Historical Materials

John Henry Bufford (1810–70) was a prominent Boston lithographer working from 1829–70. Bufford began his lithographic career as an apprentice at Pendleton's Lithography in 1829–34. By the end of his time at Pendleton's he was regarded as Pendleton's best draftsman. In 1835, Bufford moved to New York and established his first lithographic firm, it was a failure. After marrying Anne Melora Thayer in 1836, Bufford returned to Boston because of family ties and professional opportunity in 1840. He spent the rest of his life running his own firm, J. H. Bufford, and then a joint venture with his sons under the title J. H. Bufford & Sons. His firms sold prints, photographs, passe-partouts, photo albums, picture frames, and maps. For most of the 1850s and 1860s his shop was located on Washington Street. 

This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825–1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback.