The Hub, Executed and Published by E. F. Ackermann, Boston, Mass.
17 x 23 inches, Chromolithograph on heavy paper. Light soiling, two mended marginal splits, one slightly entering printed surface, else excellent. A superb lithograph celebrating a thriving Boston of the mid-1880s. In a sense this work is an archetypal use of the chromolithograph as an art work, if not for the masses then for a prosperous middle class. The work successfully employs both an art nouveau design and palette for a work that was likely commissioned by The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association (its seal is at the top of the left column) and the New England Manufacturers & Mechanics Institute. The impressive structures housing each of these organization are depicted along the top of the work. The former opened its new building a few years earlier in 1881, and it was located on Huntington Avenue at West Newton Street near Copley Square. The building was demolished in 1959. The organization first met in 1795 with Paul Revere being its first chairman. The much younger latter organization was founded in 1879 and built its massive headquarters near the former at Huntington and Rogers avenues. This building burnt to the ground in a devastating fire in 1886. The other images in the work finely exhibit the artistic capabilities of the chromolithograph. Famous Boston landmarks as well as a general view of the city and harbor are presented in fine detail, and the clouded skies in the backdrops of these are rendered with remarkable subtlety. Another issue of this work was as a promotion for A. Shuman & Co. See for example the Boston Athenaeum copy: http://cdm.bostonathenaeum.org/cdm/ref/collection/p13110coll5/id/1255 Reps 1385.
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