This page lists all articles and book reviews published in Imprint, the scholarly journal of the American Historical Print Collectors Society. Imprint has been published twice yearly since 1976. A subject index, author index, and book review bibliography are also available.
Article entries for the years 1976-2000 were compiled by Georgia Barnhill and first appeared in printed form in the Autumn 2000 issue of Imprint; the book review entries were compiled by Sally Pierce and first appeared in the Spring 2020 issue. Note: editorial commentaries and administrative content are not included in this list.
Articles are also abstracted and indexed in R.I.L.A. (International Repertory of the Literature of Art) through 1990, and from 1990-2007 in Bibliography of the History of Art and Historical Abstracts and/or American: History and Life. The latter two databases are also searchable online via EBSCOhost.
1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s
1970s (Vols. 1-4) Imprint Articles
Vol. 1, no. 1 (February 1976)
1. Ewell L. Newman, “Abel Buell: Errant Genius,” Vol. 1, no. 1 (Feb. 1976), 7-8.
Newman’s brief biography of Buell (1742-1822) mentions his training’s an apprentice to a goldsmith in East Guilford, Connecticut. As a young man, Buell forged some currency, for which he was briefly imprisoned. Upon his release, he established a type foundry in New Haven. In 1770 he engraved a map of Saybrook Harbor, the first significant engraving in the Connecticut Colony. His most ambitious work was a map of the United States published in 1784 in New Haven. He apparently was a mechanic with many interests for he later invented agricultural implements, was part owner of some sloops, and also worked as a coach and sign painter.
Book Review: Ebert, John and Katherine. Old American Prints for Collectors. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Imprint, vol. 1, no. 1, Feb. 1976, 5. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman. See also, Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 10. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Fries, Waldemar H. The Double Elephant Folio: The Story of Audubon’s Birds in America. Chicago: American Library Association, 1973. Imprint, vol. 1, no. 1, Feb. 1976, 4–5. Reviewed by Ruth Alden Graham and Frances M. Sheppard.
Book Review: Newman, Ewell L., in collaboration with Ladd MacMillan. A Guide to Collecting Currier & Ives: Appreciating and Displaying America’s Favorite Prints. New York: Pyramid Prestige Editions, a subsidiary of Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1975. Imprint, vol. 1, no. 1, Feb. 1976, 5–6. Reviewed by Herbert L. Coggins.
Vol. 1, no. 2 (October 1976)
2. Judith Blakely, “The American Art-Union Contribution to American Prints,” Vol. 1, no. 2 (Oct. 1976), 6-11.
Blakely points out the importance of the American Art Union as a publisher of reproductive prints from 1839 to 1852. It issued thirty-six folio prints, a list of which is appended to the article. This useful list includes year of publication, title, artist, and number of subscribers.
3. Ruth Alden Graham and Frances M. Sheppard, “Mark Catesby,” Vol. 1, no. 2 (Oct. 1976), 5.
This brief article describes how the English naturalist Mark Catesby produced the two-volume Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands from 1731 to 1743, after two sojourns in America. To keep costs as low as possible he etched the plates himself, after his watercolors, and then hand-colored the prints.
Book Review: Cummings, William P. British Maps of Colonial America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Imprint, vol. 1, no. 2, Oct. 1976, 4 and 10. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Book Review: McCauley, Lois B. Maryland Historical Prints, 1752–1889. Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1975. Imprint, vol. 1, no. 2, Oct. 1976, 4. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Book Review: Skelton, R. A. Edited by David Woodward. Maps: A Historical Survey of Their Study and Collecting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. Imprint, vol. 1, no. 2, Oct. 1976, 4 and 10. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Vol. 2, no. 1 (April 1977)
4. Phyllis Y. Brown, “George Caleb Bingham,” Vol. 2, no. 1 (Apr. 1977), 7-9.
In this article, Brown focuses on the paintings by Bingham (1811-1879) that were reproduced as prints. She points out that Bingham credited the reproductions published by the American Art Union with enhancing his reputation. A list of those prints as well as several published by Goupil & Co. and three others is appended to the article.
5. Kathleen Manning, “Winslow Homer’s Wood Engravings,” Vol. 2, no. 1 (Apr. 1977), 11-12.
This brief article discusses the medium of wood engraving focusing on the reproductions of Homer’s designs published in Ballou’s Pictorial and Harper’s Weekly. She mentions the use of metal casts from the wood-engraved blocks required by the large editions of these magazines. Some information is specifically directed at collectors of wood engravings.
6. Douglas A. Philbrook, “Louis Prang and the White Mountain School of Art,” Vol. 2, no. 1 (Apr. 1977), 9-10.
One of the foremost collectors of White Mountain material is Douglas Philbrook. He lists here about two dozen reproductions of paintings of White Mountain scenery and several sets of album cards published by Louis Prang’s firm in Boston.
Book Review: Snyder, Martin P. City of Independence: Views of Philadelphia Before 1800. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. Imprint, vol. 2, no. 1, April 1977, 5–6. Reviewed by Henry A. Boorse.
Book Review: Book Review: Woodward, David, ed. Five Centuries of Map Printing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975. Imprint, vol. 2, no. 1, April 1977, 6. Reviewed by Donald C. O’Brien.
Book Review: Tatham, David. John Henry Bufford: American Lithographer. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976. Imprint, vol. 2, no. 1, April 1977, 6. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Vol. 2, no. 2 (November 1977)
7. Albert K. Baragwanath, “Harry T. Peters: A Collector’s Collector,” Vol. 2, no. 2 (Nov. 1977), 4-5, 11.
Peters (1881-1948), the donor of the Currier & Ives collection at the Museum of the City of New York, was one of the great collectors of American lithographs in the twentieth century. This biographical sketch, written by the print curator at the Museum, describes Peters’ various interests that brought him to collecting prints. Peters, of course, was also the author of many books on American prints, including the indispensable America on Stone.
8. Jack Golden, “Posters Past and Present,” Vol. 2, no. 2 (Nov. 1977), 6-8.
Citing the popularity of posters of the 1890s, Golden looks at some of the precursors–lithographed advertisements for consumer products as diverse as beer and insurance. He provides a brief synopsis of the development of chromolithography and its application to this most commercial of uses. The illustrations, all drawn from his private collection, provide an excellent survey of styles and techniques.
Book Review: Deák, Gloria-Gilda. American Views, Prospects and Vistas. With an introduction by James Thomas Flexner,“The City in the American Land.” New York: Viking Press, and the New York Public Library, 1976. Imprint, vol. 2, no. 2, 1977, 9–10. Reviewed by Robert F. Looney.
Book Review: Morse, John D., editor. Prints in and of America to 1850. Proceedings of a conference held at the Winterthur Museum in 1970. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, published for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1971. Imprint, vol. 2, no. 2, 1977, 10–11. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Book Review: Reps, John W. Cities on Stone: Nineteenth-Century Lithograph Images of the Urban West. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1976. Imprint, vol. 2, no. 2, 1977, 10. Reviewed by Marshall R. Berkoff.
Vol. 3, no. 1 (April 1978)
9. Georgia B. Bumgardner, “Print Collection Resources of the American Antiquarian Society,” Vol. 3, no. 1 (Apr. 1978), 3-4.
This article introduces the collections housed in the graphic arts department of the American Antiquarian Society, a research library located in Worcester, Massachusetts. Among the important holdings are engravings by Paul Revere and his contemporaries, political prints, commercially published lithographs, maps, and broadsides.
10. William Diebold, Jr., “Bartlett’s Hudson River Prints,” Vol. 3, no. 1 (Apr. 1978), 8-11, 15, 19.
Diebold discusses the collaboration between Nathaniel P. Willis and William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854) that resulted in the very popular American Scenery, published in London in 1840. Diebold sets Bartlett’s views in the context of other Hudson River views by William Guy Wall and Jacques Gerard Milbert, trying to explain the choice of views and the differences between views of identical locations by the different artists. Diebold also discusses reproductions of the engravings by other engravers and in different media.
11. E. McSherry Fowble, “William Charles Family Electioneering or Candidate Bob in his Glory,” Vol. 3, no. 1 (Apr. 1978), 16-18, 20.
Although recorded by Stauffer, no impression of this important, early political print by Charles (1776-1820) was known until an impression was acquired by the Winterthur Museum. Fowble explains the historical background to this satire issued at the time of a New York City mayoral election in 1806.
12. Robert F. Looney, “Philadelphia Views, 1800-1830; A Preliminary Investigation,” Vol. 3, no. 1 (Apr. 1978), 12-15, 19.
This article focuses on prints of Philadelphia that appeared in books and periodicals beginning with the important works by William Birch. This survey reveals considerable diversity of style and some works of fine quality.
Book Review: Whitehill, Walter Muir, ed. Boston Prints and Printmakers, 1670–1775. Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, distributed by University Press of Virginia, 1973. Imprint, vol. 3, no. 1, April 1978, 4-5. Reviewed by Donald C. O’Brien.
Vol. 3, no. 2 (November 1978)
13. Elizabeth Baird, “American Printed Valentines,” Vol. 3, no. 2 (Nov. 1978), 13-16.
Baird discusses Valentines printed in America from the 1830s to the late 1860s–as woodcuts, engravings, or lithographs. These productions of such firms as Turner and Fisher often followed the lead of English Valentines and resembled the children’s book illustrations of the publishers. Some “fancy” ones with lace and embossing were produced by such well-known stationers as Howland and Whitney. Interesting special types included Bank Note Valentines and Civil War Valentines.
