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Fitz Henry Lane
HISTORICAL ARCHIVE • CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ • EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
Catalog entry
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inv. 485
View of Providence, R. I. 1848
1849–52 Colored lithograph on paper 10 3/16 x 15 1/2 in. (25.9 x 39.4 cm) Sheet: 12 5/8 x 17 7/8 in. (32 x 45.3 cm.) Inscribed across bottom: Printed under image left to right: F. H. Lane del., Scott's Lith., 16 Tremont Temple Boston
Collections:
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Supplementary Images
A Map of the City of Providence,
1849.
Courtesy of Harvard College Library
Photo: © Cushing & Walling
Exhibition History
John Wilmerding, William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, Maine, Fitz Hugh Lane 1804-1805, July 12–September 15, 1974., no. 4, lent by the Boston Athenaeum. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)].
Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, The Eden of America: Rhode Island Landscapes, 1820–1920, January 24–April 27, 1986. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)].
Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts, New England Historical Prints: The Charles E. Mason, Jr., Collection, September–October 1991. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)].
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Drawn From Nature & on Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane, October 7, 2017–March 4, 2018. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)].
Published References
fig. 12, View of Providence, R. I. 1848. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)].
Fitz Hugh Lane 1804-1865. Rockland, ME: William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, 1974., no. 4, ill. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)].
Reps, John W. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada, Notes on the Artists and Publishers, and a Union Catalog of their Work,1825-1925. Columbia: University of Missouri Press., no. 3872, p.503.
Crossman, Carl L. "Lithographs of Fitz Hugh Lane." In American Maritime Prints, edited by Elton W. Hall. New Bedford, MA: The Whaling Museum by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1987, pp. 63–94. The Proceedings of the Eighth Annual North American Print Conference held at the Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Mass., May 6–7, 1977., fig. 12, p. 85. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)]. ⇒ includes 
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Pierce, Sally, and Catharina Slautterback. Boston Lithography, 1825–1880: The Boston Atheneaum Collection. Boston: Boston Athenaeum, 1991. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)].
Barnhill, Trafton. Drawn from Nature & on Stone: the Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum, 2017., fig. 59, text, p. 35, View of Providence, R. I. 1848. [Impression: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)]. ⇒ includes text
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Barnhill, Georgia B. "Fitz Henry Lane and Coastal New England." Imprint: Journal of the American Historical Print Collectors Society Volume 46, Number 2 (Autumn 2021)., fig. 2. ⇒ includes text
textImpression information
Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)
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Photo: Boston Athenaeum (inv. 430)
Inscribed across bottom: Printed under image left to right: F. H. Lane del., Scott's Lith., 16 Tremont Temple Boston.
Boston Athenaeum, Anonymous gift in honor of Charles E. Mason, Jr., 1972 (1972.6)
Provenance
Boston Athenaeum, October 1972
Commentary
Drawn by Lane, this lithograph was printed by Scott after Lane had left the firm around 1848. It is possible that Lane designed this print but that it was transferred to the stone by another artist.
When Lane visited Providence, he saw but the early stages of a concourse of railroad and shipping lines which would reach far inland and along the Eastern Seaboard. Located at the head of Narragansett Bay, this city was well situated to link inland transportation with maritime enterprise and become the dominant trading and industrial port in southeastern New England.
To make the drawing for this lithograph, Lane would have been standing on the west shore of the Providence River (whose mouth was an extension of Narragansett Bay) in the adjacent town of Cranston, looking north-northeast. At far right, the harbor branches eastward, where it is joined to the Seekonk River. At center is its north end, lined on the east side by many finger piers. The west side is dominated by heavy industry, to judge from the large buildings and smokestacks, built for machinery and tool making.
Lane shows the west side still in the early stages of development, building out the shore line to reach deeper water as evidenced by the Allen Avenue causeway which runs north-south in a straight line. The ponds created by this new street would be filled to create new land for future enterprises. That process is already under way, to judge from the partial removal of the hill in the left foreground. By 1871, tracks for the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad would occupy the causeway, while tracks for the Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad would line the eastern shore.
The importance of this city gave ample reason for Lane’s visit, which could have been made in 1848, or possibly the preceding year. If in 1847, he may also have visited Norwich, Connecticut to make a drawing of that city, taking advantage of rail connections in that region. If this was the case, the Providence view was the higher priority, Lane retaining the Norwich view for publication in 1849 by Albert Conant (See View of Norwich, from the West Side of the River, 1849 (inv. 454)).
Lane’s view of Providence was published by John W. A. Scott, possibly their last joint venture.
While Scott is regarded as having drawn the image on stone, the images and details of vessels in the harbor, however distant, show the attention to watercraft that only Lane could have given.
–Erik Ronnberg