Harper's Ferry, Va.
date: label: Date made
content: n.d.
name: label: maker
content: E. Sachse and Company
notes: label: Description
content: Before the war, Harper’s Ferry was home to the United States Armory and Arsenal, which shipped weapons throughout the country. In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown launched his famous raid against this armory, hoping that his actions would trigger a large-scale slave insurrection. During the war, Harper’s Ferry switched hands eight times, because of its strategic location on both B&O Railroad and on the Mason-Dixon Line, which divided North and South. This undated, picturesque print presumably shows the town before its exposure to wartime violence. Smoke rising from a chimney in the town signifies that the armory workers are busy producing firearms. A train on the B&O railroad crosses a bridge over the Potomac in the lower left.
label: Description
content: The print’s creator, Edward Sachse, moved to America from Germany sometime in the 1840s. He settled in Baltimore, working under E. Weber & Co., one of the city’s most prominent lithography firms. He established E. Sachse & Co. in 1850, specializing in bird’s eye views of Baltimore and Washington D.C. His brother Theodore joined the firm in the mid-1850s and after Edward’s death in 1873, Theodore’s son Adolph headed the company, as A. Sachse & Co., from 1877 to 1887.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Maryland, Baltimore
topic: label: Subject
content: Railroads
label: Subject
content: Architecture
label: Subject
content: Bridges
label: Subject
content: Architecture, Domestic Buildings
label: Subject
content: Architecture, Industrial Buildings
label: referenced
content: Civil War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: American Civil War Prints
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.3723
label: catalog number
content: 60.3723
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: image: 9 in x 15 in; 22.86 cm x 38.1 cm