John Bachmann

John Bachmann, Sr. (Jan 31,1817–May 22, 1899) was a Swiss-born lithographer and artist best known for his bird's-eye views, especially of New York City.

His first known American print (credited to "C Bachmann" as artist and "J Bachmann" as publisher) appeared in 1848, a view from an imagined point above Union Square in New York, looking south toward The Battery.

[1] [2] [3] Although best known for his views of New York, his name is attached to a variety of prints, including the well-known "Bird's Eye View of the Seat of War" series produced during the American Civil War, which show the theater of war in six sections, each a perspective view of entire states or sets of states.

Bachmann married twice, having 5 children with his first wife, 4 for whom were born in Switzerland, and one in Brooklyn, NY and had then four children with his second wife (Eliza), the eldest of whom, John Bachmann, Jr. also became a lithographer.

Except for two brief sojourns in Philadelphia, he appears to have remained in the Heights neighborhood of Jersey City from the late 1850s until his death in 1899.