In the mid-19th century, the winter of 1856 was known as the coldest on record. This genre scene from Philadelphia shows hundreds of persons skating and sledding on the frozen Delaware River in front of the old Navy Yard at Southwark. The participants include men pushing women in chairs with blades, men pushing a sleigh of women passengers, a man pulling a boy on a sled, and a man being pulled by a dog running through a crowd of skaters. In the foreground, a couple stands and watches; a woman peddler, seated on a stool, sells an apple to a boy; and a man has fallen on the ice, near two other boys. In the background, a ride has been fabricated with several men pushing a large pivoted pole lever to propel a toboggan of women passengers. Moored ships, steamboats, and sailing vessels line the shore. Also seen in the print is a distant cityscape of Philadelphia. The work is by James Fuller Queen, a Philadelphia lithographer and pioneer chromolithographer known for his attention to detail.