Queen after Osborn "Allentown, Pa."

James Queen after ambrotypes by H.P. Osborn.  “Allentown, Pa. Situated on the Lehigh River at the junction of the East Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley Rail Roads.”  From History of the Lehigh Valley… 

Easton, PA: Bixler & Corwin, 1860.  5 3/4 x 14 ¾ (image).  Lithograph by P.S. Duval & Son.  Full margins.  With folds as originally issued.  Very good condition.  Rare.  Not listed in Reps, Views and Viewmakers of Urban America.  A/A

Allentown was laid out in 1762 by William Allen, chief justice of Pennsylvania, and was first known as Northampton.  It was renamed Allentown in 1838 and is the seat of Lehigh County.  The print was drawn by Philadelphia artist James Fuller Queen based on ambrotypes by H.P. Osborn.  The prosperous city is shown from a field with cows and a horse grazing in the foreground.  A railroad bridge is shown at right.

The print was drawn by Philadelphia artist James Fuller Queen based on ambrotypes by H.P. Osborn.  James Queen, a native Philadelphian, was apprenticed as a lithographer to the firm of Lehman & Duval in 1835, when he was just fifteen.  Queen soon became an accomplished lithographic artist, establishing himself as Duval’s principal draftsman.  He drew views, disasters, portraits, music covers, advertisements, certificates, illustrations and any other subject Duval needed.  During the Civil War, when artists were in short supply, Duval wrote to a friend: “James Queen is still with us and is now one of the best artists in the country.”