Watch-tower, Corner of Spring and Varick Streets, New York
February 28, 1874
Medium
graphic design
Classification
graphic design
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Cora Wilson
Accession Number
1939-70-9
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Winslow Homer, one of America's foremost realist artists (1836–1910), captured the gritty pulse of New York City in his 1874 graphic design *Watch-tower, Corner Spring and Varick Streets New York*. Created on February 28, work depicts a fire watchtower at a bustling SoHo intersection, a vital urban landmark in an era when wooden high-rises and rapid growth heightened fire risks. Before modern fire departments, these towers allowed watchmen to spot blazes from afar, symbolizing the precarious balance of progress and peril in Gilded Age Manhattan. Homer, transitioning from Civil War illustratio...