Sketching the Mid-Atlantic

James Queen
(1820 or 1821-1886)
River view with factory
Watercolor on paper,
ca. 1857
LC-USZC4-5943

Old Quarantine Station,
Mouth of the Schuylkill
Watercolor on paper,
May 10, 1857
LC-USZC4-5944

Philadelphia was an important center of printmaking in America and James Queen became one of the city's most proficient and prolific practitioners during the nineteenth century. He worked primarily for P.S. Duval, a pioneer in the art of lithography, who called him "one of the best artist in the country."

The Carson Collection includes hundreds of lithographic portraits, landscapes, and street scenes drawn by Queen as well as numerous pencil and watercolor sketches created during his travels through the mid-Atlantic States.