14. Charles E. Guarino, “A Dozen Eggs on the Street. The Panics of Wall Street Recorded in Print,” Vol. 3, no. 2 (Nov. 1978), 17-20.
Guarino provides an interesting array of depictions of Wall Street and the stock market drawn from nineteenth-century illustrated journals including Ballou’s Pictorial, Harper’s Weekly, and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. He provides the historical background of the most prominent financial panics and related events that were depicted in the pictorial press.
15. Elizabeth E. Roth, “American Historical Print Resources in the Prints Division of the New York Public Library,” Vol. 3, no. 2 (Nov. 1978), 8.
This brief overview of the Print Division of the New York Public Library focuses on its American prints, particularly the I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection so fully described by Gloria Deák. The Amos F. Eno Collection of New York City views is another important facet of the division as is the David McNeely Stauffer Collection of early American engravings. There are strong collections of portraits of George Washington, American social and political caricatures, and banknote engravings.
16. David E. Wojack, “American Historical Print Resources at the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan,” Vol. 3, no. 2 (Nov. 1978), 7.
Among the vast collections of the Henry Ford Museum are examples of prints, maps, music, broadsides, and frakturs, housed in the Tannahill Research Library. Wojack provides a very brief introduction to these collections.
Book Review: Beckman, Thomas. Milwaukee Illustrated: Panoramic and Bird’s-Eye Views of a Midwestern Metropolis, 1844–1908. Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Art Center, 1978. Imprint, vol. 3, no. 2, 1978, 9. Reviewed by Marshall R. Berkoff.
Book Review: Davidson, Marshall B. New York. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1977. Imprint, vol. 3, no. 2, November 1978, 9–10. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Book Review: Linton, William J. American Wood Engraving: A Victorian History. Watkins Glen, NY: American Life Foundation & Study Institute, published for the Athenaeum Library of Nineteenth Century America, 1976. Imprint, vol. 3, no. 2, 1978, 11. Reviewed by Georgia B. Bumgardner.
Book Review: Mayor, A. Hyatt. Popular Prints of the Americas. New York: Crown Publishers, 1973. Imprint, vol. 3, no. 2, 1978, 11–12. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Winterthur Museum Publications. A selection of recommended publications. Imprint, vol. 3, no. 2, 1978, 10. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Winterthur Museum Publications. Winterthur Portfolio, vols. 1–12. List of articles recommended by E. McSherry Fowble as having special interest for AHPCS members. Imprint, vol. 3, no. 2, 1978, 12. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Vol. 4, no. 1 (April 1979)
17. Donald F. Clark, “Six Remarkable Views, 1761: The Collaboration of Governor Pownall and Paul Sandby,” Vol. 4, no. 1 (Apr. 1979), 23-28.
Thomas Pownall (1722-1805) was the British topographical draftsman and political figure responsible for a series of drawings engraved and published in London in 1761. Clark provides the historical context for this important series of prints engraved by Paul Sandby (1725-1809). These views were reprinted in 1768 in the Scenographia Americana with views of other cities in the American colonies and West Indies. The appendixes include lists of the prints published in 1761, of other views by Pownall and Sandby, and of the contents of the 1768 publication.
18. Michael Knes, “American Historical Print Resources in the Burton Historical Collection,” Vol. 4, no. 1 (Apr. 1979), 11, 36.
The Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library was formed by Clarence Monroe Burton in the late nineteenth century. It focuses on the social, cultural, and commercial history of the Old Northwest and French Canada, and includes broadsides, lithographs, maps, and city plans.
19. Richard J. Koke, “Reflections: John Hill, Engraver in Aquatint,” Vol. 4, no. 1 (Apr. 1979), 13-19, 32.
Richard Koke summarizes the career of John Hill (1770-1850), the Anglo-American aquatint specialist who created some of the most memorable prints of American scenery. Koke describes the technique used by Hill and his major works (including some executed in London), pointing out Hill’s contribution to the popularization of landscape as an American art form.
20. Patricia C. F. Mandel, “A Look at the New York Etching Club 1877-1894,” Vol. 4, no. 1 (Apr. 1979), 31-34.
Mandel describes the founding of the New York Etching Club in 1877 and discusses the major participants in the group, including James D. Smillie, R. Swain Gifford, and Leroy M. Yale. The group held annual exhibitions at the National Academy of Design, and published catalogues of them beginning in 1882. Among those who exhibited that year was James Whistler.
21. Maybelle Mann, “The Arts in Banknote Engraving, 1836-1864,” Vol. 4, no. 1 (Apr. 1979), 29-30, 35-36.
Mann provides a brief overview of banknote engraving, explaining why the lack of a uniform federal currency resulted in such a proliferation of engraving companies. She explains the contributions of Jacob Perkins, James Barton Longacre, Asher B. Durand, and Francis William Edmonds, among other artists and engravers.
22. Donald C. O’Brien, “John Warner Barber: A Connecticut Engraver,” Vol. 4, no. 1 (Apr. 1979), 20-22.
O’Brien provides an excellent review of the life and work of John Warner Barber (1798-1885), an author and illustrator of historical works who resided in New Haven for most of his life. Sources for this essay include Barber’s diaries located in the collections of the New Haven Colony Historical Society.
Book Review: Buchsbaum, Ann. Practical Guide to Print Collecting. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1975. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 10. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Donson, Theodore B. Prints and the Print Market. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1977. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 12. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Ebert, John and Katherine. Old American Prints for Collectors. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 10. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Franklin, Linda Campbell. Antiques and Collectibles: A Bibliography of Works in English, 16th Century to 1976. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1978. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 10. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Rosen, Randy. Prints: The Facts and Fun of Collecting. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1978. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 12. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Shapiro, Cecile, and Lauris Mason. Fine Prints: Collecting, Buying, and Selling. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 10–12. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Zigrosser, Carl, and Christa Gaehde. Guide to the Collecting and Care of Original Prints. New York: Crown Publishers, 1965. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 1, April 1979, 10. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Vol. 4, no. 2 (Autumn 1979) Purchase this issue!
23. A. K. Baragwanath, “The Print Collection of the Museum of the City of New York,” Vol. 4, no. 2 (Autumn 1979), 18-20.
Founded in 1929, the print collection of the Museum of the City of New York focuses on the iconography of the City, attempting to collect every view published. At the time this article was written, the collection included about 6,800 prints including Harry T. Peters’ collection of lithographs by Currier & Ives donated in the 1950s. There are also about 200,000 photographs and negatives and thousands of reproductions and uncatalogued images.
24. Robert F. Looney, “Thomas Doughty, Printmaker,” Vol. 4, no. 2 (Autumn 1979), 2-10.
Although Thomas Doughty (1793-1856) is recognized as a painter of landscapes, his work as a printmaker is not well known. Looney focuses on Doughty’s contributions to The Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports published in Philadelphia in 1830-31 and on several separately published prints. Looney provides the outlines of Doughty’s life and discusses several engravings for gift books that reproduced Doughty’s early landscapes and views. The Cabinet was published by Doughty and his brother John until John Doughty published it on his own beginning in 1833. Looney documents Thomas’s role in producing the illustrations for this magazine. This is a reprint of his essay in Philadelphia Printmaking (1976).
25. Diane M. Telian, “The Print Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,” Vol. 4, no. 2 (Autumn 1979), 21-25.
Some of the highlights of the print collection of the Historical Society are presented in this article. Mentioned are William Birch’s Philadelphia views, William S. Baker’s Washingtoniana Collection, ink and wash drawings by Benjamin West, lithographs, and twentieth-century prints by Joseph Pennell and Henry Pullinger. The Society also has rich holdings of maps, photographs, and architectural plans.
26. Ann Ugast, “American Pictorial Lettersheets,” Vol. 4, no. 2 (Autumn 1979), 2-10.
Lettersheets were issued to comply with postal regulations promulgated about 1845. Some publishers, particularly Charles Magnus of New York and many California stationers, included illustrations on the lettersheets to increase their commercial appeal. Most were produced lithographically in black and white, but occasionally colors were added. Of particular interest are the lettersheets issued in California depicting the Gold Rush. Ugast provides sketches of the firms that issued most of these fascinating pictorial vignettes.
Book Review: Dolmetsch, Joan D. Eighteenth-Century Prints in Colonial America: To Educate and Decorate. Proceedings of the 1973 North American Print Conference held at Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1979. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 2, Autumn 1979, 31. Reviewed by McSherry Fowble
Book Review: Hornung, Clarence P. Handbook of Early Advertising Art. New York: Dover Publications, 3rd edition, 2 vols. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 2, Autumn 1979, 32. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Lee, Ruth Webb. A History of Valentines. Wellesley Hills, MA: Lee Publications, 1952. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 2, Autumn 1979, 31. Reviewed by Elizabeth Baird.
Book Review: Ritzlin, George. World Dictionary of Dealers in Antiquarian Maps. Chicago: Chicago Map Society, 1977. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 2, Autumn 1979, 31. Reviewed by Donald C. O’Brien.
Book Review: Staff, Frank. The Valentine and Its Origins. New York and Washington: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969. Imprint, vol. 4, no. 2, Autumn 1979, 31–32. Reviewed by Elizabeth Baird.
