Harris and Ewing, Washington, D.C.

A black and white drawing of a building, Library of Congress Harris and Ewing collection

Portraits and news photographs by Washington, D.C.-based firm, showing people, events, architecture in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere.


Signed on back with butterfly.
Text below drawing: Trafalgar square "The finest (site/sight) in Europe"!!! Admiral Nelson "Boarded at last"! "England expects every man to be ridiculous!" o St. Martins Church Protestant House of the Lord to let Apply Money changers Vestry. Text above drawing: Asseyons nous dessus, et que ça finess! Asseyons nous dessus et n'en parlon plus! London's turn! [The constructions annotated on "signs"] [left] Stevens Builders [center] Whiteley 1000000 Seats Apply [right] Maple Seats.
Beige laid paper, folded horizontally and vertically at center with black mourning edges; watermark of script B in a shield.
On back in pencil, in artist's hand: I am sending this over to Paris! Possibly Wobbles may see it! Be sure you dine here tomorrow! Eight o'clock [signed with butterfly] Saturday night - You might wire a line[?] to Fitzroy Street in the morning. [In another hand]: June 97.
On back: Black stamp of the L.C. Division of Prints (Lugt 677).
Matted with drawing: Clipping from the Daily Chronicle, Friday, June 18, 1897, approximately reproducing this drawing, with butterfly signature, captioned: The above amusing sketch is Mr. Whistler's contribution to the "Great Jubilee Stand" problem.
"Wobbles" was Charles Whibley, an American writer married to Whistler's sister-in-law. The celebration, for which Trafalgar Square was being transformed was Queen Victoria's sixth Jubilee.
James McNeill Whistler : drawings, pastels, and watercolors : a catalogue raisonné / Margaret F. MacDonald. New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, 1995, no. 1507 (p. 540-41)
Gift; E.R. & J. Pennell; 1917.
Forms part of the Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collection of Whistleriana.