McIntire, Henry B. "Welch's National Circus. Chestnut Street below Ninth, Philadelphia."

Henry B. McIntire. "Welch's National Circus. Chestnut Street below Ninth, Philadelphia."

Ca. 1950. 9 1/2 x 13 3/4. Aquatone process. Full margins. Signed in pencil by the artist. With original label describing the building and its history. Very good condition. 

Welch’s National Circus was built in 1837, on a lot on the South side of Chestnut Street, which from the time of Penn’s Landing had been vacant.  It was designed as a building in which equestrian exhibitions were to be given together with a theatrical entertainment.  The building caught fire in 1854 and was completely destroyed.  The lot stood idle for a few years and in 1857 the Continental Hotel was erected upon it.  This hotel was replaced by the present Benjamin Franklin Hotel in 1925.  

Henry B. McIntire was an architectural illustrator flourishing in Philadelphia in the 1950s.  He was active in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and prepared checklists of the historical prints in the collection (published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography in 1942) as well as a listing of holdings of the drawings and watercolors of David J. Kennedy.  He published in a lithographic process that he called “aquatone” to produce new prints of historical subjects that resembled old lithographs.  They are soft and lovely with a close attention to architectural detail.