1980s (Vols. 5-14) Imprint Articles
Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1980)
27. George M. Cunha, “Print Care,” Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 24-26; and continued in no. 2 (Autumn 1980), 31-33 (item 36)
Cunha briefly describes important aspects of print care, including storage in a stable environment in which appropriate temperature and humidity levels are maintained, low levels of light, and storage in acid-free materials. The second installment discusses simple cleaning procedures (see item 36).
28. William H. Helfand, “The Medical Theme in American Political Prints,” Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 2-8.
Through the use of medical imagery in political cartoons, Helfand explores the intensity of popular political sentiment as expressed through the practice of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Helfand’s survey covers the period from Paul Revere through Thomas Nast.
29. Michael E. Moss, “Early Prints of the Military Academy in the West Point Museum,” Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 20-23.
Opened in 1854, the Museum at West Point contains some 20,000 artifacts including 3,000 prints depicting American battle scenes, military uniforms, and West Point itself. Moss surveys this portion of the collection, which appeals to those interested in the Hudson River Valley as well as military history. Included are prints by John Hill after George Catlin, the designs by William Henry Bartlett, and works published in the pictorial press.
30. Helen Farr Sloan, “John Sloan: His Early Years,” Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 9-14.
The artist John Sloan (1871-1951) started his career as an etcher and illustrator. His daughter records his early life and training as an artist. He learned to etch, for example, by using Hamerton’s Handbook. A number of his etchings, based on photographs, were made for A. Edward Newton, a Philadelphia merchant and collector. In 1892 he began to work for the Philadelphia Inquirer, which eclipsed his work as an etcher.
31. Lee Wiehl, “Four Lithographs of John Woodhouse Audubon’s Gold Rush Journey,” Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 15-19.
During 1849 Audubon traveled to the California gold fields, making numerous sketches during his trip. Four lithographs were published by Nagel and Weingartner in 1851. Wiehl describes the circumstances of their creation and publication, noting that although an ambitious publication was envisioned, only one part of Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California was issued. Wiehl compares the drawings and the prints.
Book Review: Baragwanath, Albert K. 100 Currier & Ives Favorites. New York: Crown Publishers, an Artabras Book, 1979. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1980, 30–31. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Book Review: Dover Publications. Early Woodcut Views of New York and New Jersey. New York: Dover Publications, 1975. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1980, 30. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Book Review: Gillion, Edmund V., Jr. Early Illustrations and Views of American Architecture. New York: Dover, 1971. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1980, 29. Reviewed by Maybelle Mann.
Book Review: Graham, Stanley. Old New York. Scenes Remembered. Poughkeepsie, NY: Century Publishing Company, 1979. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1980, 29. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Book Review: Harter, Jim. Women: A Pictorial Archive from Nineteenth-Century Sources. New York: Dover, 1978. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1980, 29. Reviewed by Maybelle Mann.
Book Review: Sander, David M. Wood Engraving: An Adventure in Printmaking. New York: Viking Press, 1978. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1980, 31. Reviewed by Georgia B. Bumgardner.
Vol. 5, no. 2 (Autumn 1980)
32. Georgia B. Bumgardner, “Aspects of American Book Illustration: Technology, Natural Science, and Literature,” Vol. 5, no. 2 (Autumn 1980), 2-11.
Bumgardner surveys three aspects of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century book illustration. The illustrations discussed document the growth of interest in American subject matter, the importance of illustrations as visual stimulation for children and their relation to the popularity of specific texts, and their significance as records of American thought, culture, and history.
33. Joan W. Gartland, “The Print Collection of the Robert H. Tannahill Research Library,” Vol. 5, no. 2 (Autumn 1980), 24-27.
Gartland, the librarian at Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, notes a number of interesting broadsides, prints, trade catalogues, almanacs, maps, and prints in the collection.
34. Ross Urquhart, “The Print Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society,” Vol. 5, no. 2 (Autumn 1980), 20-23.
Founded in 1791, the Massachusetts Historical Society has collected prints from its earliest days. Urquhart mentions a number of rare and interesting eighteenth-century British and American prints. The Society also has nineteenth-century lithographs and an interesting collection of the work of Will Bradley, given in 1957 by the artist’s daughter.
35. John Phillip Wiet, “McKenney-Hall Prints from the History of the Indian Tribes of North America,” Vol. 5, no. 2 (Autumn 1980), 12-19.
After a brief survey of relations between native Americans and settlers, Wiet discusses McKenney’s idea that resulted in the series of portraits painted by Charles Bird King and the published lithographs issued in Philadelphia between 1836 and 1844 with text by Thomas Loraine McKenney and James Hall. Wiet also describes the publication history of this complex project that involved several publishers and lithographers.
Book Review: Grafton, John. New York in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Dover Publications, 1977. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 2, Autumn 1980, 34–35. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Book Review: Helfand, William H. Medicine and Pharmacy in America in American Political Prints, 1765–1870. Madison, WI: American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 1978. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 2, Autumn 1980, 34. Reviewed by Mavis P. Kelsey, M.D.
Book Review: Hessler, Gene. The Comprehensive Catalog of U. S. Paper Money. Chicago: Henry Regenery Company, 1977. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 2, Autumn 1980, 36. Reviewed by Maybelle Mann.
Book Review: Hornung, Clarence P. The Way It Was in the U.S.A. New York: Abbeville Press, 1978. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 2, Autumn 1980, 34. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Book Review: Marzio, Peter C. The Democratic Art: An Exhibition on the History of Chromolithography in America 1840–1900. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1979. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 2, Autumn 1980, 36. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Book Review: Marzio Peter C. The Democratic Art: Pictures for a 19th-Century America, Chromolithography 1840–1900. Boston: David R. Godine, publisher, in association with the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX, 1979. Imprint, vol. 5, no. 2, Autumn 1980, 35–36. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1981) Purchase this issue!
36. George M. Cunha, “Print Care,” Vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1981), 28-31.
This second installment discusses the solubility of inks and colors and the characteristics of machine-made versus handmade paper. In the first installment (see #27), Cunha discussed the controversial and rather complicated different techniques of deacidifying paper (see Cunha, George M. “Print Care,” Vol. 5, no. 1, 24-26).
37. Maybelle Mann, “Augustus Kollner,” Vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1981), 19-22.
Among Kollner’s works was a series of fifty-four views of American cities published between 1848 and 1851 by Goupil, Vibert & Co. of New York and Paris. Mann provides biographical background on Kollner (ca. 1812-1906) and mentions a variety of his productions, including children’s books, maps, and Civil War sketches reproduced photographically. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has an important collection of his Pennsylvania views produced in the later years of his life. The Free Library of Philadelphia has a large collection of his drawings and sketches.
38. Ewell L. Newman, “Graceful Vines, Common Scolds, and Shameless Devils: The Image of Woman in Nineteenth Century American Historical Prints,” Vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1981), 2-18.
In a well-researched and thoughtful essay, Newman uses lithographs published by Currier & Ives to examine the way in which nineteenth-century graphic artists portrayed women. His survey includes sentimentalized images of women with and without family members and several of the forty portraits of women published by the firm. He turns to other publishers, including Kurz & Allison of Chicago, and the pages of popular magazines to find images of strong women. Winslow Homer was among the artists who depicted the useful lives of women in his Civil War illustrations.
39. Bettina A. Norton, “The Print Collection of the Essex Institute,” Vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1981), 23-26.
Among the print holdings at the Peabody Essex Museum (formerly the Essex Institute), Salem, Massachusetts, are topographical prints, portraits, certificates of membership, historical and political prints, and genre scenes. Also present are portfolios of European prints collected by Salem residents while abroad, and prints by Salem artists, including Samuel Blyth, Mary Jane Derby, and Frank Benson. Many of the prints are displayed in historic houses owned by the Museum.
Book Review: Bannon, Lois Elmer, and Taylor Clark. Handbook of Audubon Prints. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Company, 1980. Imprint, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 1981, 34–35. Reviewed by Karen Andersen.
Book Review: Colt, Charles C. Jr., editor. The Official Sotheby Parke Bernet Price Guide to Antiques and Decorative Arts. New York: Simon and Schuster/A Fireside Book, 1980. Imprint, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 1981, 32. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Book Review: Dunlap, William. A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States. A reprint of the original 1834 edition, edited by Rita Weiss, with an introduction by James T. Flexner, two volumes bound as three. New York: Dover Publications, 1969. Imprint, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 1981, 32–33. Reviewed by William Diebold Jr.
Book Review: Lepeltier, Robert. The Restorer’s Handbook of Drawings and Prints. New York, Van Nostrand-Reinhold, 1977. Imprint, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 1981, 32. Reviewed by Val Ruge.
Book Review: Novak, Barbara. Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825–1875. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Imprint, vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 1981, 33–34. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Vol. 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1981) Purchase this issue!
40. Rona Schneider, “James David Smillie: The Etchings (1877-1909),” Vol. 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1981), 2-13.
James David Smillie (1833-1909) was a versatile artist, working in oil, watercolor, and the various graphic media. Schneider provides an excellent, well-researched biographical sketch of the artist, focusing on his etchings done in conjunction with the New York Etching Club. His subject matter as an etcher was varied including western views, the New England landscape, portraits, and even an etching after Winslow Homer’s A Voice from the Cliff of 1886. Large collections of his prints may be found at the New York Public Library, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the St. Louis Art Museum.
