Certificate printed by Black artist G.T. Brown

Heading: (African-American - San Francisco, 1875)
Author: [Brown, Grafton Tyler]
Title: Unused stock certificate for the California Fertilizing Co.
Place Published: San Francisco
Publisher:G.T.Brown & Co.
Date Published: ca. 1875
Description:

9½x4". The Company was incorporated in 1875.

Lithographed by G.T. Brown & Co. Grafton Tyler Brown was the first prominent African-American printer in San Francisco - and the first Black artist of California and western scenes

Brown was born in Pennsylvania before the Civil War to a family of freed slaves. In his early 20s, he moved to Gold Rush San Francisco, working, during the War, as lithographic artist for a printing company. He opened his own business in 1867, designing and printing California and Nevada stock certificates, maps and other documents. Selling his printing business to become a full-time artist, he painted landscapes of Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mt. Ranier and other western scenes at his art studios in British Columbia, Portland and Tacoma, and finally settled as an Army Engineer in Minnesota, where he died in 1918.
Condition Report: Very good.