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Washington on His Way to Pittsburg
George Washington was a great favorite with nineteenth-century printmakers. Most often he was depicted in the roles that endeared him to the American people: as a general in the Revolutionary War, as the first president of the United States, or as a…
American Autumn, Starucca Valley, Erie R Road
In January 1867, Jasper Cropsey's large painting titled Starrucca Viaduct (said to have been fourteen feet wide) was offered as third prize in the famous Crosby Opera House lottery. The Chicago theater's owner, distilling magnate U. H. Crosby, went…
The Great Conemaugh Valley Disaster—Flood and Fire at Johnstown, Pa.
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River in southwest Pennsylvania, which held back the Lake Conemaugh reservoir, about fourteen miles upstream from Johnstown, failed after an unusually torrential rainfall. A little after…
Punxsutawney
Although the first settlers-other than Native Americans-came to the Punxsutawney area in the early nineteenth century, growth was relatively slow. By 1850 the town’s population had reached barely 100 inhabitants. The predominant industries were…
View of Ephrata
To anyone interested in bird’s-eye views of Pennsylvania towns during the late nineteenth century, the name of Thaddeus Fowler appears on a seemingly endless number of panoramic images. He was the most prolific of all the view makers, drawing and…
Pittsburgh
Thaddeus Fowler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He ran away from home at age fifteen, and four years later he enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. Wounded at the Battle of Bull Run, he was honorably discharged in 1863 and…
Clearfield
Clearfield was named after the numerous open fields, thought to have been cleared by bison that once roamed western Pennsylvania, that were discovered where what today is known as Clearfield Creek flows into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.…
Homestead
Homestead, located about seven miles south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River, was home to the Homestead Steel Works, the smoking conglomeration of buildings located here in the upper left, along the banks of the river. In the summer of 1892, the…
Pennsylvania Railroad Car Shops
The Pennsylvania Railroad founded Altoona specifically as a location for the repair and new construction of its locomotives and freight and passenger cars. The facilities, begun in 1850 and expanded continuously throughout the following seventy-five…
Catasauqua, Pa.
This representation of Catasauqua, in 1873 already a fairly substantial town located on the Lehigh River just east of Allentown, provides the perfect model for demonstrating the often complicated history behind the production of bird's-eye views. For…