature aerial views incited contemporary interest in urban landscapes. Bachmann utilized a fabricated vantage point to convey at once the vastness and density of this new urban center. A noteworthy detail is the inclusion of Castle Garden at the end of a pier, which became the first U.S. immigration station in 1855.