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[BRETON, William F.] Railroad Depot at Philadelph

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[Philadelphia: c. 1832]. Lithograph (214 x 254 mm). Early manuscript inscription above the title: "The first train ran over this road November 23rd 1832." Condition: foxing, mat burn, remnants of prior mounting on verso. Provenance: Martin P. Snyder. rare separately-issued lithograph of the first passenger carrying railroad in the united states. "It was hardly later than 1833 that a lithograph not part of any book appeared, which, while it contains no name of artist or lithographer, by its style can only have been the work of Breton. It is full of interest. 'Railroad Depot at Philadelphia' shows the first Baldwin locomotive, Old Ironsides, standing before a building identified as the 'Philadelphia Germantown & Norristown Railway Depot' at Ninth and Green streets in the city. Passengers fill the one visible car, which looks much like a stagecoach . The key to attribution of the plate seems to rest with Watson, who at the time was a well-known citizen of Germantown, which had obtained the first railroad for Philadelphia because it wanted to be linked with the city ... It cannot be doubted that this signal accomplishment involved Watson, who in 1847 became an officer of the railroad company . The great event occurred on November 23, 1832, and we can readily imagine Breton sketching in the crowd as the train arrived from Germantown" (Snyder). first state. The image was subsequently used on sheet music titled the Rail Road Steam Galop. Snyder, "William Breton, Nineteenth Century Philadelphia Artist" in PMHB, vol. 85., no. 2; Wainwright 305; Wohl Collection 103 (second state).

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