41. Larry Sullivan, “The Print Collection of the New-York Historical Society,” Vol. 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1981), 20-24.
Chronologically the print collection of the New-York Historical Society begins in the seventeenth century and concludes in the twentieth. Although the primary focus is on New York City and State, the subject matter covers all parts of the United States. Special collections include clipper ship cards, naval prints (The Irving S. Olds Collection), circus posters, portraits of prominent Americans, political cartoons, the Audubon watercolors, architectural drawings, and the enormous Bella C. Landauer Collection of Ephemera.
42. David Tatham, “Jack Downing: A Jacksonian Hero Personalized,” Vol. 6, no. 2 (Autumn 1981), 14-19.
Seba Smith created the mythical hero Jack Downing in 1830. Tatham explains the importance of Downing and other mythical heroes within the study of American culture. Although most disappeared after a brief moment, Jack Downing remained vital for over thirty years. Tatham provides a survey of the images derived from Smith’s creation including works by David Claypoole Johnston, Edward Williams Clay, and Anthony Imbert. Tatham suggests that a full study of Major Jack Downing would be useful.
Book Review: Hendricks, Gordon. The Life and Work of Winslow Homer. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1979. Imprint, vol. 6, no. 2, Autumn 1981, 26–27. Reviewed by Richard O. Hathaway.
Book Review: Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Art & Commerce: American Prints of the Nineteenth Century. Proceedings of the Fifth North American Print Conference, held in Boston, May 8–10, 1975, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts; Charlottesville: distributed by University Press of Virginia, 1978. Imprint, vol. 6, no. 2, Autumn 1981, 25–26. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982)
43. Thomas Beckman, “Louis Kurz: Early Years,” Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 14-25.
This thoroughly researched article covers the career of Louis Kurz (1835-1917) before he joined with Alexander Allison in 1880. Beckman discusses a number of prints designed to serve a local audience, first in Milwaukee, then in Chicago, including city views, portraits, advertisements, and sheet music covers. Of particular importance are the 52 lithographs he produced for Chicago Illustrated, published by Jevne & Almini beginning in 1866. After the Chicago fire, Kurz returned to Milwaukee and then went back to Chicago in 1878.
44. Barbara Franco, “Museum of Our National Heritage Exhibition, George Washington: American Superhero,” Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 33-36.
In this review of a major exhibition at the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, Massachusetts, Franco mentions a number of historical prints in the exhibition and their importance in documenting Washington’s image as superhero. Six prints are reproduced, all from the collection of the Museum.
45. Kenneth G. Hoglund, “‘The Least of These’: Visions of the Mid-Nineteenth Century City Missions Movement in New York,” Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 26-32.
The poor in New York City faced increasing problems as the nineteenth century progressed. Many city missions were created by religious and other voluntary organizations to combat the problems of homelessness. Hoglund discusses the background for the establishment of the missions and reproduces an array of depictions of the missions from a variety of illustrated journals. The article demonstrates the importance of illustrated journals in understanding the nineteenth century.
46. Robert F. Looney, “Jacques Wissler, Painter and Printmaker,” Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 37-42.
In 1971, the Free Library of Philadelphia received a box containing a memoir, sketches, and 28 prints by an artist born in Strasbourg, France, in 1803, Jacques Wissler. Looney presents an English translation of the memoir, which covers Wissler’s life through 1880. Wissler came to Philadelphia in 1849 where he worked for the lithograph firm of Peter Duval. In 1860 he was sent to Richmond, Virginia, by a New York firm. There are few prints signed by him, but he clearly was technically proficient. He died in 1887.
47. Matthew S. Marks, “Henry Farrer’s Early Etchings of New York,” Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 2-6.
Farrer (1843-1903), one of the first American etchers, produced an important series of New York views between 1870 and 1877. Marks discusses the significance of these prints and corrects several misconceptions about these rare views of a city undergoing rapid transformation. The New-York Historical Society has twelve of the fifteen prints.
48. Wendy Shadwell, “Hancock by Hiller,” Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 43-44.
This brief article notes the discovery of a second impression of Joseph Hiller’s portrait of John Hancock at the New-York Historical Society, a print previously attributed to John B. Forrest (ca. 1814-1870). The impression of the portrait at the New-York Historical Society is the first state; the impression at the Peabody Essex Museum is the second state. Since another, privately owned impression of the second state was on exhibition at the New York Public Library in 1928, Shadwell suggests that another impression is lurking in a collection somewhere.
49. James D. Stambaugh, “Evangel in the Wilderness: The Nineteenth Century Camp-Meeting,” Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 7-13.
The year 1800 witnessed two major religious revivals, in New England and in Kentucky and Tennessee. Stambaugh provides the historical background for understanding the prints depicting camp-meetings that occurred as a result of renewed interest in religion. His survey ranges from 1819 through 1872. The illustrations for the article came from the collection of the Billy Graham Center Museum in Wheaton, Illinois.
Book Review: Peterson, Roger Tory, and Virginia Marie Peterson. Audubon’s Birds of America. New York: Abbeville Press, 1981. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1982, 45–46. Reviewed by Lauris Mason.
Vol. 7, no. 2 (Autumn 1982) Purchase this issue!
50. Milan R. Hughston, “The Print Collection of the Amon Carter Museum,” Vol. 7, no. 2 (Autumn 1982), 17-27.
Hughston begins his survey by describing works by “historian/artists” who documented the American West. Included in this group are works by James Otto Lewis and James Hall, Thomas L. McKenney, Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, and Alfred Jacob Miller. The holdings of Mexican War prints and prints of California are also described. Landscapes and city views are also an important category for the Museum. Other areas of interest are prints after Bingham’s paintings, Currier & Ives, chromolithography, and illustrated books of the West.
51. Wendy C. Wick, “American Icon: The Eighteenth Century Image of George Washington,” Vol. 7, no. 2 (Autumn 1982), 1-9.
This article is based on Wick’s book, George Washington, An American Icon: The Eighteenth Century Graphic Portraits, published in 1982 by the Smithsonian in conjunction with a traveling exhibition. The exhibition included prints of Washington issued from 1775 through 1800, the year after his death. Artists who produced the portraits had two challenges: the need to create a likeness and the symbolic context for it. A range of portraits has survived–from naive woodcuts to elegant mezzotints by Peale and Savage.
52. James L. Yarnell, “Tennyson Illustration in Boston, 1864- 1872,” Vol. 7, no. 2 (Autumn 1982), 10-16.
Yarnell describes the illustrations that resulted when two rival publishing houses “engaged in what can be considered a Tennysonian publishing war.” In 1864 the firms of Ticknor and Fields and J.E. Tilton and Company each published editions of Enoch Arden. The Tilton edition contained six full-page anonymous wood engravings; Ticknor and Fields commissioned nineteen illustrations from Felix O.C. Darley, William John Hennessey, Elihu Vedder, and John LaFarge. It is to the works of the latter two artists that Yarnell directs his attention. Ironically, Ticknor and Fields did not continue to publish such distinctive illustrations in subsequent editions of Tennyson’s works. J.E. Tilton’s publications were more successful.
Book Review: Claassen, Lynda Corey. Finder’s Guide to Prints and Drawings in the Smithsonian Institution. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn 1982, 32–33. Reviewed by Georgia B. Bumgardner.
Book Review: Connolly, Robert D. Paper Collectibles. Florence, AL: Books Americana, 1981. Distributed by Crown Publishers, NY. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn 1982, 35. Reviewed by Joan Ludman.
Book Review: Durant, Mary, and Michael Harwood. On the Road with John James Audubon. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1980. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn 1982, 34. Reviewed by Monica Burdeshaw.
Book Review: Karpel, Bernard, ed. Arts in America: A Bibliography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn 1982, 35–36. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Kovel, Ralph and Terry. The Kovels’ Antiques Price List. 14th edition. New York: Crown Publishers, 1981. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn 1982, 35. Reviewed by Joan Ludman.
Book Review: National Museum of History and Technology. An Engraver’s Potpourri: Life and Times of a Nineteenth-Century Bank Note Engraver. Catalog of an exhibition on the life and work of Stephen Schoff (1818–1905). Washington, DC: Hall of Printing and Graphic Arts, National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution, 1979. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn 1982, 34–35. Reviewed by Robin May.
Book Review: Rawls, Walton. The Great Book of Currier & Ives’ America. New York: Abbeville Press, 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. Imprint, vol. 7, no. 2, Autumn 1982, 33–34. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman. Also reviewed by James Brust and John Zak in their article, “An Essential Currier & Ives Library: Books that Every C&I Collector Should Have,” Imprint, vol. 41, no. 2, Autumn 2016, 42.
Vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1983) Purchase this issue!
53. Matthew S. Marks, “The Brooklyn Bridge: Symbol of American Progress,” Vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1983), 26-30.
Completed in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge became both a potent symbol of American industrial power and a favorite subject of artists and printmakers. Lithographs, steel engravings, wood engravings, and etchings were made of the Bridge. Marks provides an interesting survey of images as well as historical background on the building of the Bridge and its importance as a symbol to the American people.
54. Katharine Martinez, “John Sartain (1808-1897): His Contribution to American Printmaking,” Vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1983), 1-12.
