Picturing Jersey City: Nineteenth-Century Views by August Will

For over fifty years, artist August Will chronicled the changing landscape of Jersey City. An immigrant from Weimar, Will settled in Jersey City in the 1850s and spent his career dedicated to documenting the physical transformation of his adopted hometown. From panoramic vistas to depictions of the growing networks of canals, railways, and factories, Will visually traced Jersey City’s emergence as an urban center and captured a significant era of the city’s vibrant history. The works in this exhibition are drawn entirely from the Jersey City Museum Collection, which was donated to the Zimmerli Art Museum in 2018.

Organized by Nicole Simpson, Ph.D., Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings, and Hannah Wetter, Rutgers Class of 2023

Visit our digital companion site, including a Story Map to approximate painting locations.