Title: City of Davenport, Iowa: From the Original Picture in the Possession of Geo. L. Davenport.
Artist: Rufus Wright (1832 - 1875)
Multi-stone lithograph, c.1858.
Edition not noted.
Signed in lower right
Image size 16 1/2 x 27 5/8" (42 x 70 cm).

A handsome view of this important city.

This image shows Davenport from across the Mississippi River. It is based upon a painting by Rufus Wright, then in the possession of George L. Davenport, after whom the city was named. The first bridge across the Mississippi, built in 1858, is shown in the far right of the image. A steam train appears in the foreground pulling a freight car and two cars of passengers. A flat boat is in the river, along with several boats, including the steamboats Tishomingo and Keokuk & Davenport Packet Ben Campbell. A list of population counts in the lower margin documents the striking growth of the city over a 22-year period, from a tiny town of 60 people in 1836, to 16,677 residents in 1858.

Rufus Wright, artist, born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1832. He was a pupil at the National Academy, and studied also for a time under George A. Baker. His professional life has been spent in New York, Washington, and Brooklyn. In 1866 he was made a member of the Brooklyn Academy of design. His portraits include those of Roger B. Taney, Edwin M. Stanton, and William II. Seward. In about 1875, he turned his attention also to the painting of composition pictures, and has produced, among other works, "The Morning Bouquet" and "The Inventor and the Banker" (1876), "Thank you, Sir!" (1877), Concerned for his Sole" (1878), and "Feeding the Birds" (1880).

Condition: Poor condition. Mounted, upper portion of image cut off narrow to non existent side margins. Some stains and foxing.