Lodowick Harrington Bradford

Lodowick Harrington Bradford (1820-1885) was a Boston-based engraver and lithographer active in the second half of the 19th century. Bradford was a native Bostonian and one of the first to engage commercially in the new art of lithography. He was behind several printing innovations, including a photo-lithographic process that created a durable ambrotype picture on a lithographic stone. In 1849 he partnered with Ebenezer Tappan and formed the firm of Tappan and Bradford, which remained active until Tappan’s death in 1854.

Between 1854 and 1859, Bradford continued the firm but now published under the imprint ‘L. H. Bradford and Company.’ Among his most important output from this period is a historical map of Eastern Kansas meant to draw anti-slavery immigrants to the new Territory. From 1859 until 1870, the imprint was reduced to ‘L. H. Bradford’. In addition to creating photographic and other types of lithographs, Bradford published steel and copper engravings, including of local artists like Fitz Henry Lane. He died in 1885.