Description

169. Thomas Beckman. “Thomas Calvert: Early Life, Innovative Technology.” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), 2-18

Beckman examines Thomas Calvert’s life and multiple business activities during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, from his immigration from England in 1849 and the founding of his first graphic arts firm in Philadelphia in 1852 until he incorporated The Calvert Lithographing, Engraving and Map Publishing Company in 1867, a firm that “was to dominate the lithographic market in Detroit” and continue long after his death in 1900. Beckman describes a printmaking process Calvert’s firms used frequently in the 1850s and 1860s, the printing of cameo stamps, small metal engravings impressed in color on business cards, billheads, envelopes, and the like. Little attention was afforded this process until Beckman “rediscovered” it.

170. Georgia B. Barnhill. “The Marketing and Collecting of Prints in New York, 1825-1861,” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), 19-29.

Barnhill uses such documentary evidence as newspaper reports and advertisements, prospectuses, and auction catalogs to explore how prints were marketed and collected in New York City between 1825 and 1861. She describes the tastes and interests of several prominent early collectors, including Shearjashbub Spooner, Edward B. Corwin, James Augustus Suydam, Andrew Jackson Downing, Alexander J. Davis, and Lumen Reed. The tastes of New York’s elite during this period favored European works, particularly reproductive prints; whereas artists formed their collections to aid them in their work.

171. Wendy Shadwell. “Double-Sided Prints.” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003),30-35.

In her years as Curator of Prints at the New-York Historical Society, Shadwell came across several sheets printed on front and back with unrelated images. She focuses here on three such “double-sided prints” and speculates about why they were made. The prints dealt with are Truxton’s Victory [1799] and a proof of G. Washington in his last Illness [1800]; Wreck of the Steamer Oregon (1846); a Family Register and Henriette Sonntag (ca. 1852); and The Discord (1855).

172. William C. Cook. “The Thrill of Collecting-It Never Ends: Coffin Handbills Update.” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), 36-38.

Soon after Cook published his article in the Spring 2002 Imprint on the anti-Jackson Coffin Handbills and prints of the presidential campaign of 1848, he learned of two other prints bearing on his subject. One was a print titled Hero of Two Wars, which is very similar to the David Claypoole Johnston print titled Richard III discussed in his article, but without any attribution of artist, engraver, or publisher. The second print, a caricature of Napoleon by John Kay after Johann Michael Voltz titled Governor of the Island of Elba (1814) evidently served as Johnston’s inspiration.