Robert A. Welcke (November 24, 1848 - January 27, 1936) was a photolithographer active in New York in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century. Welcke was born in Wronke, today in Poland, but then part of Prussia. He emigrated to New York City in 1869. After settling, Welcke went into the lithography business with his brother, Edward Welcke, who arrived a decade earlier. After a split between the brothers during the economic depression of the late 1870s, Robert Welcke continued in business on his own. Welcke's firm, Robert A. Welcke Offset Company, was based at 176 William Street. His corpus ranges from real estate maps of New York and Connecticut to illustrations on Flemish Renaissance interiors to government maps and brochures to decorative sheet music covers. Following Welcke's death, the firm was taken over by his daughter, Olga Welcke, who, alongside William Jugens, managed it until the outbreak of World War II (1939 - 1945). More by this mapmaker...

Max Williams (September 9, 1865 - December 5, 1927) was a German-American publisher and collector, active in New York City at the turn of the century. While he published the work of contemporaneous artists such as Robert Welcke, he is generally best known for his republishing of earlier works, in particular from Currier and Ives' original lithographic stones (Williams purchased the contents of Currier and Ives' shop upon its closing.) Williams was also apparently a collector of marine art himself, keeping a museum of nautical prints and exhibiting them to a public nostalgic for the age of sail. Learn More...

John Bachmann (1816 - May 22, 1899) was a Swiss-American landscape artist and viewmaker active in New York from the mid to late 19th century. Bachmann was born in Switzerland and apprenticed as a lithographer both in Switzerland and Paris until 1847. Like many Swiss and German printmakers, Bachmann was a Forty-Eighter, one of thousands who fled to the United States in the aftermath of the failed 'Springtime of the Peoples Revolutions of 1848'. He settled in Jersey City or Hoboken. His first publication, a spectacular view of New York City looking south from Union Square, appeared 1849. Although not the most prolific viewmaker, Bachmann is considered among the finest. He issued more than 50 views, two-thirds of which were of New York City. Bachman had a passion for New York and it's many civic advances and, unlike other viewmakers, some of his most interesting work of his work focused on these, including views of Greenwood Cemetery, Central Park, and Hoboken's Elysian Fields. He also has the distinction to be the first to use the term 'Bird's-eye' to describe his aerial-perspective views. During the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) he issued a series of innovative 'Seat of War' views illustrating the progress of the war in various theaters. These war views were revolutionary in their advanced use of perspective and orientation, to illustrate terrain and topography. His last known perspective view illustrated Havana. Bachmann's son, John Bachmann Jr. (1853 - 1927) (aka. Bachman) was also a lithographer. Learn More...