Vuë de Boston. Prospect des grossen plazes gegen der alten Sud Kirche der Presbiterianer zu Boston (Optical View. View of the Large Squares toward the Old South Presbyterian Church in Boston)

François Habermann was a German printer and publisher
working in Augsburg, Germany, known for a series of engravings portraying
American cities, including New York and Boston, during the Revolutionary
period. While some are based on firsthand drawings, often they are entirely
fictitious, published for a European audience with no specific knowledge of
American cities. Here, the artist presents an imaginary view of Old South
Congregational Church, the third church built in Boston, as a cannon is being
hauled into the foreground. Unlike the church pictured, Old South had a tall
steeple. Notably, the church was often the scene of many patriotic meetings in
the years immediately preceding the Revolutionary War.

This special type of popular print was used as a form of
entertainment meant to be seen through devices called “optical machines” or
“zogoscopes.” The striking use of exaggerated perspective lines in these
optical views make them visually playful as well as historically intriguing.
The main title is printed at top as a mirror image; when viewed through the
optical machine it would appear correctly. Optical views were often exhibited
by traveling showmen and were known to entice Philadelphians by 1797.