come he will be remembered best through the pages of his diary-that confidant of his evening hours which has preserved for curious later-day inspection a picture of the daily life of a busy Massachusetts seaport at the high tide of its commercial growth.

SOME NOTES ON EARLY AMERICAN
LITHOGRAPHY

IT

BY CHARLES HENRY TAYLOR

T is most appropriate that a paper on early American lithography should be read in Boston, because in Massachusetts was born the man who produced the first lithograph, of record, in the United States, and because in Boston was developed the first lithographic business of any moment in this country, In this paper I have not attempted to give an exact chronology of early American lithography or to take up the technique of the lithographic process, but merely to present a few notes on the earliest lithographers and to mention some of their earliest productions.

BASS OTIS

Bass Otis was born in Bridgewater, Mass, July 17, 1784, in the section of the town then known as Scytheville. He was apprenticed to a scythemaker, but developed such talent for drawing portraits that his father put him into the studio of Gilbert Stuart in Boston, where he studied for three years, and became a portrait painter of considerable ability.

Bass Otis' lithograph in the Analectic Magazine for July, 1819, marks the beginning of American lithography. This lithograph of a mill scene with a pond in the foreground is more in the nature of an etching on stone, but it is signed "Bass Otis Lithographic." The plate is accompanied by a long article on lithography, which begins as follows: "In this number, we present our readers with a specimen of American Lithography: the design and execution from beginning to end—from the drawing to the impression inclusive -is by Mr. B. Otis; who, following the suggestions of

judge Cooper, and Dr. Brown, of Alabama, has by means of their hints, and his own more successful improvements, produced the specimen now submitted. The drawing was made on a stone from Munich, presented to the American Philosophical Society, by Mr. Thomas Dobson of this city.

A smaller lithograph, dated 1820, is the only other evidence of Mr. Otis' work in this line.

Bass Otis went from Boston to Philadelphia, and took with him letters of introduction from Stuart, who was well known in the Quaker City. While in Philadelphia he produced these two lithographs, and experimented with mezzotinting and aquatinting, as is proven by specimens of his work still in existence. His forte, however, was portrait painting, and he was in great vogue for the painting of likenesses of people after death, usually from descriptions by relatives and friends. This accounts for much of the variability in the technique of these portraits.

About 1837 he came to Boston, and is listed in the Boston directory for that year. He then returned to Philadelphia, and came back to Boston in 1846, and lived at 17 Bennet Street and 8 South Bennet Street until 1855, when he moved to 16 Kneeland Street for the years 1856-1857. He then returned to Philadelphia, and died there on November 3, 1861. Under Death Notices in the Philadelphia Press of November 6, 1861, appears: "OTIS-on the 3d inst. Mr. Bass Otis in the 77th year of his age."

BARNET & DOOLITTLE

Following Otis, and prior to 1825, Barnet & Doolittle in New York and Henry Stone of Washington produced lithographs.

In the American Journal of Science and Arts for October, 1821, appears the following:

Art. XIX. Notice of the Lithographic Art, or the art of multiplying designs, by substituting Stone for Copper Plate, with introductory remarks by the Editor.

All the drawings in the present number are printed on stone by Messrs. Barnet & Doolittle,' whom we are happy to introduce to our readers as artists in this comparatively new department. Having availed themselves in Paris of a regular course of practical instruction, they have brought to this country, not only the skill but the peculiar materials and press necessary to the execution of the art, and are now establishing themselves in New-York. The designs in this number are, by no means, presented as chef-d'œuvres in lithography, but merely as accurate representations of the objects, with sufficient neatness for designs of the class to which they belong. Messrs. Barnet & Doolittle have in their possession, a great variety of lithographic prints, which sufficiently evince the adaptedness of the art to an elegant as well as common style of execution. The finest things done in this way are really very beautiful; and they possess a softness which is peculiarly their own. Still Lithography is not a rival, it is merely an auxiliary to copper plate engraving, which, especially in the higher branches of the art, must still retain the pre-eminence which it possesses.

But the regular introduction of Lithography into this country must still be a subject of congratulation; and we trust the American public will give this fine art vigor by an adequate patronage.

Nothing is known about Barnet, and if either of the two went to Paris it must have been he. The firm is not listed in the New York Directories of the period. Doolittle must have been Amos Doolittle, the copperplate engraver, whose prints of the Battle of Lexington and Concord are so well known. Curiously enough the American Journal of Science and Arts gives us no further information about the early American development of lithography.

In 1822 J. V. Seaman published in New York, Sir James Edward Smith's "Grammar of Botany." The last paragraph under "Notice to the New York Edition" in this book reads:

The publisher feels a becoming gratification in informing the readers of the work, that the beautiful and appropriate drawings, which so highly embellish it, are specimens of American Lithograhpy. They are from the pencil of Mr. Stansbury,

1Their establishment is at No. 23 Lumber-street, and orders are addressed to them there, or through Messrs. A. T. Goodrich & Co., Booksellers, Broadway, New-York."

and were executed at the Lithographic Press of Barnet & Doolittle of this City.

This therefore was the first book containing lithographic plates published in America.

HENRY STONE

In 1823 there was published in Baltimore by James Lovegrove "The Timber Merchant's Guide." In the back of this book are a series of lithographs, showing how trees may be cut to the best advantage for ship timber, and each one of these prints is marked "Henry Stone, Lhtog. Er." There are thirty of these prints, and there is no reference anywhere in the book to the method of illustration, or anything about Henry Stone. He was, however, an engraver who lived in Washington, and did engraving on copper and afterward several pieces of lithographic work. "The Timber Merchants' Guide," is the second book published containing lithographic plates made in America.

J. B. MARTIN

Sometime before 1827 J. B. Martin was working as a lithographer in Richmond, Va. He was a miniature portrait painter and engraver by profession. He engraved in stipple in 1822. His lithograph portrait of John Randolph of Roanoke was printed by Cephas G. Childs, but is signed as "Drawn on Stone & Published by J. B. Martin, Richm'd." His lithographs appear in nos. 2 and 3 of the "Spirit of the Old Dominion" published in Richmond in 1827.

JOHN PENDLETON

We now come to the imporant period in Boston beginning with 1825. In the Boston News Letter of November 5, 1825, appears the following:

LITHOGRAPHY

This beautiful and highly useful art which has lately made great advancement in Europe, we are happy to announce is in successful operation in this city, being introduced by Mr. J. Pendleton, who has made it his study in Europe. Messrs.