Lehman, George “The Great Elm Tree of Shackamaxon (Now Kensington)”

George Lehman.  “The Great Elm Tree of Shackamaxon (Now Kensington).” 

Philadelphia, ca. 1829.   First state.  Aquatint by G. Lehman.  12 1/2 x 18 1/2 (image) plus margins.  Repaired tear in image just above man standing by fence.  Repaired tears in top and bottom margins.  Light diagonal crease in bottom margin left hand side.  Else, very good condition.  Fielding: 951; Fowble: 258; Snyder: 589.  

George Lehman was a Philadelphia painter, engraver, lithographer and publisher from the late 1820’s until his death in 1870.  Born in Lancaster County, Lehman exhibited some of his drawings at the Pennsylvania Academy between 1825 and 1831.  About 1831 he worked as a lithographer for Childs & Inman, later forming publishing partnerships with C.G. Childs and P.S. Duval. 

Perhaps his first work of importance is this lovely view of Philadelphia from Kensington.  Though this scene is similar works by William Birch and John James Barralet, Lehman drew his own image of this popular view-point.  The famous Treaty Tree stands majestically in the center of the image, with the bustling port of Philadelphia seen in the distance beneath the tree’s branches.  There are many boats on the river, and a sailing ship is being constructed on the beach at left.  A number of pedestrians are shown in the foreground, including an artist sitting beneath the tree making a sketch.  Interestingly, a family of goats seems to have lived around the Treaty Tree, for Barralet showed goats in his watercolor of 1796, and three goats are also shown in Lehman’s view, one walking along a branch of the tree itself.