Contact:
Greg Langel
Media and Marketing Manager
412-342-4075
[email protected]
For Immediate Release
FRICK ART & HISTORICAL CENTER ANNOUNCES
SPECIAL EXHIBITION OF RARE 19TH-CENTURY
VIEW OF PITTSBURGH
James T. Palmatary (American, active 1850s), Bird's Eye View of Pittsburgh, Allegheny &
Environs, 1859. Tinted lithograph on four sheets by George F. Schuchman & Co., Pittsburgh, 1859.
Published by James T. Palmatary. 43 x 85 in. The Hillman Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
PITTSBURGH, PA, August 11, 2015— The Frick Art & Historical Center announces that it will
present a special focus exhibition featuring James T. Palmatary’s Bird’s Eye View of Pittsburgh,
Allegheny & Environs, on loan for a limited time from The Hillman Company. The print will be
on display in The Frick Art Museum rotunda from August 18 through September 20, 2015.
Admission to The Frick Art Museum is free.
This rare, large, 1859 tinted lithograph is in remarkable condition and was recently rediscovered
and offered for sale at New York’s winter antique show, where The Hillman Company
purchased the print and brought it back to Pittsburgh. It is the better of only two known copies of
– more –
Palmatary’s monumental 4-sheet composition, the other is in the collection of the Duquesne Club
in Pittsburgh. The print is thought to be the largest and only multi-sheet view of Pittsburgh made.
James T. Palmatary (active 1850s) specialized in creating large-scale, frameable, panoramic
scenes of cities which he funded through subscription. Beginning in 1853, Palmatary traveled
from city to city, where he would take up temporary residence while making sketches, selling
subscriptions and working on combining his sketches into a finished composition. Subscription
print projects were not uncommon in the 19th-century. Selling subscriptions allowed artists and
printmakers to obtain at least partial funding, do advance marketing, and gauge public interest in
advance of completing a project. An attractive selling point for Palmatary’s prints was the
remarkable level of detail he obtained. He rendered with such specificity that individual
businesses could be identified in his work and he used this as an attraction, selling subscriptions
to business owners and in turn, including the name of their business legibly on his view. It is
likely that many of the businesses featured in the completed print would have displayed a copy
of the print prominently in their storefront or offices.
Early in 1859, the Daily Pittsburgh Gazette announced Palmatary’s planned project, stating that
he would:
…shortly publish a “Bird’s Eye View of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Birmingham, South
Pittsburgh, Sligo, Manchester and Lawrenceville.” The view will be similar in extent and
view to those which Mr. P. has already prepared of the cities of New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, etc…
In September 1859, Palmatary exhibited the sketches for 3 of the 4 sheets that would comprise
the view at the Artist’s Hall in Pittsburgh. A reporter for the Daily Pittsburgh Gazette saw the
sketches and reported:
…if you have Palmatary’s view of Pittsburgh before you , you are on Mt. Washington,
you have telescopic eyes, the smoke is all gone, the Allegheny unrolls itself to the North,
the Monongahela sweeps away South and East, the Ohio sparkles at your feet….
The elevated “bird’s eye” point of view allowed for considerable detail, and as promised in the
newspaper announcement, depicted “every street, square and lane in the two cities and boroughs,
2 with a correct and life like drawing of every public building, store, manufactory, and private
dwelling.” Palmatary’s process included making street-level drawings in various locations and
using a standard formula to adapt these images to appear as though seen from above.
Too large to frame, Palmatary’s finished work was intended to be displayed like a map, with a
linen backing and mounted on rollers. The Hillman Company’s version was never mounted or
varnished, leaving the four separate sheet in near pristine condition.
In 2008, in honor of Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary, the Frick Art & Historical Center organized
the exhibition, A Panorama of Pittsburgh: Nineteenth-Century Printed Views and published an
accompanying catalogue authored by print expert Christopher Lane. A Panorama of Pittsburgh
attempted to document every known 19th-century printed image of the city. The Duquesne
Club’s version of Palmatary’s print was included in that exhibition and catalogue. In the wake of
the research and effort that went into realizing that project, it’s extremely exciting to be able to
offer Pittsburghers an opportunity to see this newly discovered set of Palmatary’s prints.
ABOUT THE FRICK ART & HISTORICAL CENTER
Located on the Pittsburgh estate of late-19th-century industrialist Henry Clay Frick, the Frick Art
& Historical Center is the steward of collections left as a legacy to the people of Pittsburgh by
Frick’s daughter, Helen Clay Frick. The permanent collections include fine and decorative arts,
cars, carriages, and historic objects (including buildings).
Built by Helen Clay Frick in 1969, The Frick Art Museum displays an exquisite permanent
collection of European paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts from the 14th to 18th centuries,
and presents outstanding temporary exhibitions from some of the world’s finest collections and
museums.
Clayton, the Henry Clay Frick family mansion, is one of the most intact Gilded Age homes in the
United States and possesses general significance as an artifact of American social history and a
document of American and regional architecture. Restored to its original glory and opened as a
house museum in 1990, an astonishing ninety-three percent of Clayton’s artifacts are original.
3 Also included on the Frick’s five-acre site of beautifully landscaped lawns and gardens are the
Frick children’s playhouse, designed by renowned architects Alden & Harlow, a large working
greenhouse (also designed by Alden & Harlow), a Visitor Center, which houses the Frick
Museum Store, an education center, and The Café at the Frick.
The Frick Art Museum, The Café, the Visitor Center and Frick Museum Store, grounds, and first
floor of Clayton are accessible, and wheelchairs are available on site. Accessible rest rooms are
available in The Frick Art Museum, Visitor Center, and the Administration building. If requested
in advance, tours can arranged for hearing and visually impaired visitors.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Frick Art & Historical Center is located at 7227 Reynolds Street in Pittsburgh’s Point
Breeze neighborhood. Free parking is available in the Frick’s off-street lot or along adjacent
streets. The Frick is open 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Tuesday–Sunday and closed Mondays and
major holidays. The public should call 412-371-0600 for information, or visit the Frick online at
TheFrickPittsburgh.org.
For additional information or images, please contact Greg Langel, Media and Marketing
Manager, at 412-342-4075 or [email protected]
# # # The Frick Art & Historical Center, a museum, historic site and cultural center, serves the public
through preservation, presentation, and interpretation of the fine and decorative arts and historically
significant artifacts for all residents of and visitors to Western Pennsylvania. 4