Berks County Almshouse, 1880

A house painter from Reading, Pennsylvania, Rasmussen was influenced by the works of Charles Hofmann, a fellow resident of the public poorhouse in Shillington, Berks County, Pennsylvania. Rasmussen was committed for alcoholism in 1879 and stayed at the facility until the end of his life. Painted on a heavy sheet of zinc, this aerial view provides a detailed and accurate image of the buildings and grounds of the institution within a central oval. Rasmussen included genre details such as townspeople passing on the road and residents and workers at the almshouse. At the four corners are views of the area’s factories and farmlands seen in summer, winter, spring, and fall.

Credit: Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1966