1857 View of Andover, Massachusetts w/Andover Phillips Academy

A striking bird's-eye view of Andover, Massachusetts, highlighting the town's commitment to secondary education with illustrations of Phillips Andover Academy, Abbott's Female School, Stone Academy, and the Andover Theological Seminary. The view overlooks Andover from the northwest. A low stone wall and fields in the foreground highlight Andover's idyllic small-town setting. In the mid-ground, a factory and train steaming out of town suggest prosperity. In the background, the buildings of the Theological Seminary and Phillips Andover are prominent.

Phillips Andover Academy

Phillips Academy was founded in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, by Samuel Phillips, marking it as the oldest incorporated secondary school in the United States. For a time, the school shared its campus with the Andover Theological Seminary (founded in 1807), pictured below. In 1973, Phillips Andover merged with the Abbott Female Seminary to become a co-educational academy. Today, Phillips Andover remains a prestigious secondary school with a roll of distinguished alumni that include both George Bush presidents, Frederick Law Olmsted, Humphrey Bogart, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, among many others.

The Stone Academy

The Stone Academy was built in 1829 to serve as the 'English Classical School', related to but operated separately from the Phillips Academy. It was designed by Squire Samuel Farrar in a style he claimed to invent and termed 'Farraresque.' It was bare somber, called by Fritz Allis 'the strangest and ugliest structure ever produced by the hand of man.' The structure served for a time as the Teachers' Seminary before being reassigned as the English Department of Phillips Academy. It burnt to the ground in 1863, purportedly in an arson fire started by a disgruntled expelled student.

Bullfinch Hall

At right, labeled 'Philipps Academy,' is the 'Brick Academy' or 'Bullfinch Hall', built in 1818. It was possibly designed by Charles Bulfinch, a friend of William Phillips, but this is uncertain. The building served for a time as the main hall, but was later used as a gymnasium, dining hall, English department, and office. It was gutted by fire in 1896, but rebuilt and remains in use today.

Abbot Female Seminary

Abbot was one of the first incorporated secondary schools for women in the United States. The school was financed by Sarah Abbot. Early on it focused strongly on art education, in the belief that it was ideal for women. Later the school developed a revolutionary language program rivaling Harvard. In the 20th century, Abbott worked closely with the nearby boys school, Phillips, and in 1973 they merged forming the modern co-educational Phillips Andover.

Andover Theological Seminary

Established in 1807, Andover Theological is the first and thus the oldest theological seminary founded in the United States. When it was founded, it shared a campus with Phillips Andover (founded 1778) but later separated. The Congregationalist seminary emerged out of the Unitarian Controversy, a split between liberal and orthodox Calvinists at Harvard. Harvard embraced the more liberal point of view, leading to the founding of Andover for 'Old Calvinists'. The seminary merged with Newton Theological in 1965 and operates today as the Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School.

Punchard Free School

The Punchard Free School was a free secondary school founded in 1856 by Benjamin Hanover Punchard - an Andover banker. The first graduating class, in 1859, had seven students. The free school grew in popularity and prestige. The building pictured here was destroyed by a fire in 1868 and classes relocated to the Andover Town Hall. A new building was constructed in 1872. The name changed to Punchard High School in 1902. In 1957, it became the Andover High School and was fully integrated into the Massachusetts Public School system.

American Bird's-Eye City Views

The tradition of the bird's-eye city view emerged in the United States in the middle part of the 19th century and coincided with the commercial development of lithographic printing. Before the rise of lithography, the ability to own and display artwork in the home was largely limited to the extremely wealthy, the advent of lithographic printing made it possible for everyone to own visually striking artwork. A robust trade developed in portraits of political leaders, allegorical and religious images, and city views.

City views were being produced in the United States as early as the 1830s, but the genre exploded after the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). Bridging the gap between maps and pictures, most 19th century American bird's-eye views presented cities to the public from high vantage points. Some were imagined, but others were drawn from hot-air balloons or nearby hills. The presentation, combining high elevation, commercial interest, and new printing technology, created a uniquely American art form, as described by historian Donald Karshan,

Some print connoisseurs believe that it was only with the advent of the full-blown city-view lithograph that American printmaking reached its first plateau of originality, making a historical contribution to the graphic arts. They cite the differences between the European city-view prints and the expansive American version that reflects a new land and a new attitude toward the land.

The vogue for bird's-eye city views lasted from about 1845 to 1920, during which period some 2,400 cities were thus portrayed, some multiple times. Although views were produced in many urban centers, the nexus of view production in the United States was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The major American viewmakers were Stoner, Wellge, Bailey, Fowler, Hill, Ruger, Koch, Burleigh, Norris, and Morse, among others.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by John Perry Newell, printed in Boston by J. H. Bufford, and published by Warren Fales Draper in 1857. We note examples at the Boston Athenaeum, Addison Gallery of American Art, and at Cornell University.