Bird's-Eye View of Trenton, New Jersey
Large Panorama by T.M. Fowler, 1874

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Map of Trenton, New Jersey
Map of Trenton, New Jersey
Map of Trenton, New Jersey
Thaddeus Mortimer (T.M.) Fowler (1842-1922) (after)
Trenton, N.J.
Fowler & Bailey, Boston: 1874
H.J. Toudy & Co. Steam Lithography, Philadelphia (lithographer and printer)
Color tinted lithograph
22.5 x 31.75, image exclusive of text
28 x 34.75 inches, overall
31.5 x 38 inches, framed
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

A large bird’s-eye panorama of Trenton, New Jersey. It is one of the first bird's-eye city views produced by T.M. Fowler, in this case co-published with O.H. Bailey. It was lithographed in tones of green, blue and yellow by H.J. Toudy & Co., a Philadelphia firm known for its city views. The view gives a detailed and impressive image of the state capital with roads, waterways, green spaces and individual buildings from small homes to industrial and institutional buildings. Twenty-five civic buildings and businesses are identified in a numbered key in the lower margin, along with 22 churches labeled with letters. Above the map's title is an inset illustration of Dolton's Block. Another print from this edition is in the collection of the Trenton Public Library.

The period from after the Civil War to about 1910 was the heyday of promotional bird’s-eye views of American towns. Historians estimate that approximately 4,500 different ones were produced nationwide during this period. In an era before aviation, the creation of these panoramic maps was an act of imagination, combining information from city maps, ground-level sketches of buildings and the rules of Renaissance perspective into a convincing aerial view. Some were commissioned to promote settlement and development of towns, especially as part of the Westward Expansion of the United States. They were also purchased by residents as emblems of civic pride. American bird’s-eye views were largely supplanted by aerial photographs in the 20th century. Few records remain of the size of the press runs for panoramic maps, but it has been surmised that they were perhaps as few as 100 for a small town, though a typical edition was about 500 copies. Given these small editions and their ephemeral nature, many are now quite scarce.

Thaddeus M. Fowler was a leading artist and lithographer of views, during the heyday of promotional bird’s-eye views of American towns, just after the Civil War to the turn of the century. His work is admired for its precise renderings and attention to cartographic and historical detail. He is likely the most prolific of all the American view makers, with over 400 to his credit during a 54-year career. Fowler’s output included 220 separate views of 199 towns in Pennsylvania, as well as locations in at least 21 states and three Canadian provinces. To put this figure in context, he was responsible for over 10% of the 1,726 panoramic maps recorded in a checklist produced by the Library of Congress in 1984. Perhaps the largest collection of Fowler views belongs to the Library of Congress, which has over 200, with another major collection in the library of the Pennsylvania State University Library, University Park.

Fowler was a colorful figure who ran away from home at age 15, and at 17 convinced military authorities to let him join the Union Army. Wounded in battle, he was discharged, and showed his entrepreneurial proclivity by traveling between army camps taking photographs of soldiers for them to send home. Fowler began his career as a producer of town views in 1868 as a subscription agent for panoramic mapmaker Albert Ruger, traveling throughout the nation sketching towns for prints. Later he established his own business and crisscrossed the U.S. and Canada, drumming up business and making the drawings for panoramic maps. Eventually he integrated photography into his working process. Fowler worked either independently or with various co-publishers, including O.H. Bailey, a Boston printer (operating as Fowler & Bailey), Thomas J. Bulger (as Fowler & Bulger) and James B. Moyer in Pennsylvania (as Fowler & Moyer). He died at age 80 after falling on an icy street while preparing a view of Middletown, New York.

H.J. Toudy was a Philadelphia lithography firm operating from 1865 to 1878. Established by Henry J. Toudy and William Toudy, the firm produced all kinds of lithographs but was especially known for its maps, atlases and city views. Prints by Toudy include one of the earliest views of Salt Lake City (1867), 13 full-color city view prints for "The Centennial Book of the Signers" (1872), and a number of views of the grounds of the Centennial exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the nation's founding. The firm was very successful until it was destroyed by fire in 1878.

Full publication information: "Published by Fowler & Bailey. Lith. & Printed by H.J. Toudy & Co. Steam Lith. Phila."

References:

"American Panoramic Artists and Publishers." Library of Congress. 20 June 1997. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml/panart.html#AR (22 February 2012).

Deák, Gloria Gilda. Picturing America. Princeton University Press: 1989. Items 847, 863 and 878.

Hébert, John R., ed., rev. by Patrick E. Dempsey. Panoramic Maps of Cities in the United States and Canada. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1984. pp. 5-8.

Reps, John William. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada, 1825-1925. p. 177. Online at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=3mI1wvk_o3cC&dq (15 February 2012).

Wise, Donald A. “Bird’s-Eye Views of Oklahoma Towns.” Originally published in The Chronicles of Oklahoma, vol. 67, no. 3 (Fall 1989): 228- 247. Online Compilation of Historical Documents by Don Wise. 4 June 1998. http://home.earthlink.net/~dawise/view.htm (7 December 2004).