A View of the Federal Hall of the City of New York, as Appeared in the Year 1797 (Print)

George Holland; Henry R. Robinson; C. Currier

H.R. Robinson [?], 1898

Mounted lithograph, in wooden frame, under glass. Framed Dimensions: 22 5/8 x 27 inches.  Image dimensions: 16 x 20 1/2 inches.  Important note: Date is just an estimate, not examined out of glass, could be 1865. 

"In this Lower Manhattan street scene as it looked in the late eighteenth century, Federal Hall with its cupola topped by a weathervane appears at the upper end of Broad Street, which was lined with adjoining colonial houses built in the Dutch and English periods. Originally erected before the American Revolutionary War, this stately building had been re-designed in a neo-classical style by Pierre Charles L'Enfant for the occasion of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States on 30 April 1789, which took place on its iron grillwork balcony. In this view, the steeple of St. Paul's is visible above the rooftops at left; and the tip of the cupola of the First Presbyterian Church peeks over the gable of a tall house. Only three people are depicted: a man pushing a cart at lower left, a man on the sidewalk in the left middleground, and a third man on the steps of Federal Hall.   This popular print after a 1797 watercolor by John Joseph Holland was made by Charles Currier. His older brother Nathaniel Currier established a successful New York-based lithography firm in 1835, which produced thousands of prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history." - Metropolitan Museum of Art, 68.724.51.  The 1847 printed was Exhibited in "Creating the United States" at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2008-2009. Refs:  LOC 91481734.  Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, compiled from original sources. 1915, vol. I, pl. 67.  Harry T. Peters Currier & Ives, Printmakers to the American People. 2 vols., Garden City, NY, 1931, cat. no. 4043.  Gale Research Company, Bernard F. Reilly Jr. Currier & Ives, A Catalogue Raisonne: A comprehensive catalogue of the lithographs of Nathaniel Currier, James Merritt Ives and Charles Currier, including ephemera associated with the firm, 1834-1907. 1984, cat. no. 6926.  Citing earlier editions.