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David Johnston Kennedy (1816 (1817?)-1898) was a railroad agent and amateur painter who produced more than 1,000 watercolors of Philadelphia. Today, his works are valued by historians as images of a past era.
Born in Port Mullin, Scotland, Kennedy worked various jobs, including as a stonecutter, and took a few painting lessons. In 1833, his family emigrated to Ontario, Canada. Two years later, he moved to Philadelphia, and stayed briefly with his married sister. In 1836, he moved again to Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked for a dry goods store and practiced painting, mostly miniatures, in his spare time. But he soon fell ill, and returned to Philadelphia, and then to Canada in 1837. After recovering, he moved back to Philadelphia, where he married Morgianna Corbin, the granddaughter of noted physician Benjamin Say. His wife's connections found him a job as a clerk in the new office of the
Painting of his house at 131 N. 16th Street
* * Kennedy works at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania: *
Paintings of the Centennial Exhibition, 1876
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Another index of Kennedy works at the HSP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, David J. 1817 births 1898 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters American landscape painters Artists from Philadelphia 19th-century American male artists
David Johnston Kennedy (1816 (1817?)-1898) was a railroad agent and amateur painter who produced more than 1,000 watercolors of Philadelphia. Today, his works are valued by historians as images of a past era.
Born in Port Mullin, Scotland, Kennedy worked various jobs, including as a stonecutter, and took a few painting lessons. In 1833, his family emigrated to Ontario, Canada. Two years later, he moved to Philadelphia, and stayed briefly with his married sister. In 1836, he moved again to Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked for a dry goods store and practiced painting, mostly miniatures, in his spare time. But he soon fell ill, and returned to Philadelphia, and then to Canada in 1837. After recovering, he moved back to Philadelphia, where he married Morgianna Corbin, the granddaughter of noted physician Benjamin Say. His wife's connections found him a job as a clerk in the new office of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad
The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail.
Commonly called ...
at Broad and Cherry Streets. He worked for the Reading for more than two decades, rising to be a purchasing and general agent. Failing eyesight forced him to retire in 1861, but he continued to paint until his death.
During his half-century of painting, he captured grand houses, railroads, street scenes, and other buildings in and around Philadelphia; of particular note are the pictures he did of the 1876 Centennial Exhibition
The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...
. The paintings are appreciated for their detail, for the notes he often left on them, and for "recording an environment that was very rapidly changing during the decades he was observing it."
Today, many of his paintings are held by Philadelphia-area historical societies. The largest collection, held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...
, consists of 40 boxes, two folders of indices and inventories, eight volumes and one oversized folio. Overall, it covers 66 linear feet.
Notes
External links
Painting of his house at 131 N. 16th Street
* * Kennedy works at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania: *
Paintings of the Centennial Exhibition, 1876
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, David J. 1817 births 1898 deaths 19th-century American painters American male painters American landscape painters Artists from Philadelphia 19th-century American male artists