American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Featuring Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana & Historical Documents

Visible 15 7/8 x 10 1/4 in. ink and watercolor painting (some toning along perimeter); matted and framed to 21 1/4 x 16 in. (not examined out of frame).

A watercolor interior scene of five miners and frontiersmen cooking a mean, playing music, and making merry. The artist Alfred Mitchell published "some very excellent Western mining illustrations" which were published in several issues of Harper's Weekly  between 1887 and 1889. (TAFT, Robert. "The Pictorial Record of the Old West." The Kansas Historical Quarterly. Vol. XVII, No. 3. August 1949, p. 210). Taft lists known illustrations, almost exclusively depicting miners and frontier life in Colorado. He notes that, "although I have made considerable search, so far I have uncovered no information about Mitchell at all other than the record of the above illustrations." Though uncolated, this illustration was likely intended for publication in Harper's Weekly or a similar illustrated publication.