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View of Beverly. Massachusetts. 1886.
Boston: W. A. Greenough & Co. Pub., 1886. Tinted lithograph, 17.125” x 25.125” plus margins. CONDITION: Very good, light soiling to right margin. A scarce bird’s eye view of the north shore town of Beverly, Massachusetts, a seaside resort, residential, and manufacturing community. This view shows the town’s residences, manufacturing sites, railroads (the Boston & Maine R.R. and its Gloucester branch), churches, municipal buildings, and the city’s bustling harbor where numerous vessels are shown plying the waters. The overall contours of the view are very close to those of an earlier view of the city, View of Beverly, Mass. 1879, published by O. H. Bailey & Co. of Boston, which appears to have served as a template. Published seven years later, the present view reflects the recent growth of the waterfront, residential districts, and industrial sites, while still retaining a striking resemblance to the earlier view. Beverly was home to the first cotton mill in America, and the first ship commissioned by the U.S. Army, the armed schooner USS Hannah, which first sailed from Beverly Harbor in 1775. The city has thus been dubbed both the “Birthplace of America’s Navy” and the “birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution.” In 1907, Beverly Hills, California was named after Beverly Farms, a local vacation spot of then sitting President William Howard Taft. From 1903 until the early 1970s, the city was home to one of the nation’s largest shoe-machinery factories. W. A. Greenough & Co. were primarily publishers of New England city directories from the 1880s to 1930, many of which include larger scale folding maps. Greenough’s view of Beverly appears to be the only bird’s eye view the company published, as it is the only one appearing in OCLC and no others are listed in Reps. OCLC records just three examples, at the Massachusetts State Library, the Library of Congress, and Penn State University. REFERENCES: Reps 1355.
Item #6043
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