Anonymous
1863

Grand Gas-light Combination of the Metropolis of America

DESCRIPTION: Map representing five gas-light companies that served New-York City in 1863:

Harlem Gas Light Company
Metropolitan Gas Light Company
Manhattan Gas Light Company
New York Gas Light Company
Citizens' Gas-light Company

Published in the American Gas Light Journal, March 2, 1863. p. 265

The illustration and quotation on this trade card were not unique to John Cosgrove but rather part of a stock design widely used by 19th-century printers who specialized in producing humorous or sentimental advertising cards. Lithographers commonly kept catalogs of ready-made comic scenes—like this seaside mother-and-child vignette with the line “It’s a wise child that knows its own mother at the sea side”—which merchants could customize by adding their own business imprint below. In this case, the printer simply inserted Cosgrove’s name, trade description, and Poydras Market address into the blank advertising panel at the bottom, allowing a small New Orleans fish dealer to benefit from professionally printed imagery at a fraction of the cost of commissioning original artwork.

CREATOR: Anonymous

PUBLICATION DATE: 1863

GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States

BODY OF WATER: North River

CONDITION: Good. Browned. Minor repairs from verso. Marginal chips.

COLORING: None

ENGRAVER:

SIZE: 8 " x 12 "

ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 13

PRICE: $550

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