Description
The Pennsylvania Coat of Arms is illustrated in the top center. In each of the four corners, respectively, are portraits of William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, and Benjamin Rush. In the bottom are inset maps of Philadelphia and of Pittsburgh shaded in full color, as well as illustrations of Washington crossing the Delaware after the famous painting by Emmanuel Leutze, and of Independence Hall. The seven historical and statistical tables in the top and bottom portions of the map include History; Government, Qualifications of Voters, Forest Trees; Physical Aspect, Religious Denominations; Minerals; Population of Pennsylvania; Special Laws; Professions, Occupations, Nativities, Births, Marriages and Deaths; Public Schools; Academies and Other Schools.
This broadside illustrated map is apparently quite rare. We were able to locate only one institutional example which is in the Library of Congress. The same publishers also issued a Pictorial New York broadside in a similar format in 1855 that is also quite rare. The New York example is on our website here.
Timothy and Edward Ensign were partners in a New York City printing firm, active in a series of partnerships between 1841 and 1861, working with Phelps and Humphrey, as Ensigns & Thayer (with Horace Thayer), and finally, as Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning. Over their career they produced a number of notable prints on subjects from American history as well as maps and U.S. traveler’s guides.
Full publication information: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning, in Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
Condition: Generally very good, with some very light foxing mostly confined to the margins, and a few short marginal tears, professionally restored verso
References:
Groce, George C. and Wallace, David H. The New-York Historical Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969. p. 15.
Peters, Harry T. America on Stone. US.: Doubleday, Doran, 1931. pp. 181, 325.
