Description
Neptune House was built by Isaac Underhill and his wife Deborah in 1837 in the center of a wooded island, part of New Rochelle, New York. It became so popular that the island became known as Neptune Island. Private steamboat companies, including American Eagle, whose boat is shown in this print, shuttled passengers between New York City and the Neptune House dock, and a coach made daily trips between the resort and New York’s Brunswick Hotel. One section of the original hotel still stands today, divided into four private homes. Part of the island is now a public park.
James S. Baillie was a lithographer and publisher based in New York City, where he began his career in the late 1830s as a picture framer. In the 1840s he worked as a colorist for the publisher Currier & Ives and published a large number of prints under his own imprint, J. Baillie. He issued a wide variety of popular lithographs of the historical and genre type published by Currier, as well as maritime landscapes, comics and political cartoons. In 1854 and 1855 he concentrated on painting instead of lithography; he does not seem to have been active as an artist after that.
Full publication information: Lith. & Pub. by J. Baillie 118 Nassau St. N.Y.
References:
“Neptune Island (Long Island Sound).” Wikipedia. 31 December 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_Island_(Long_Island_Sound) (1 October 2019).
Peters, Harry T. America on Stone. U.S.: Doubleday, Doran, 1931. pp. 84-85.
“View of the Neptune House, New Rochelle, West Chester Co N.Y.” Smithsonian National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_325906 (1 October 2019).
