Detail View: JCB Archive of Early American Images: Back of the State House, Philadelphia.

Accession number: 
65-230
Record number: 
65-230-23
JCB call number: 
*D800 B617 / 1-SIZE (copy 2)
Image title: 
Back of the State House, Philadelphia.
Creator 1: 
William Birch & son
Creator 1 role: 
Drawn Engraved & Published by
Place image published: 
Philadelphia
Image publisher: 
Sold by R. Campbell & Co. No. 30 Chesnut Street
Image date: 
1799
Image function: 
plate [22]
Technique: 
engraving, hand coloring
Image dimension height: 
21.8 cm.
Image dimension width: 
28.5 cm.
Page dimension height: 
33.5 cm.
Page dimension width: 
40.3 cm.
Materials medium: 
ink, colors
Materials support: 
paper
Languages: 
English
Description: 
View of the back of the State House with other public buildings in the background. In the foreground a group of native Americans with feathered headdresses talk.
Source creator: 
Birch, William & Son
Source Title: 
The city of Philadelphia, in the state of Pennsylvania North America: as it appeared in the Year 1800 consisting of twenty eight plates
Source place of publication: 
[Philadelphia]
Source publisher: 
Published by W. Birch, Springland Cot, near Neshaminy Bridge on the Bristol Road
Source date: 
1800
notes: 
The State House, or Independence Hall, built in 1732 to 1748, was the site of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, where British troops were quartered during the occupation of Philadelphia, and where the Constitutional Convention assembled in 1787. Between 1750 and 1753 a tower with a wooden steeple was added to the State House, as was a clock by Thomas Stretch. That steeple was replaced with a hip roof and finial, seen here. To the right of the State House is Philosophical Hall, built from 1786 to 1789 by the American Philosophical Society. From 1794 to 1811, it was known as Peale's Museum, a portrait gallery and museum of natural history. Library Hall (plate 19) is in the distance.
Time Period: 
1751-1800
Visual categories: 
topographical views
References: 
Teitelman, S. R. Birch's Views of Philadelphia, plate 22; Snyder, M.P. "William Birch," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 73, p. 271-315
Provenance/Donor: 
Acquired in 1965.
Owner and copyright: 
©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912
geographic area: 
North America
Subject Area: 
Artifacts, industry, and human activities
Subject Area: 
Geography, maps, city views and plans
Subject Area: 
Indigenous peoples
Subject headings: 
Indians of North America
Subject headings: 
Philadelphia (Pa.)--Pictorial works