The restored George Beck painting, "Pittsburgh, 1804," is now on display at the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library. Click photo for larger image.

With a new name and a new frame, a painting of Pittsburgh, circa 1804, is back in its old home at the University of Pittsburgh after a 54-year hiatus in private hands.

Pittsburgh financier Richard Mellon Scaife returned George Beck's oil painting of the then-frontier village two years ago to Pitt after the Post-Gazette reported that the university had loaned the work to Mr. Scaife's late father, Alan. The work had been hung in the younger Scaife's Oxford Centre offices.

The painting, a rare historical document of the city's past, vanished from sight when then-Chancellor Rufus Fitzgerald turned the work over to the elder Scaife, a member of Pitt's board of trustees in 1951.

Restored by Johnstown's Michael Mosorjak and reframed by Sam Berkowitz's Concept Gallery in Regent Square, the work can now be seen in the Special Collections Reading Room at Hillman Library.

It's also been retitled "Pittsburgh, 1804," after research indicated that its original 1806 dating was inaccurate, Rush Miller, head of the university's library system, said last week.

The painting was part of the Darlington Library collection of Americana, a gift from that once-prominent Sharpsburg family to the university in the 1920s, and was displayed in the library's Cathedral of Learning rooms. It had also been shown in two exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art, in 1916 and 1949.

Shortly after the latter public showing, the work was turned over to Mr. Scaife, an industrialist and decorated World War II veteran who played a crucial role in the growth of Pitt's medical school and worked closely with Mr. Fitzgerald.

When the Post-Gazette first wrote about the painting in 2003, Lisa Tremper Hanover, president of the Association of College and University Museums and Galleries, said such a scenario is rare, but not unheard of.

"It was not common practice for colleges or universities to loan artworks to any individual in gratitude for their services or donations. However, I am certain it was done," she said.

The painting also dates to the years when Jeffrey Scaife, an English immigrant, settled in the city.

Mr. Beck, an English draftsman and painter, came to America in 1804, stopping in Pittsburgh en route to Louisville, Ky. He supported himself by painting local scenes like the view of the city at the Point from a hill across the Ohio River.

Lois Mulkearn, former librarian of the Darlington collection, wrote in a 1948 study of the painting that Mr. Beck had produced an accurate picture of Pittsburgh's important buildings and streets, including the first Allegheny County courthouse.

Mr. Mosorjak said the painting "was in pretty bad shape" when he started restoration work more than a year ago.

"The surface had been heavily overpainted," he said, and the previous restorers had been "pretty indiscriminate with embellishing the original work."

The canvas also had rips and tears. Mr. Mosorjak removed layers of varnish and dirt, exposing a network of "crackling" caused by a slow-drying tar-like underlayment that artists of Mr. Beck's time used.

Mr. Berkowitz finished the restoration with a wooden frame contemporary to the period, replacing one that was "typical of the 1940s or '50s," he said. The work's dimensions are 41¹/₂ inches by 29³/₄ inches, he added.

"Pittsburgh, 1804" also will be available for viewing in the future on Pitt's Web site, Mr. Miller said.