Birch, William “Landsdown the Seat of the late Wm. Bingham Esq. Pennsylvania. Built by John Penn, Governor of Penn 1763-1776.” [near Memorial Hall, West Philadelphia]

William Birch.  “Landsdown the Seat of the late Wm. Bingham Esq. Pennsylvania.  Built by John Penn, Governor of Penn 1763-1776.”  [near Memorial Hall, West Philadelphia].  From  Country Seats.  Philadelphia:  William Birch, 1809-[27?].  Re-strike by Desilver ca. 1840.  5 7/8” x 7 3/8” (Plate mark).  Copper etching.  An elegant image from William Birch’s series of twenty prints illustrating the stately country seats in the early nineteenth century.  Birch’s project was national in scope, but most of the sites illustrated were in the Philadelphia area.  Many of the impressive country estates around Philadelphia were located on the wooded banks of the Schuylkill River.  As Birch’s prints of Philadelphia were the first to encompass the entire city, his prints of country seats were the first to illustrate this development along the river.  This print shows the house built by John Penn on the west side of the Schuylkill River not far from Memorial Hall.  The house was destroyed by a fire in