Philadelphia on Stone

“Philadelphia on Stone demonstrates very clearly the key role that Philadelphia played in the history of American lithography in the nineteenth century. The eight essays interweave to tell a complex and compelling story that encompasses many different aspects of the nineteenth-century lithographic printing trade: landscape prints and city views, portraits, prints that depict sensational news events, illustrations for books and periodicals, and a vast panoply of advertising work. The biographical essays on the artist James Queen and the lithographer and publisher Peter S. Duval bring to life two men of extraordinary talent who were responsible for Philadelphia’s unique contribution to the evolution of lithography. Much of what Erika Piola and her colleagues have to say about lithography in Philadelphia is equally true of lithography as it developed in other cities across the nation, and so this book, which sets out to recount what happened in a specific place, comes very close to being a comprehensive history of lithography in America as a whole. It is sure to become a classic.” —Nancy Finlay, Curator of Graphics, The Connecticut Historical Society

“Philadelphia on Stone is a sumptuously illustrated book that brings new discoveries and fresh perspectives to the cultural history of Philadelphia. This broadly contextualized examination of printing expands our understanding of the production and consumption of visual culture in a major urban center.” —Anne Verplanck, Penn State Harrisburg

“The Philadelphia on Stone project and this accompanying volume move the topic of lithography in Philadelphia forward in important ways, connecting business history, labor history, and the consumption of prints to form a new basis for understanding the medium’s contributions to visual culture.” —Helena Wright, author of Prints at the Smithsonian