Washington / Capitol (East View.)

This carefully drawn view of the Capitol shows the building as completed by architects Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Charles Bulfinch. The image is by Augustus Köllner, a German-born lithographer and painter who immigrated to America around 1839. Köllner was considered one of the premier artists working in Philadelphia during the city’s commercial lithography boom. During that time, he traveled throughout much of the country, producing watercolor images that he later translated into attractive hand-colored lithographs. This print of the Capitol is from Views of American Cities, a series of 54 engravings produced by Köllner and published between 1848 and 1851. The series also included images of the original Senate Chamber (38.00964.001) and the Old Hall of the House of Representatives. The views were expertly rendered and highly accurate, and thus are important historical documents of 19th-century America. The artist also was known for his military figures, drawings of horses and cattle, and illustrations for children’s books.