Early Seattle Two Decades After it's Founding, Rare Original Panorama Photograph "Seattle in 1878"

Early Seattle Panorama Photograph

Photograph

[Seattle, Washington] "Seattle in 1878" Seattle city panorama photograph documenting the early urban landscape of Seattle only a few decades after its founding and before the city’s transformation into a major Pacific Northwest commercial center. The image records Seattle in 1878 when the settlement remained a small timber port dependent on lumber exports and maritime trade. The view captures the developing commercial district with unpaved streets, false front wooden buildings, and scattered residences climbing the hillside above the waterfront. The original University of Washington building appears prominently in the distance, reflecting the early civic ambitions of the young city. Visible along the shoreline lies the wreck of the ship Windward, a maritime remnant that once rested along the tideline before later harbor reconstruction buried such traces beneath the modern waterfront.

Peterson, Henry; Peterson, Lewis. Albumen panorama print produced in the 1890s from the original 1878 photograph by Peterson and Brother and credited in the negative “Peiser, copy.” Two conjoined sheets mounted on board measure approximately 4.25 x 15.25 inches with overall mount measuring 7 x 18.75 inches. The mount bears the caption in white ink “Seattle in 1878.” The original photographers Henry Peterson and his brother Lewis operated the Seattle Photograph Gallery after arriving in the city in 1876. Their studio and photographic archive were destroyed in the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, after which the brothers did not resume photographic work.

The photograph records Seattle before the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad and prior to the explosive urban expansion triggered by railroad connections, reconstruction after the 1889 fire, and the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s. During the 1870s the regional economy centered on sawmills processing timber for shipment to San Francisco and other Pacific markets, while Coast Salish communities throughout Puget Sound navigated displacement and economic transformation following the Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855. Light damp staining visible along the right portion of the image without obscuring key details. Overall very good condition for a nineteenth century copy panorama. The photograph preserves a rare visual record of Seattle before its late nineteenth century transformation into a major port city.

Item #22263

Price: $4,500.00