George G. Heiss was a mid-19th century Philadelphia lithographer, who specialized in views of fire-fighting equipment. This lithograph advertises the sawmill run by Jacob Keyser and Bryan Fox at 21 (later 225) Crown Street. Three men work with mahogany logs. One of them guides a log onto a block-and-tackle lift from the sidewalk, while another holds the ropes and waits for the log on the second level. Another laborer moves a log on a ramp through an open doorway on the first floor. In the foreground, an unhitched dray stands near a log in the cobblestone street. Most of the windows and the doors are flanked by open, white shutters. Keyser & Foxe operated from this location between 1853 and 1861, after which the sawmill was renamed Bryan Fox & Son. Heiss was born in Philadelphia in 1823. He exhibited at the Artists' Fund Society 1840−43 and was also known as a portrait painter. He worked closely with Thomas Wagner and James McGuigan’s lithography studio from 1847 until 1855, when he opened his own establishment at 213 North Second Street. From then until the early 1860s, he mainly lithographed and published views of fire-fighting engines for local volunteer companies. Heiss published The Illustrated National Alphabet illustrated with lithographs in 1865. He left lithography in 1868 and established an artists’ materials emporium at 25 North 11th Street, which he operated until about 1885.