Germantown Avenue

PhotographerGeorge B. Wood Jr.

CountryUnited States

MediumPhotogravure: Text

VolumeLife and Nature

AtelierN.Y. Photogravure Company (New York City)

Year1889

View Additional Information & Tags

Carts, wagons, Children, Cityscape, Documentary, Farming, Sheep, Roadways

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 12.4 x 20.5 cm (Japan tissue)
Support Dimensions: 35.6 x 27.9 cm | thin, manilla leaf


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Germantown Avenue. Philadelphia. PA. was later published as a plate photogravure in the periodical Sun & Shade: New York: February, 1893: whole # 54: plate XLVII

The index for this periodical described the photograph as follows:

 

From a negative by George B. Wood.
Mr. Wood is one of those photographers who, starting with an idea,
bides his time for favorable conditions. The scene of our picture is a street in Philadelphia, on its outer edge, to be sure, and, with surroundings a trifle more pastoral, might easily be mistaken for a copy of a painting by Mauve.
When on the Trossachs, some years ago, Mrs. Blair, the proprietress, told us that Mr. Valentine, the well known Scotch photographer, sat in front of the hotel with his camera for three days waiting for the proper lighting of Ben Venue, on the other side of Loch Achray. Mr. Wood seems equally painstaking. Your average man would content himself with “snap shots.”

 

The above observation is a bit naïve perhaps, as the photographer and his family lived in the large stone home in the background of this photograph. Now demolished, it stood at 6708 Germantown Ave, (formerly 5502 Germantown) located just north of Westview St. in the city of Philadelphia. The Library Company of Philadelphia, which owns an albumen print of this photograph, states in their online database that this photograph was taken on April 4, 1887.

 

The vantage point of the photo is believed to be looking south from the present day Carpenter Ln.

Germantown Avenue