Sartain was a prolific mezzotint engraver with over one thousand prints to his credit, as well as an entrepreneur. Martinez has uncovered a substantial amount about his early training in Great Britain, his work in Philadelphia, and his style and technique. Until the panic of 1837, Sartain could rely on private commissions, which were easily available. After 1837, Sartain turned to book publishers, finding his niche in literary annuals and gift books. He also produced many “framing prints,” several of which are reproduced and discussed. Martinez’s dissertation, The Life and Career of John Sartain was completed at The George Washington University in 1986.
55. Ewell L. Newman, “The Graphic Art of Henry F. Farny,” Vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1983), 13-25.
Held in high esteem by Theodore Roosevelt and Joseph Pennell, Farny specialized in depictions of the West. He was a frequent contributor to Harper’s Weekly, Century Magazine, Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, and others. He also illustrated for book publishers, posters, etc. Born in France in 1847, Farny’s family fled France in 1853, settling in western Pennsylvania. They moved to Cincinnati in 1859. He began working in a lithographic firm by 1865 and soon moved to New York where he worked for Harpers’ briefly. His enthusiasm for the West developed slowly but was well in place in 1884. His interpretations of the American Indians and the West were realistic. In the 1890s he turned from book and periodical illustration to painting.
56. Maureen O’Brien Will, “The Graphics Collection of the Chicago Historical Society,” Vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1983), 31-36.
This article summarizes the high points and general topics covered by prints in the graphics collection. Not necessarily focused on Chicago scenes, the collection pertains to American history in a broad way. The collection of city views is noteworthy as is that of portraits. There are some one thousand Currier & Ives lithographs and a substantial collection of broadsides, as well as fine art posters.
Vol. 8, no. 2 (Autumn 1983) Purchase this issue!
57. Anne Cannon Palumbo, “Joseph Pennell: The Formative Years of an American Printmaker,” Vol. 8, no. 2 (Autumn 1983), 1-11.
In this well-researched exploration of the early years of Pennell’s career, Palumbo discusses some of Pennell’s early contacts with prints on display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, his art training, and the predominance of painter-etching over reproductive etching in the 1880s. The influence of Whistler and French etchers on the younger artist is also discussed as are his illustrations of the 1880s, his membership in etching clubs, exhibitions of his works, and his marriage to Elizabeth Robbins, with whom he collaborated on many books. In the 1890s he became interested in lithography, which resulted in a book on the subject as well as the creation of over 140 lithographs. Despite his residence abroad, his illustrations were published in the United States and he endeavored to make American art better known abroad through exhibitions, lectures, and publications.
58. Gail Andrews Trechsel, “Mark Catesby (1682-1749): Revelations of the New World,” Vol. 8, no. 2 (Autumn 1983), 12-18.
The first major description of America’s natural history was Mark Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands published from 1731-43. Trechsel’s article provides solid biographical information on Catesby, his trips to the colonies, his training as an engraver, and his contributions to popular natural history study. His Natural History was extremely labor intensive, but he was able to publish one other book and two essays before his death.
59. Paula Velthuys, “The Print Collection of the Maryland Historical Society,” Vol. 8, no. 2 (Autumn 1983), 20-26.
Founded in 1844, the Maryland Historical Society focuses on material relating to the state and the region. Of primary interest are views of Baltimore, beginning with a 1752 wash drawing. The Society also has many prints by two Baltimore lithographic firms–E. Sachse & Co. and A. Hoen & Co. The latter firm was in business from 1835 to 1981. Also mentioned are three individuals–Fielding Lucas, Jr., publisher of illustrated books; Alfred Jacobs Miller, landscape and portrait painter; and Adalbert Johann Volck, political cartoonist of the Civil War. In addition, collections of frakturs, currency, and sheet music are described.
Book Review: Cresswell, Donald H. The American Revolution in Drawings and Prints. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1975. Imprint, vol. 8, no. 2, Autumn 1983, 27. Reviewed by Salvatore G. Cilella.
Book Review: Cresswell, Donald H. The Arader Grading System for Maps, Books and Prints. Catalogue 28. King of Prussia, PA/ Houston, TX: W. Graham Arader III, 1981. Imprint, vol. 8, no. 2, Autumn 1983, 28. Reviewed by William Diebold.
Book Review: Ludman, Joan, and Lauris Mason, assisted by Carol Sirefman. Fine Print References: A Selected Bibliography of Print-Related Literature. Millwood, NY: Kraus International Publications, 1982. Imprint, vol. 8, no. 2, Autumn 1983, 27–28. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Mason, Lauris, and Joan Ludman. Print Reference Sources: A Selected Bibliography, 18th–20th Centuries. Millwood, NY: KTO Press, 1979, second edition. Imprint, vol. 8, no. 2, Autumn 1983, 27–28. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Shaw, Renata. Graphic Sampler. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1979. Imprint, vol. 8, no. 2, Autumn 1983, 27. Reviewed by Salvatore G. Cilella.
Vol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1984) Purchase this issue!
60. Thomas Beckman, “The Beck and Pauli Lithographing Company,” Vol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1984), 1-6.
Located in Milwaukee, the Beck and Pauli Company was best known for the printing of panoramic city views. Beckman provides a carefully researched history of the partners, both German immigrants, Clemens J. Pauli (1835-1896) and Adam Beck (1847- 1922). They were in partnership for only nine years (1878-1887), but their output remains historically significant.
61. Harold Holzer, Gabor S. Boritt, and Mark E. Neely, Jr., “The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print,” Vol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1984), 7-17.
The authors describe and analyze the variety of prints depicting Abraham Lincoln between 1860 and 1865. Included are portrait prints and their photographic sources, political prints, group portraits featuring Lincoln, the assassination, and Wiest’s lithograph derived from John James Barralet’s 1802 engraving showing the apotheosis of George Washington. This essay is adapted from the authors’ full-length monograph, The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print, published in 1984.
62. Sally Pierce, “The Print Collection of the Boston Athenaeum Library,” Vol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1984), 18-25.
The history of the print collection and its focal points–lithographs showing the commercial development of lithography in Boston, historical prints of New England, and productions of Boston lithographic firms–are well described by the collection’s curator. Another portion of the collection includes some 21,000 views, mainly of Boston, but of other American cities as well. The portrait file contains some 30,000 images.
Book Review: Conningham, Frederic A. Currier & Ives Prints: An Illustrated Check-List. New updated edition. New York: Crown Publishers, 1983. Imprint, vol. 9, no. 1, Spring 1984, 26. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman. Also reviewed by James Brust and John Zak in their article, “An Essential Currier & Ives Library: Books that Every C&I Collector Should Have,” Imprint, vol. 41, no. 2, Autumn 2016, 36.
Book Review: Cunningham, Nobel E. The Image of Thomas Jefferson in the Public Eye: Portraits for the People, 1800–1809. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1981. Imprint, vol. 9, no. 1, Spring 1984, 26–27. Reviewed by William Diebold.
Book Review: Roylance, Dale, and Nancy Finlay. Pride of Place: Early American Views from the Collection of Leonard L. Milberg ’53. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Library, 1983. Imprint, vol. 9, no. 1, Spring 1984, 27–28. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Déak.
Book Review: Sauer, Gordon C. John Gould, the Bird Man: A Chronology and Bibliography. Victoria, Australia: Craftsman Press, 1982. Exclusive distribution in the US and Canada by University Press of Kansas. Imprint, vol. 9, no. 1, Spring 1984, 28. Reviewed by Karen Andresen.
Vol. 9, no. 2 (Autumn 1984) Purchase this issue!
63. Henry A. Boorse, “Bush Hill: An Historic Philadelphia House,” Vol. 9, no. 2 (Autumn 1984), 12-18.
Bush Hill was built in 1740 by Andrew Hamilton, the Philadelphia lawyer who had defended the newspaper printer Peter Zenger against a charge of seditious libel. Boorse examines several eighteenth-century engravings of the house, describes its role in the nation’s history (it housed Vice President John Adams and his wife in 1790), and its eventual destruction in 1875.
64. David Boutros, “The West Illustrated: Meyer’s Views of Missouri River Towns,” Vol. 9, no. 2 (Autumn 1984), 2-11.
Two little-known publishers of American views were Joseph Meyer (1796-1856) and his son, Herrmann Julius Meyer (1826-1909). Boutros provides biographical sketches of both men and describes their various publications, Meyer’s Universum and The United States Illustrated. In these publications eight views of Missouri River towns, including St. Louis, Jefferson City, and Van Buren, appeared. Sources for these views include lithographs and daguerreotypes. Boutros concludes his well-researched article by suggesting that Meyer’s views may not be entirely accurate.
65. Phyllis Peet, “Emily Sartain: America’s First Woman Mezzotint Engraver,” Vol. 9, no. 2 (Autumn 1984), 19-26.
Emily Sartain (1841-1927), John Sartain’s daughter, was the only nineteenth-century female mezzotint engraver. Her desire to become an artist is well documented by letters written while in Europe with her father. She received training from her father and produced her first print in 1865. Peet describes her training and analyzes a variety of her mezzotints, including genre scenes, religious prints, and portraits. As the demand for mezzotints waned, she became principal of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, where a number of female wood engravers and etchers were trained.
