Mapmaker: Graham - Lowell
(Colorado) Hagerman Pass Colorado...
1893Hagerman Pass Colorado - Colorado Midland Ry. - Pikes Peak Route.
Charles Graham started working as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly in the 1870 and provided images that weren't idealized or primitive. In a series of prints made for the Harpers in the 1880's Graham illustrated Colorado towns as well as a series that captured Colorado life at the time with an detail and accuracy that was uncommon.
This large birdseye view was based on a painting by Graham that was translated into a subtle and rich engraving of landscape and the accomplishment of the Colorado Midland railroad as it was the first to cross the continental divide in Colorado with standard gauge rail. John A. Lowell & Co. created this impression on a thick stock and did an amazing job at conveying finer points of the painting from the train as it heads up the mountain, to the pines in the foreground, or the soft shades of a rain storm falling in the distant reaches of the canyon.
We've only encountered this rarity a handful of times, and this is our first time to offer it in catalog.
Condition is good and had been professionally restored with some buckles to the thick stock that cracked the image lightly. There was some loss restored in the lower right hand portion of the image which illustrated the ground, which has been deftly filled and matched. A portion of the wide margins has been restored in the lower left corner, not effecting the image. Image size is 21.5 x 45.25 (inches).