Thaddeus M. Fowler (1842-1922) and Thomas J. Bulger (after)
View of College Point, L.I. 1876
Fowler & Bulger: 1876
D. H. Vogt, Milwaukee (lithograph printer)
Tinted lithograph
19.75 x 28 inches, overall
$1,250

Centennial bird’s-eye view of College Point, Long Island, now a neighborhood in north central Queens.  Individual buildings are depicted, along with street names, pedestrians, boats, and horse carriages.  The East River and/or Flushing Bay are shown bustling with a number of sail boats and ships.  Shore land shown in the distance is probably the Bronx.  A lithograph by Fowler & Bulger of Hempstead, Long Island, with the same publication date is in the collection of the New York Public Library and documented in Picturing America by Gloria Gilda Deák.

The bottom margin has a decorative cartouche in the Aesthetic Movement/Eastlake style.  A number of buildings are numbered and identified in a reference section in the lower margin.  Included are public schools, churches, Boulevard Hotel, and various industries, as follows:

1. Poppenhusen Institute, 2. Fuerst’s Institute & Boarding School, 3. Public Schools, 4. German Reformed Church, 5. Episcopal Church, 6. Catholic Church, 7. Lutheran Church, 8. Boulevard Hotel, J. M. Donnelly Prep., 9. Enterprise Rubber Works, 10. Silk Factory, 11. Hirsch & Co. College Point Brewery, 12. H. Webers Brewery, 13. E. W. Karker’s Planing Mill, 14. Enterprise Pottery, M. Schmidt, Prop., 15. Jacob Seis Pottery, 16. G. Ilch’s Kindling Wood Manuf’y., 17. R. R. Depot & Shops

College Point got its name as the site of the former St. Paul’s College, an Episcopal seminary long ago closed.  In 1850, one of the major landowners sold 140 acres, which became the site of a village built four years later for workers at a hard-rubber factory.  Other industries took root such as breweries, silk mills and paint factories, and an influx of workers, mainly German immigrants, moved into the area in the 1880s and 90s.  Until Prohibition, College Point was also a popular recreation area, with its beer halls and amusement parks, especially Point View Island.  Eventually, the aircraft and aviation parts industry took hold.  In recent years, it is predominantly a residential area with some light industry.

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 some 4,500 views were produced nationwide during this period. In an era before aviation, the creation of these panoramas 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 of these views were commissioned to promote settlement and development of towns, especially as part of the Westward Expansion of the United States, but they were also purchased by residents as emblems of civic pride.  Hand-drawn views were largely supplanted by aerial photographs in the 20th Century.

Thaddeus M. Fowler was a leading artist and lithographer of views, considered by some historians to be the most prolific of all the American viewmakers, with over 400 to his credit. Perhaps the largest collection of them 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.  His work is admired for its careful drawing and subtle coloration.  Fowler began in 1868 as a subscription agent for the printmaker Albert Ruger, traveling throughout the nation sketching towns for prints, eventually working either independently or with various co-publishers.  He also later integrated photography into his working process. 

Condition:  Generally very good with the usual light overall toning, wear, light soiling, soft creases.  Few small chips and short tears to edges professionally restored as rebacked on supporting sheet, can be matted out.  Extremely faint mat burn, can be mounted out.

References:

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

“History of Queens, New York.”  Innsmart Guide to New York Bed & Breakfasts.”  http://www.innsmart.com/newyork/eastern/html/queens_history.html (9 September 2004).

Seyfried, Vincent. “College Point.” Encyclopedia of New York City. Kenneth T. Jackson. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.