Book Review: Flexner, James Thomas, and Barbara Gallati. Asher B. Durand: An Engraver’s and a Farmer’s Art. Exhibition catalog. Yonkers, NY: The Hudson River Museum, 1983. Imprint, vol. 9, no. 2, Autumn 1984, 29. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Reaves, Wendy Wick, ed. American Portrait Prints: Proceedings of the Tenth Annual American Print Conference. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia for the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1984. Imprint, vol. 9, no. 2, Autumn 1984, 28. Reviewed by William Diebold.
Book Review: Tyler, Ron, editor. Prints of the American West: Papers Presented at the Ninth Annual North American Print Conference. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1983. Imprint, vol. 9, no. 2, Autumn 1984, 27–28. Reviewed by Ewell L. Newman.
Vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 1985) Purchase this issue!
66. David C. Hunt, “Karl Bodmer and the American Frontier,” Vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 1985), 11-19.
The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, has among its collections the four hundred watercolors and sketches of Karl Bodmer that document the scientific expedition of Prince Maximilian of Wied from 1832 to 1834. Hunt clarifies some of the misconceptions about Bodmer and writes about the journey and the circumstances surrounding the publication of the narrative and its accompanying atlas volume with its eighty plates. Hunt also discusses various states of the prints and modern restrikes from the plates, together with comments about the coloring of the prints. A full description of the Bodmer collection is contained in Karl Bodmer’s America published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1984.
67. James F. O’Gorman, “War, Slavery, and Intemperance in the Book Illustrations of Hammatt Billings,” Vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 1985), 2-11.
O’Gorman provides biographical information about Billings, the architect-illustrator (1818-1874), and then focuses on the themes of the Mexican War, slavery, and intemperance which dominated Billings’ oeuvre. Among the books illustrated by Billings was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin of 1852. O’Gorman closes his essay by summarizing the other genres which Billings illustrated.
68. Wendy Shadwell, “The Statue of Liberty: A Century in the Graphic Arts,” Vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 1985), 20-27.
After presenting a brief history of the Statue of Liberty, finally erected in New York Harbor in 1886, Shadwell surveys depictions of it from 1883 through 1941.
Book Review: Brewington, Dorothy E. R. Dictionary of Marine Artists. Mystic, CT, and Salem, MA: Peabody Museum of Salem and Mystic Seaport Museum., 1982. Imprint, vol. 10, no. 1, Spring 1985, 28. Reviewed by Salvatore Cilella.
Book Review: Brown, Lloyd A. The Story of Maps. New York: Dover Publications, 1977. Reprint of the 1949 Little, Brown edition. Imprint, vol. 10, no.1, Spring 1985, 29. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Riggs, Timothy A. Print Council Index to Oeuvre-Catalogues of Prints by European and American Artists. Millwood, NY: Kraus International Publications, 1983. Imprint, vol. 10, no. 1, Spring 1985, 28. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Wilford, John Noble. The Mapmakers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. Imprint, vol. 10, no. 1, Spring 1985, 29. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Vol. 10, no. 2 (Autumn 1985) Purchase this issue!
69. Claudia T. Esko, “The Influence of Whistler on American Painter-Etchers,” Vol. 10, no. 2 (Autumn 1985), 12-20.
Esko chronicles Whistler’s use of etching and his particular style. Among his American followers were Joseph Pennell, Frank Duveneck, Otto Bacher, Charles Abel Corwin, Henry Twachtman, Julian Alden Weir, and Childe Hassam. Their stylistic relationships are discussed.
70. Judy L. Larson, “Stuff and Nonsense: Humor in American Childrens’ Book Illustration,” Vol. 10, no. 2 (Autumn 1985), 2-11.
This article discusses nonsense literature for children, of which the earliest examples were published in England. Some Americans, Samuel Goodrich in particular, railed against nonsense books for children in the mid-nineteenth century. Mary Mapes Dodge brought new vitality to American childrens’ literature beginning in 1874. The works of Palmer Cox, A.B. Frost, Frank Burgess, and Peter Newell are discussed.
71. Wendy Wick Reaves, “A Decade of Print Collecting at the National Portrait Gallery,” Vol. 10, no. 2 (Autumn 1985), 21-28.
The Print Department at the National Portrait Gallery was established in 1974 with a mission to collect, research, and exhibit portrait prints of Americans. Reaves describes some of the most significant acquisitions of the preceding decade, which include 761 engravings by St. Memin, 53 lithographs by Charles Fenderich, and many individual prints of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The collection also includes portrait prints of the twentieth century, such as fine etchings by Anders Zorn and Childe Hassam. Caricature portraits have also been eagerly sought by the Portrait Gallery, and Reaves is seeking contemporary images as well.
Book Review: Bruhn, Thomas P. American Etching: The 1880s. Exhibition catalog. Storrs: The William Benton Museum of the University of Connecticut, 1985. Imprint, vol. 10, no. 2, Autumn 1985, 29. Reviewed by David Tatham.
Book Review: Schneider, Rona. The Quiet Interlude: American Etchings of the Late Nineteenth Century. Prints from the Collection of Rona Schneider. Exhibition catalog. Amherst, MA: Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, 1984. Imprint, vol. 10, no. 2, Autumn 1985, 29. Reviewed by Matthew Marks.
Book Review: Tyler, Francine. American Etchings of the Nineteenth Century. New York: Dover Publications, 1984. Imprint, vol. 10, no. 2, Autumn 1985, 29. Reviewed by Matthew Marks.
Vol. 11, no. 1 (Spring 1986) Purchase this issue!
72. Wendy Shadwell, “Prized Prints: Rare American Prints Before 1860 in the Collection of The New-York Historical Society,” Vol. 11, no. 1 (Spring 1986), 1-27.
This is the catalog for an exhibition mounted at The New-York Historical Society in conjunction with the 1986 North American Print Conference. Shadwell’s criterion for inclusion in this exhibition is rarity–prints known by fewer than three or four impressions. Thirty-eight prints are described in superb detail and almost all are reproduced. Among the rarest of the prints are several lithographs printed in New York in 1821 and 1822.
Book Review: Friese, Nancy. Prints of Nature: Poetic Etchings of Mary Nimmo Moran. Exhibition catalog. Tulsa, OK: Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, 1984. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1986, 28. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Gale Research Company. Currier & Ives, A Catalogue Raisonné. Compiled and published by Gale Research Company, with an introduction by Bernard F. Reilly Jr. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984, two volumes. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1986, 29. Reviewed by Steven Miller. Also reviewed by James Brust and John Zak in their article, “An Essential Currier & Ives Library: Books that Every C&I Collector Should Have,” Imprint, vol. 41, no. 2, Autumn 2016, 39.
Book Review: O’Brien, Maureen C., and Patricia C. E. Mandel. The American Painter-Etcher Movement. Exhibition catalog. Southampton, NY: The Parrish Art Museum, 1984. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1986, 28. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Philippe, Robert. Political Graphics: Art as a Weapon. New York: Abbeville Press, 1980. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1986, 29. Reviewed by Salvatore Cilella.
Vol. 11, no. 2 (Autumn 1986) Purchase this issue!
73. Jim Burant, “The Print Collection of the Public Archives of Canada: An Unknown Treasure,” Vol. 11, no. 2 (Autumn 1986), 20-27.
The Print Collection of the Public Archives relates to events, places, and personalities in Canadian history, from its earliest settlement into the present. The collection of this visual documentation began seriously in 1904; and Arthur Doughty, the second Dominion Archivist, started the Picture Division in 1905. Purchases were made in England, Canada, and the United States, although the number of purchases slowed during the Depression. Burant describes the important acquisitions of the past three decades, during which interest in the pictorial record of Canada has emerged. The collection also includes fine art prints by artists such as Walter J. Phillips (1884-1963) and David Milne (1882-1953). The article concludes with an excellent bibliography of the major publications on Canadian printmaking to 1950.
74. Claudia Esko James, “John Cheney (1801-1885): ‘First-rate Engraver.’” Vol. 11, no. 2 (Autumn 1986). 14-19.
Reproductive engraving was an important and respected trade in the nineteenth century, and Cheney was among the best. James provides important biographical information on this graphic artist, who worked for John Pendleton in Boston in the late 1820s as a lithographic draftsman. His engraving skills were highly prized by the publishers of gift books, and Cheney’s engravings appeared in the best of them throughout the 1820s and into the 1850s. After the death of his brother Seth, also an engraver, in 1856, he retired, although he continued to draw from plaster casts and European engravings.
75a. Paul D. Schweizer, “‘So exquisite a transcript’: James Smillie’s Engravings after Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life.” Part One: Vol. 11, no. 2 (Autumn 1986), 2-13.
Schweizer notes that four folio engravings by James Smillie (1807-1885) after Cole’s allegorical paintings formed the most ambitious print publishing project of the 1850s and analyzes all aspects of this remarkable undertaking. Abundant documentation exists for these prints and Schweizer has used it all to excellent advantage. The article is continued in the following issue of Imprint (Spring 1987). The author includes a great deal of information on other works engraved by Smillie in the 1850s.
Book Review: Hall, Elton W., ed. American Maritime Prints: The Proceedings of the Eight Annual North American Print Conference Held at the Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts, May 6–7, 1977. With a forward by Richard C. Kugler. New Bedford, MA: The Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1985. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 2, Autumn 1986, 29. Reviewed by Salvatore Cilella.
