# Dorchester 1856

- By: Edward Mitchell Bannister (born St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada 1828-died Providence, RI 1901)
- Date: 1856
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 14 1/8 x 20 1/8 in. (35.9 x 51.1 cm.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Charles Mandell
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=942)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/f1dd73671b470eb6d49dd2278dd250e4.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This is one of Edward Mitchell Bannister's few surviving paintings from the 1850s. In this view of Dorchester, Massachusetts, the artist included the stately homes dotting the coast. This was likely a marketing tactic, for he hoped to appeal to the wealthy merchants living in those "cottages." Bannister spent summers sailing around Massachusetts and Rhode Island on daily outings that allowed him to sketch and paint familiar views for his wealthy patrons in Boston and Providence. (Hartigan, Sharing Traditions, 1985)