Nice view titled Faneuil Hall, from the Water, from steel engraving with fine detail and clear impression,  nice hand coloring, approx. page size is 26 x 20.5 cm, approx. image size is 18 x 13  cm. From: N. P. Willis, American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature, publisher George Virtue, London.

Faneuil Hall

Faneuil Hall (/ˈfænjəl/ or /ˈfænəl/; previously /ˈfʌnəl/) is a  marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government  Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1743, it was the site of several  speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from  Great Britain. It is now part of Boston National Historical Park and a  well-known stop on the Freedom Trail. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle  of Liberty".

18th century

After the project of erecting a public market house in Boston had been discussed  for some years, slave merchant Peter Faneuil offered, at a public meeting in  1740, to build a suitable edifice at his own cost as a gift to the town. There  was a strong opposition to market houses, and although a vote of thanks was  passed unanimously, his offer was accepted by a majority of only seven. Funded  in part by profits from slave trading, the building was begun in Dock Square in  September of the same year. It was built by artist John Smibert in 1740–1742 in  the style of an English country market, with an open ground floor serving as the  market house, and an assembly room above. According to Sean Hennessey, a  National Park Service spokesman, some of Boston's early slave auctions took  place near Faneuil Hall.

In 1761, the hall was destroyed by fire, with nothing but the brick walls  remaining. It was rebuilt by the town in 1762. In 1775, during the British  occupation of Boston, it was used for a theatre.

19th century

In 1806, the hall was greatly expanded by Charles Bulfinch, doubling its height  and width and adding a third floor. Four new bays were added, to make seven in  all; the open arcades were enclosed, and the cupola was moved to the opposite  end of the building. Bulfinch applied Doric brick pilasters to the lower two  floors, with Ionic pilasters on the third floor. This renovation added galleries  around the assembly hall and increased its height. Neighboring Quincy Market was  constructed in 1824–1826. Faneuil Hall was entirely rebuilt of noncombustible  materials in 1898–1899.

William Henry Bartlett

William Henry Bartlett (March 26, 1809 – September 13, 1854) was a British  artist, best known for his numerous drawings rendered into steel engravings.

Bartlett was born in Kentish Town, London in 1809. He was apprenticed to John  Britton (1771–1857), and became one of the foremost illustrators of topography  of his generation. He travelled throughout Britain, and in the mid and late  1840s he travelled extensively in the Balkans and the Middle East. He made four  visits to North America between 1836 and 1852.

In 1835, Bartlett first visited the United States to draw the buildings, towns  and scenery of the northeastern states. The finely detailed steel engravings  Bartlett produced were published uncolored with a text by Nathaniel Parker  Willis as American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of  Transatlantic Nature. American Scenery was published by George Virtue in London  in 30 monthly installments from 1837 to 1839. Bound editions of the work were  published from 1840 onward. In 1838 Bartlett was in the Canadas producing  sketches for Willis' Canadian scenery illustrated, published in 1842. Following  a trip to the Middle East, he published Walks about the city and environs of  Jerusalem in 1840.

Bartlett made sepia wash drawings the exact size to be engraved. His engraved  views were widely copied by artists, but no signed oil painting by his hand is  known. Engravings based on Bartlett's views were later used in his posthumous  History of the United States of North America, continued by Bernard Bolingbroke  Woodward and published around 1856.

Bartlett’s primary concern was to render "lively impressions of actual sights",  as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat (London, 1849). Many views contain  some ruin or element of the past including many scenes of churches, abbeys,  cathedrals and castles, and Nathaniel Parker Willis described Bartlett's talent  thus: "Bartlett could select his point of view so as to bring prominently into  his sketch the castle or the cathedral, which history or antiquity had allowed".

Bartlett returning from his last trip to the Near East suddenly took ill and  died of fever on board the French steamer Egyptus off the coast of Malta in  1854. His widow Susanna lived for almost 50 years after his death, and died in  London on 25 October 1902, aged 91.