After William Birch (Liberty and Academia) Delaplaine's Repository. Philadelphia 1815. $110.00

"For Delaplaine's Repository"

The frontispiece to Joseph Delaplaine's (1777-1824), Repository of the Lives and Portraits of distinguished Americans, published in Philadelphia in 1815. The two volume work examined the lives of the luminaries of the new United States including, "...portraits of those exalted personages who directed, in their day, the destinies of the world, and the effect of whose wisdom and learning, and energy has descended even to the present times, would be a matter of high and peculiar interest."

Delaplaine used William Birch to draw and Alexander Lawson to engrave "portraits sufficiently elegant and ornamental." This frontispiece depicts Liberty holding a shield of stars and stripes, a bald eagle, already an iconic symbol of the new country and Academia with quill pen documenting the lives of the great founders, with classical busts of Washington, Franklin Jefferson and Hamilton in the background.

Hand colored engraving.
1 1/2 x 9 inches sheet.
Excellent condition.