Book Review: Holzer, Harold, and Gabor S. Boritt, and Mark E. Neely. Changing the Lincoln Image. Fort Wayne, IN: Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum, 1985. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 2, Autumn 1986, 28–29. Reviewed by Richard O. Hathaway.
Book Review: Holzer, Harold, and Gabor S. Boritt, and Mark E. Neely. The Lincoln Image: Abraham Lincoln and the Popular Print. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 2, Autumn 1986, 28–29. Reviewed by Richard O. Hathaway.
Book Review: Slobody, Evelyn and Lawrence, and Philip Pines, eds., with a forward by Stanley F. Bergstein. Currier & Ives Present Trotting, the National Pastime of Early America, A Pageant of Their Horse Prints from 1840–1895. Peekskill, NY: Benson Press, 1984. Imprint, vol. 11, no. 2, Autumn 1986, 29. Reviewed by Salvatore Cilella. Also reviewed by James Brust and John Zak in their article, “An Essential Currier & Ives Library: Books That Every C&I Collector Should Have,” Imprint, vol. 41, no. 2, Autumn 2016, 43.
Vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1987) Purchase this issue!
75b. Paul D. Schweizer, “‘So exquisite a transcript’: James Smillie’s Engravings after Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life.” Part Two: Vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1987), 13-24.
Part II of Schweizer’s article on James Smillie’s engravings after Cole’s allegorical paintings. Part I appeared in the previous issue of Imprint (Autumn 1986).
76. David Buisseret, “Printed Maps of the Chicago Portage,” Vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1987), 25-27.
The author provides an interesting survey of maps depicting the portage around the Chicago River from 1733 to 1853 and notes the enjoyment to be derived from collecting narrowly on one geographic area or feature.
77. Mark E. Neely, Jr., Harold Holzer, and Gabor S. Borritt, “The Confederate Image: Prints of the Lost Cause,” Vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1987), 2-12.
This article discusses the few images published in the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. The authors point out that Adalbert Volck’s prints were actually issued from Union territory and discuss some fallacies inherent in those prints. Several of the Appomattox prints are analyzed as are portraits of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and other military figures.
Book Review: Moritz, Albert F. America the Picturesque in Nineteenth-Century Engraving. Toronto: New Trend Publishers, 1983. Imprint, vol. 12, no. 1, Spring 1987, 29. Reviewed by Richard O. Hathaway.
Book Review: Reps, John W. Cities of the American West: A History of Frontier Urban Planning. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979. Imprint, vol. 12, no. 1, Spring 1987, 28–29. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Book Review: Reps, John W. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada; Notes on the Artists and Publishers, and a Union Catalog of Their Work, 1825–1925. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1984. Imprint, vol. 12, no. 1, Spring 1987, 28-29. Reviewed by Gloria-Gilda Deák.
Vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 1987) Purchase this issue!
78. David Brodherson, “Souvenir Books in Stone: Lithographic Miniatures for the Masses,” Vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 1987), 21-28.
Brodherson provides a survey of city views in different media following the 1876 Centennial, concentrating on the small view books issued by publishers to serve as souvenirs in the 1880s. There were four major publishers of this genre, one of which was the Wittemann Brothers of New York, the focus of this excellent study, which includes information on the illustrations as well as on the bindings and text. He notes their usefulness to researchers interested in urbanization and social values, as well as graphic arts.
79. Elizabeth Mosimann, “The Useful and Beautiful: 19th-Century Botanical Lithography in Philadelphia,” Vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 1987), 12-20.
Mosimann examines the work of various commercial lithographers in the field of botanical illustration, beginning in the 1830s. She mentions a significant number of publications and makes useful judgments about the quality of individual plates.
80. Eugene C. Worman, Jr., “American Scenery and the Dating of Its Bartlett Prints,” Vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 1987), 22-27.
Worman has traced the publication history of this very popular travel book by examining copies in original wrappers as issued in parts as well as many bound copies. His study will assist curators and collectors in dating impressions of prints removed from volumes. Worman also notes that no copies were issued by George Virtue, the English publisher, with handcoloring. Part II of this article appears in Vol. 13, no. 1, and discusses English and foreign language editions from 1840 to 1876.
Vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1988) Purchase this issue!
81. James F. O’Gorman, “Billings, Cruikshank, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” Vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1988), 13-21.
This essay explores the historical relationship and relative merits of two sets of illustrations to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist novel. Hammatt Billings produced 123 designs for the 1853 illustrated edition. George Cruikshank designed 27 illustrations for the 1852 English edition. O’Gorman concludes that Billings’ designs are more sympathetic to the text.
82. Kate Steinway, “The Kelloggs of Hartford, Connecticut’s Currier & Ives,” Vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1988), 2-12.
The Kellogg firm was conducted by four brothers who were active from the 1830s to the 1870s. Their output was more than 1500 prints. Steinway discusses the impact of popular lithography on American culture, the history of the firm and the brothers, the style of the prints, sources, and the relationship between Currier & Ives and the Kelloggs. An appendix includes a useful chronology of the firm with its addresses.
82a. Eugene C. Worman, Jr., “American Scenery and the Dating of Its Bartlett Prints (Part Two).” Vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1988), 22-27.
This article continues tracing the publication history of William H. Bartlett’s American Scenery begun in the first article, which appeared in Vol. 12, no. 2 (Autumn 1987) of Imprint. This part discusses English and foreign language editions from 1840 to 1876.
Book Review: Art Address Verlag. International Directory of Arts, 1987–88, 18th edition, 2 vols. Frankfurt: Art Address Verlag, 1986; distributed in the US by Gale Research Company. Imprint, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 1988, 29. Briefly noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Delaney, Edmund T. K. The Kellys: Printmakers of New York and Philadelphia (1864–1881). Chester, CT: Connecticut River Publications, 1984. Imprint, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 1988, 29. Briefly Noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Diebold, William. Rockland County in Old Prints, 1750–1900. Nyack, NY: The Edward Hopper Landmark Preservation Foundation, Inc., 1986. Imprint, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 1988, 29. Briefly Noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Harris, Elizabeth, Helena E. Wright, and others. G. A. 100: The Centenary of the Division of Graphic Arts. Exhibition catalog, National Museum of American History. Washington, DC Smithsonian Institution, 1986. Imprint, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 1988, 29. Briefly noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Schurre, Jacques. Currier & Ives Prints: A Checklist of Unrecorded Prints (Revised and Updated) With Valuations and Illustrations Including a Supplement Featuring Material Containing Some New Sidelights to the Currier & Ives Story. New York: privately printed and sold by Jacques Schurre, 280 9th Ave., New York, NY, 10001, 1984. Imprint, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 1988, 28-29. Briefly noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Ward, Gerald W. R., ed. The American Illustrated Book in the Nineteenth Century. Winterthur, DE: Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, distributed by the University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1987. Imprint, vol. 13, no. 1, Spring 1988, 28–29. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 13, no. 2 (Autumn 1988) Purchase this issue!
83. Gloria-Gilda Deák, “Picturing America, 1492-1899.” Vol. 13 no.2, (Autumn 1988), 1-76.
This issue of Imprint serves as the catalog for an exhibition of prints, maps, and drawings at the New York Public Library from October 29, 1988, to February 18, 1989. The introduction discusses early cartographers; the print room of the Library; I.N. Phelps Stokes, the creator of the collection; and the history of printmaking in the United States. The catalog lists and reproduces eighty-two items. The subject matter of each is well described. A selective bibliography is included.
Vol. 14, no. 1 (Spring 1989) Purchase this issue!
84. Karen B. Clarke, “American Birds: Illustrated Books In The Watkinson Library, 1555-1869,” Vol. 14, no. 1 (Spring 1989), 22-31.
Founded in 1858 in Hartford, Connecticut, the Watkinson Library became part of Trinity College in 1952. One of its special collections is the Ostrom Enders Ornithology Collection of 6,000 volumes. Clarke notes the importance of illustrated books to the science of ornithology. Her survey spans several centuries and includes illustrations from rare European imprints. Among American printed works are those by Alexander Wilson, Thomas Nuttall, John James Audubon, John Cassin, Spencer Fullerton Baird, and Daniel G. Elliot.
85. Allan Pringle, “Thomas Moran: Picturesque Canada and the Quest for a Canadian National Landscape Theme,” Vol. 14, no. 1 (Spring 1989), 12-21.
Between 1880 and 1882, Thomas Moran (1837-1926) executed fifteen drawings of Canadian landscape for Picturesque Canada, published between 1882 and 1884. In his well- researched article, Pringle provides a detailed description of the creation of this publication and analyses Moran’s contributions to it, most of which described Niagara Falls, surely one of the most dramatic and popular subjects of the book.
86. David Schuyler, “Green-Wood Cemetery As Image and Cultural Artifact,” Vol. 14, no. 1 (Spring 1989), 2-11.
Green-Wood Cemetery, along with Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Laurel Hill in Philadelphia, are the three great rural cemeteries of the nineteenth century. Schuyler’s article discusses the history of the rural cemetery movement in general and the history of Green-Wood in particular. The well-researched article is illustrated with reproductions of elegant engravings by James Smillie (1807-1885) issued in Green-Wood Illustrated, published in 1846.
Book Review: Arader, W. Graham III. Native Grace: Prints of the New World, 1590–1876. Charlottesville, VA: Thomason-Grant, 1988. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 37. Briefly noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Deák, Gloria-Gilda. William James Bennett: Master of the Aquatint View. New York: New York Public Library, 1988. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 32. Reviewed by E. McSherry Fowble.
