Diann Benti, Author at AHPCS

“The Miserable Character of the Picture”

August 31, 2021

"We really owe our readers an apology for the miserable character of the picture on the first page of the last number of our paper..." Why did Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion feel it had to apologize for a wood engraving in August 1851? Read the full article

Zooming in on the Declaration of Independence

The recent news that an engraved copy of the Declaration of Independence sold for $4.42 million reminds us that prints go beyond just pretty pictures. Our newest post lets you zoom in on the Declaration of Independence and the unanswered questions behind William Stone's 1823 facsimile engraving. Read the full article

Discovering Audubon’s Biggest Birds

John James Audubon's Birds of America (1827-1838) has always been worthy of superlatives. After the early prints were released, one newspaper proclaimed that Audubon was "executing the most magnificent work ever ventured upon..." Read the full article

Prints for the Parlor

In Annie Ellis's memoir, Life of an Ordinary Woman (1929), Annie remembered: There must have been many things Mama longed for (we never had any carpets or curtains), but after talking it over with [her husband] Henry, she decided to get something we could all enjoy! Their choice fell on a picture. The next question was, what picture? Read the full article

The Road to Prohibition

January 17, 2021

Did prints help outlaw liquor in the United States? On January 17, 1920, Prohibition went into effect in the United States. The 18th Amendment was ratified in 1919, but it gave the country a whole year to prepare for the actual outlawing of the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors." Read the full article

Currier & Ives, The Life of a Hunter. 'A tight fix'

Print Prices in a Pandemic

January 4, 2021

Since the beginning of the pandemic, print sellers and collectors have been trying to figure out how to continue doing what they love in a socially distanced world. One of our dealer members was pleased to sell some prints online in early spring only to realize that because of local shelter-in-place rules, the purchased prints were trapped in a closed storage facility. Read the full article

First Regt. Va Volunteers Col. T. P. August May 22, 1858. Ritchie & Dunnavant lithograph

Saving an Endangered Lithograph

December 28, 2020

On May 15, 1858, Colonel Thomas Pearson August ordered the First Regiment of Virginia Volunteers to assemble on May 22nd for a four-day encampment in Ashland, Virginia. This 1858 meeting was notable as the last peaceful encampment of the militia before the start of the Civil War. The event was memorialized in a hand-colored lithograph... Read the full article

Little Snow-Ball

December 18, 2020

When collectors take the deep dive into popular 19th-century American prints, they often begin noticing similarities. In the days before robust copyright protections, images were shamelessly copied and reused. It can become a chicken-and-egg detective game trying to figure out which image came first. In some cases, the answer is easy; for others, mysteries remain.... Read the full article

Capturing the “Swedish Nightingale”

October 16, 2020

October 6, 2020, was the bicentennial of the birthday of Jenny Lind—one of the most famous women of the 19th century. Born in Stockholm in 1820, Lind entered the Swedish Royal Theater School in 1830—the youngest student ever accepted. By 18, her voice had made her famous in Sweden, and during the 1840s she created... Read the full article

The Business of Mourning: Currier & Ives and the Death of President Garfield

September 18, 2020

September 19th marks the 139th anniversary of the death of James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. Garfield died from infection a little more than two months after he was shot by an assassin on July 2, 1881, in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art hold an interesting letter from... Read the full article