On December 16-17, 1835, the Great Fire of New York destroyed the New York Stock Exchange and most of the buildings on the southeast tip of Manhattan around Wall Street. At the time, the city was covered in snow and the East River was frozen solid with gale-force winds blowing from the northwest. When the fire began in a large warehouse at 25 Merchant Street (now called Beaver Street), firefighters had difficultly both getting water from the East River and preventing it from freezing in their hoses. This pair of dramatic views depict the Great Fire in action and the aftermath.

The View of the Great Fire gives a view from "the top of the Bank of America" on the corner of Wall Street and William Street. The Fulton Insurance Company is shown just to the left of center; also the ruins of the New York American building. The Merchants' Exchange is seen in the left center. The View of the Ruins After the Great Fire is depicted from street level at Exchange Place. The ruin on the left is the Old Garden Street Church. These fine aquatint engravings were done by William James Bennett, a British-born painter and engraver who immigrated to the United States in 1826, after a painting by Nicolino Caylo, an Italian artist who witnessed the Great Fire and sketched numerous views of the catastrophe as it unfolded. Published by Lewis P. Clover in New York. Sheet sizes measure 27.6 x 20.5" (View of the Great Fire) and 27.3 x 20.2" (View of the Ruins).

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Condition: B

Both have minor soiling and have been backed with heavy tissue. <i>View of the Great Fire</i> has a 3" tear in the sky at left and minor cracks (on the building at left, at bottom center, and in the gray borders) that have all been professionally repaired. The white border has been expertly remargined on three sides. <i>View of the Ruins</i> has three small holes in the sky, several long cracks, and a few tears in left gray border that have all been professionally repaired. There are small chips in three corners far from image that have been expertly repaired, with a small amount of gray border replaced in facsimile.