This woven silk picture or 'stevengraph' shows The Forth Bridge and is one of a series of woven pictures produced by Thomas Stevens in Coventry, who learned the art of ribbon weaving with the Coventry firm of Pears & Franklin. In 1854 he set up his own business in Queen Street, Coventry. He began weaving plain and fancy ribbons, but was soon experimenting with the development of the jacquard loom to produce pictures.

With a general collapse in the British silk trade in the 1860s Stevens continued to produce pictures (which he called 'stevengraphs'). Stevengraphs were woven to suit a wide audience and ranged from small examples selling at 6d to large ones that sold for as much as 15s. Very soon Stevens had created an entirely new market through booksellers and stationers, as opposed to selling to the drapery trade, as most producers in Coventry had always done. This example was purchased by the Museum from the London bookdealer Charles J.Sawyer.

Stevengraphs depict many subjects including portraits, local scenes, British and foreign royalty, famous buildings, historic events, classical subjects, sports scenes, nursery rhymes and locomotion. This example shows the bridge over the Firth of Forth in Scotland and was completed in 1890.