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Description

Striking lithographic View by an Important African American Lithographer

Attractive hand-colored G.T. Brown lithograph of the residence and mills of B. Hayward, in Pescadero (San Mateo County), from Moore & De Pue's Illustrated History of San Mateo County.

The image shows the home of B Hayward, who settled in the region in the 1850s and established a mill.  Hayward was one of the oldest settlers in the region.  Hayward came from New Hampshire to California, via the Isthmus, landing in San Francisco November 18, 1851. Before relocating to San Mateo County, he worked for six years as foreman of the steam excavator which graded Market, Powell and other contiguous streets. He came to San Mateo County in 1864, and took up residence on the Honsinger ranch, where he was engaged in dairying and farming for three years, before purchasing the property shown here, which included a sawmill.

G.T. Brown

Grafton Tyler Brown is perhaps the first and unquestionably the most famous African American artist and lithographer to depict California and the Pacific Coast. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1841, Brown moved to San Francisco at the age of 20 and learned the art of lithography from C. C. Kuchel. In 1861 and again in 1864, Brown created the two earliest bird's eye views of Virginia City. At the age of 26, he established his own firm, G.T. Brown & Co.

Brown produced skillfully illustrated bank notes, labels, and maps, and stock certificates for Wells Fargo, Levi Strauss and Co., and several mining companies. His significant lithographic production, The Illustrated History of San Mateo County (1878), featured 72 views of the county's communities and ranches. Brown traveled throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and British Columbia (where he settled in 1882), producing maps and illustrations, including many landscape paintings.

In 1893, Brown secured employment as a draftsman at the St. Paul, Minnesota office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Sometime during his St. Paul years he married Elberta Brown. Brown's work with the Corps of Engineers ended in December 1897, after which he worked in the civil engineering department of the city of St. Paul until 1910. He died on March 3, 1918, in Nicollet County, Minnesota, bringing to a close a rich and varied career as an artist and illustrator of the American West.