Prospect of the City of Albany in Province of New York in America

Attributed to Thomas Thomas Davies (1737-1812), probably after William Burgis (active 1717-1731)
Date: 1763
Medium: Watercolor and ink on laid paper with fleur de lisle watermark of L.V.G. (J. Villedary)
Dimensions: 11 3/4 H x 23 7/8 W
Inscription:

Inscribed lower left: Copy from original [?] 1763; inscribed beneath view in center: Prospect of the CITY of ALBANY in the PROVINCE of NEW YORK in AMERICA.
Provenance: Purchased by the donor from the Hall Park McCullough estate in Bennington, VT, for the Albany Institute
Credit: Gift of Marjorie Doyle Rockwell
Accession Number: 1980.17
Comments:
Prospect of the City of Albany provides the earliest known view of the community as seen in a panorama from the east side of the Hudson River. It shows the city as it looked in 1720 with neat rows of Dutch style houses, gabled ends facing the street. Most of the houses are enclosed within the stockade, indicating that well into the eighteenth century, Albany rested on the edge of a potentially menacing frontier.