Biography:

B. Ridgway Evans is primarily known as the renderer of several hundred watercolors of Philadelphia buildings and streetscapes now preserved in three local institutions. Some of the prints were commissioned by Ferdinand J. Dreer in the mid-nineteenth century. Evans is believed to have been English by birth and first appears in Philadelphia city directories in 1857 -- as an architect. Between 1857 and 1891 Evans is variously listed as a printer, artist, draftsman, or designer. Regularly, however, he styled himself an architect, specifically in the years 1859-1860 (when he shared an office with Isaac H. Hobbs), 1863, 1869-1875, and finally, in 1891. In 1875 his officemate was Charles B. Taylor. No formal professional relationship with either Hobbs or Taylor has been documented, however, and Evans may have been an itinerant draftsman or renderer. He may also have been employed by the Fairmount Park Commissioners as a draftsman and by the landscape gardener Charles H. Miller to draw private estates. His surviving watercolors demonstrate little artistic originality, but they are handsome and workmanlike.