Rosenthal, Max. Plate 35. [Harvard University, Cambridge Mass]

Attributed to Max Rosenthal.  Plate 35.  [Harvard University, Cambridge Mass]. 

From the United States Drawing Book.  Philadelphia, 1839.   6 ½ x 10 ¼ (image).  Lithograph by J.T. Bowen.  Printed at an angle.   Full margins.  Very light mat burn in margins.  Short tear in upper left-hand margin repaired with archival tape. Four short jagged tears in left-hand margin where page was once bound into publication.  Else, very good condition.  Extremely scarce.  Provenance:  Richard Norris Williams II Class of 1916; Quincy N. Williams Class of 1953.   With manuscript description on old frame paper backing written by Richard Norris Williams II.  A/A  

Hamilton Vaughan Bail in his Views of Harvard calls this “an extremely scarce view.” (p. 195).   It was prepared without credits by John T. Bowen, a publisher in Philadelphia best known for his work with printing and coloring Audubon’s great book of mammals as well as his octavo editions of the birds and quadrupeds. 

According to Bail, writing in 1949, only three copies of the entire book and two copies of the individual print are known to exist.  He further states that the identity of the artist is uncertain (suspecting Max Rosenthal), but from Bail’s own illustrations one can see a reworking of the left half of the Pierce view of 1833 showing Holworthy, Stoughton, Holden Chapel, Hollis, Harvard Hall, and University Hall.  This view is on a larger scale and has more detail, and it is scarce because all the drawing books from the first half of the nineteenth century must have been used heavily, dispatched, and destroyed.  See also: Carl W. Drepperd, American Drawing Books (New York, 1946).

J. T. Bowen arrived in Philadelphia in 1837 in order to take over the lithography for the famous McKenney & Hall History of the Indian Tribes of North America.  Bowen soon established himself as the foremost lithographer in the city.  Besides commissioned work, Bowen tried his hand at separately issued publications and prints such as this one. 

Max Rosenthal (1833-1918), born in Russian Poland, studied lithography in Paris at 13, and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1849 or 1850.  An active lithographer working with his brothers Louis, Morris and Simon, he also taught mezzotint engraving and oil painting in his later years.  He is best known for a series of more than 500 etching, lithograph and mezzotint portraits executed with his son Albert.