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Benjamin Ridgway Evans prints
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Held at: Philadelphia History Museum [Contact Us]15 South 7th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Philadelphia History Museum. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Benjamin Ridgway (or "Ridgeway") Evans was an artist and draftsman active in Philadelphia in the mid- to late 19th century.
"B. Ridgway Evans is primarily known as the renderer of several hundred watercolors of Philadelphia buildings and streetscapes...Some of the prints were commissioned by Ferdinand J. Dreer in the mid-nineteenth century. Evans is believed to have been English by birth and first appears in Philadelphia city directories in 1857 as an architect. Between 1857 and 1891, Evans is variously listed as a printer, artist, draftsman, or designer. Regularly, however, he styled himself an architect, specifically in the years 1859-1860 (when he shared an office with Isaac H. Hobbs), 1863, 1869-1875, and finally, in 1891. In 1875 his officemate was Charles B. Taylor. No formal professional relationship with either Hobbs or Taylor has been documented, however, and Evans may have been an itinerant draftsman or renderer. He may also have been employed by the Fairmount Park Commissioners as a draftsman and by the landscape gardener Charles H. Miller to draw private estates."
Bibliography:
Quoted text from: Moss, Roger W. "Evans, Benjamin Ridgway." 2014. Accessed November 19, 2014. http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/92634.
This collection consists of 125 artworks, circa 1849-1890, mostly prints of drawings, but also a few watercolors. The artworks show detailed views of buildings and streets in Philadelphia, although some may be from nearby areas. All of the images are annotated with a location and some include other information about the building(s) shown. An item level inventory is available on-site.
Gift of Warwick Galleries, 1939 (accession 39.86)
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Philadelphia History Museum directly for more information.
People
Subject
- Architecture
- Artists
- Buildings
- Cities and towns--Pictorial works
- Historic buildings
- Historic buildings in art
Place
- Publisher
- Philadelphia History Museum
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Sarah Leu through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Philadelphia History Museum for information about accessing this collection.