German-American Artist. Born Augustus Theodore Frederick Adam Kollner, he was a native of Wurttemberg and he demonstrated artistic aptitude from a young age. At age sixteen he was already employed as an engraver by the Stuttgart printer Carl Ebner. For a time he worked in Paris, and then left for America in 1839 where he found employment in the lithographic works of Philip Haas in Washington, D.C. The following year he set himself up in business in Philadelphia. While his original business plan failed, by chance he was discovered by the publisher of the “U.S. Military Magazine” which was looking for a new chief artist and brought him attention. After the magazine folded he continued as an independent artist and every summer made long trips to sketch the American countryside in the general region from Virginia to New York and out to Ohio. In September 1843 he married Mary Margaretha Sheek, a member of Philadelphia’s German community. They had seven children but only three survived infancy. In 1848 he embarked on his most famous artistic achievement, the publication of a large number of views of American and Canadian cities. He made a hundred drawings from his travels and fifty-four of them were lithographed into a series “View of American Cities”, issued 1848-1851. They are considered very important today as they preserve the appearance of major American cities such as New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Montreal, and Toronto as they were at the time. He continued a busy trade through the 1850s and solicited commercial advertising work from throughout the country and also did mapmaking work. However his position began to falter as he failed to modernize his methods, which prevented him from being able to mass-produce the volume of work which newer outfits did. With the invasion of Pennsylvania by General Lee’s army in the summer of 1863, despite his age Kollner enrolled in the Union Army as a private. This gave him the oppotunity to sketch military scenes, usually of cavalry or field artillery, some of which were made into etchings which he sold. However since his output was naturally low, much of his personal work such as this is very rare today. He retired from commercial life by the 1880s, but continued despite old age to make sketches of the rivers and pastoral scenery of Philadelphia’s countryside. His wife died in 1899, and he was cared for by his daughter Josephine until his death at age 94. He was buried at Monument Cemetery in Philadelphia. Monument was closed in 1956 and his remains were moved to Lawnview Cemetery. (bio by: Paul S.)  Family links:  Spouse:  Mary Margaretha Sheek Kollner (1822 – 1899)  Children:  Clara Kollner Mears (1843 – 1919)*  Josephine Kollner (1847 – 1917)* *Calculated relationship