F. Graff
1861, October
[I.P. Morris & Co. Works, Port Richmond, Philadelphia, after boiler explosion of October 19, 1861]

Stereoview
Library Company of Philadelphia
Accession number: 8353.F.20
 
View showing the ruins of the iron works complex of the heavy machinery manufactory established by Levis, Joseph, and Isaac Paschall Morris in 1828. In 1846 the company expanded and relocated to the site along the Delaware River. A man stands amongst the wreckage of the boiler shop. The explosion was purportedly caused by the spraying of cold water on the furnace.
 
Reproduced in Sarah J. Weatherwax's "'A frightful explosion': Frederic Graff, Jr. photographs the I.P. Morris & Co. disaster," Stereo World 27 (January/February 2001), p.16.
 
Graff, was an amateur Philadelphia photographer, engineer, and superintendent of the Fairmount Waterworks. In the 1850s, I.P. Morris & Co. constructed a pumping engine for the waterworks after Graff's designs.
 
LL/118205