Friendsʼ Alms-House.

This print shows an exterior view of the front of the almshouse located on the south side of Walnut Street between 3rd and 4th Streets, Philadelphia. The building was constructed in 1745 by the Religious Society of Friends, the Protestant religious sect known as the Quakers, and it was taken down in 1841. It was intended to house destitute members of the Society of Friends and also sometimes admitted poverty-stricken people of other denominations. The print is by Thomas S. Sinclair (circa 1805--81), who was born in the Orkney Islands of Scotland and was active in Philadelphia by 1833, where he soon had his own business and was one of the first local printmakers to experiment with color lithography. In this print he may have been working from artwork by William L. Breton.