Historical Franklin Townsend Morgan etching titled: "The East Coast Rwy Docks - Key West, Fla. 1935", bottom margin; low print number: "5/50", and signed lower right margin: "F. Townsend Morgan Imp.". The etching is also signed in the plate, lower left: "F. Townsend Morgan 1935". A good large size,  7 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches; the whole sheet with full margins, 11" x 16 3/8"; and archival framed with acid-free mat boards, ready to hang and enjoy. The etching shows a ship at anchor at the docks, with surrounding buildings, and a farmer hoeing his field to the right.

These docks in 1935 were known as the 'East Coast Railway Yard and Depot', used for mainly shipping to Cuba, and today is the U.S. Coast Guard Station on the Turbo Annex of the Naval Air Station.

The collection of American works by Mr. Morgan are considered part of the 'American Scene' movement, in which artists were especially interested in regional and small-town life, and produced views of local color and straight forward celebrations of ideals such as community, democracy, and hard work.

Franklin Townsend Morgan Morgan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., December 27, 1883. He studied art at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League in New York City, learning from artists Arthur Dow, George Bridgman, and John F. Carson. In Philadelphia, he was associated the Sketch Club, the Print Club and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and began print making in 1912. While active in Philadelphia, he worked with Joseph Pennell, developing his style with the dean of American etchers. On hard times during the Depression, he found work with the New Deal Art Programs. He traveled to Key West, Florida in 1935 for the Key West Art Project, and began working on prints of the surrounding seascapes and coastal life. In the 1936 survey by the publication "Prints", he was recognized as one of the outstanding American print makers. From 1936 to 1937, he worked for the Art Project in the Virgin Islands. He then returned to Key West and established its Community Art Center in 1941. In 1948 he became the artist-in-residence at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, a position he held until June 1952. He later moved to Englewood, Florida, and died in 1965 at the age of eighty-two.

The Georgia Museum of Art recently had a fine exhibition Franklin Townsend Morgan's art, with thirty prints, one watercolor, several drawings, studies for prints, and ephemera.

Please view other Morgan's I have listed.