Engel, (Louis) William "Dane Law-School, Cambridge Mass” [Harvard University]

(Louis) William Engel.  “Dane Law-School, Cambridge Mass.”  [Harvard University] 

Boston, circa. 1852-54. 6 1/4 x 7 1/4.  Lithograph.  Mounted on another sheet with lithographed decorative borders.  Some waving in paper due to two pieces of paper adhered.  Very scarce.  

A lovely architectural rendering, this view of the Harvard University Law School shows the building after 1845 when a long transverse ell was added.  The architecture of the building is carefully depicted, and a horse drawn bus that ran from Cambridge to Boston is shown in the foreground.  Evidently this is a very scarce print as described in Hamilton Vaughan Bail’s Views of Harvard, page 232, plate 62.  Perhaps for an album or portfolio.  The Boston Athenaeum has this print in a curious book titled Hartshorn’s Commercial Tables by John Hartshorn (Boston, 1852) with others by Engel.  The Athenaeum also has a lithograph by Engel with the lithographed decorative border.

See Pierce and Slautterback, Boston Lithography, p. 171 for information on Engel.  We find this lithographer absent from the usual sources, such as Peters, Deak, Stark, and Whitehill & Kennedy.  A scarce city view.