Book Review: Fowble, E. McSherry. Two Centuries of Prints in America, 1680–1880: A Selective Catalogue of the Winterthur Museum Collection. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia for the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, 1987. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 35–36. Reviewed by Wendy Shadwell.
Book Review: Futures Publications. Working Papers 1: Studies in Design & Technology. London: Futures Publications, 1988. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 37. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Jay, Robert. The Trade Card in Nineteenth-Century America. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 36–37. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Neely, Mark E., with Harold Holzer and Gabor S. Boritt. The Confederate Image: Prints of the Lost Cause. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 33–34. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Peet, Phyllis. American Women of the Etching Revival. Atlanta: High Museum of Art, 1988. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 36. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Wick, Wendy C. George Washington, an American Icon: The Eighteenth-Century Graphic Portraits. Washington, DC: The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the National Portrait Gallery, 1982. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 32–33. Reviewed by William Diebold.
Book Review: Wilson, Raymond L. Index of American Print exhibitions, 1882–1940. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1988. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 1989, 37. Briefly noted by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 14, no. 2 (Autumn 1989)
87. Henry A. Boorse, “The Third Street House in Philadelphia by William Birch: The Inside Story,” Vol. 14, no. 2 (Autumn 1989), 11-17.
One of the views in Birch’s City of Philadelphia depicts William Bingham’s house, then the finest residence in the city. Boorse recites the history of the house and its owner, for whom Birch worked as a drawing instructor to Bingham’s daughters. After the building passed out of the family, it served as a hotel and then was destroyed by fire in 1847. Boorse’s knowledge of this landmark provides important background for an appreciation of Birch’s City of Philadelphia.
88. Sally Lorensen Gross, “American Historical Prints at Yale University Art Gallery,” Vol. 14, no. 2 (Autumn 1989), 18-30.
This survey of the print collection at the Yale University Art Gallery includes the history of the collection, its arrangement, finding aids, and history of exhibitions from the collection. Some uncommon prints are reproduced and discussed in detail, including some extraordinary eighteenth- and nineteenth-century prints.
89. Joseph L. Tucker, “A Collector’s View of the Prints of George Caleb Bingham,” Vol. 14, no. 2 (Autumn 1989), 2-10.
Tucker has identified seventeen nineteenth-century reproductions of the paintings of Bingham (1811-1879), eight of which concern him in this essay: the four prints in the Election Series, the two river prints, and the two history prints. The author believes that Bingham considered the prints the end product of his painting and demonstrates how involved Bingham was in their production.
Book Review: Gross, Sally Lorensen. Toward an Urban View: The Nineteenth-Century American City in Prints. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1989. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 2, Autumn 1989, 32. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Reps, John W. St. Louis Illustrated: Nineteenth-Century Engravings and Lithographs of a Mississippi River Metropolis. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 2, Autumn 1989, 31. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Rickards, Maurice. Collecting Printed Ephemera. New York: Abbeville Press, 1988. Imprint, vol. 14, no. 2, Autumn 1989, 32. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
1990s (Vols. 15-24) Imprint Articles
Vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring 1990) Purchase this issue!
90. Thomas P. Bruhn, “Thomas Moran’s Painter-Lithographs,” Vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring 1990), 2-19.
Between 1859 and 1869, Moran drew at least thirty-nine lithographs on stone. They are rare and very beautiful images. Bruhn provides a synopsis of Moran’s life and early artistic career, focusing on the prints that he suggests fall into three groups defined by subject, style, signature, or date. Moran was one of the few American artists to use lithography as a medium of expression. Following the excellent analytical essay is a checklist of the lithographs, including locations, notes, and comments on the images.
91. Dallas Pratt, “Historical Maps at the American Museum in Britain,” Vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring 1990), 20-26.
One of the founders of the American Museum in Bath, England, Dallas Pratt presented to it his collection of two hundred maps of the world and the Americas issued prior to 1610. In this article, Pratt presents an overview of the exhibitions from his collection at the Museum and reproduces a selection of the maps.
92. Valice F. Ruge, “Life along the Hudson and a Checklist of Harper’s Weekly Hudson River Subjects,” Vol. 15, no. 1 (Spring 1990), 27-45.
Harper’s Weekly carried pictorial material of all types. Ruge has examined a complete run of the magazine (1859-1903) and cited the 104 pictures of Hudson River scenes. Fifteen are reproduced with accompanying text from the magazine. The checklist is arranged chronologically and provides text page, title, page number of illustrations, and the names of artist, photographer, and engraver when cited.
Book Review: Allodi, Mary Macaulay, and Rosemarie L. Tovell. An Engraver’s Pilgrimage: James Smillie in Quebec, 1821–1830. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 1, Spring 1990, 46–47. Reviewed by Brucia Witthoft.
Book Review: Deák, Gloria-Gilda. Picturing America, 1497–1899: Prints, Maps, and Drawings Bearing on the New World Discoveries and on the Development of the Territory that is Now the United States, from the I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection and Other Collections in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs of the New York Public Library. Two volumes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 1, Spring 1990, 47–48. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: O’Connor, Diane Vogt. Guide to Photographic Collections at the Smithsonian Institution, Vol. I: National Museum of American History. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 1, Spring 1990, 48. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 15, no. 2 (Autumn 1990) Purchase this issue!
93. James Brust and Wendy Shadwell, “The Many Versions and States of The Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat Lexington,” Vol. 15, no. 2 (Autumn 1990), 2-13.
This article examines the publication history of one of the most important and popular images issued by Nathaniel Currier and other lithographers in 1840. Many thousands of impressions of three versions by Currier poured forth. The article includes a list of versions and states with locations in collections and a bibliography on the disaster. See also the update in the Spring 1993 issue, item 107.
94. E. McSherry Fowble, “Currier & Ives and the American Parlor,” Vol. 15, no. 2 (Autumn 1990), 14-19.
In an interesting look at material culture through the medium of lithography, Fowble examines how Currier & Ives prints both influenced and reflected taste in the nineteenth century. The parlor depicted in Currier & Ives’ 1868 lithograph The Season of Rest (Plate 4 in The Four Seasons of Life series) is compared with the arrangements suggested in manuals for young housekeepers such as Frances Byerly Parker’s Domestic Duties (New York, 1828), Catherine Beecher and Harriet B. Stowe’s The American Woman’s Home (1869), and Almon C. Varney’s Our Homes and Their Adornments (1882). Fowble concludes that the prints do reflect the dictates of these manuals but also show that housewives and artists were not enslaved by them.
95. John T. Magill, “Pelican’s Eyes: Views of New Orleans,” Vol. 15, no. 2 (Autumn 1990), 20-31.
Magill surveys bird’s-eye views of New Orleans from 1803 through the 1880s. He attempts, in particular, to assess the accuracy of these images. Distortion of New Orleans is caused by the topography of the city, sprawled along the curves of the Mississippi River.
Book Review: Flint, Janet Altic, and Joseph Goddu. Creation and Craft: Three Centuries of American Prints. Commercial exhibition catalog. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1990. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 35. Briefly Noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Jaskowiak, Jennifer. The Popular Prints in 19th-Century America: Prints from the Hoopes Collection by Currier & Ives and Others. San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, 1990. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 35. Briefly Noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Jolly, David C. Maps of America in Periodicals Before 1800. Brookline, MA: the author, 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 35. Briefly noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Lane, Christopher W., and Donald H. Creswell. Prints of Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Print Shop, Featuring the Wohl Collection. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Print Shop, 1990. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 34–35. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: McElroy, Frederick W., and Kevin Vogel. Connoisseurship and the Intaglio Print. Exhibition catalog. Dallas: Valley House Gallery, 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 35. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Moebs, Thomas Truxton. U.S. Reference-iana: 1481–1899: A Concise Guide to Over 4000 Books and Articles for Researching Art, Books, Broadsides…Relating to that Area Within the Present Limits of the United States, 1481–1899. Williamsburg, VA: Moebs Pub. Co., 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 35–36. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Nipps, Karen. Naturally Fond of Pictures: American Illustrations of the 1840s and 1850s. Philadelphia: Library Company of Philadelphia, 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 36. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Roylance, Dale. American Graphic Arts: A Chronology to 1900 in Books, Prints and Drawings. Princeton: Princeton University Library, 1990. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 36. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Sandweiss, Martha A., with Rick Stewart, and Ben W. Huseman. Eyewitness to War, 1846–1848. Exhibition catalog. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 33–34. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Schweizer, Paul D. The Art of Trenton Falls, 1825–1900. Exhibition organized by Paul D. Schweizer, with essays by David Tatham and Carol Gordon Wood, and an annotated catalog compiled by Paul D. Schweizer. Utica, NY: Museum of Art, Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, 1989. Imprint, vol. 15, no. 2, Autumn 1990, 32–33. Reviewed by Eugene C. Worman Jr.
Vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 1991) Purchase this issue!
96. Walton Rawls, “Audubon, Bodmer, and Catlin: Facsimile Editions from the Editorial Side,” Vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 1991), 2-10.
Rawls writes knowledgeably about the recent publications in facsimile of three of the great illustrated works of the nineteenth century. He justifies these extravagant projects by their making otherwise rare works accessible to a larger public. He recognizes the problems of close facsimiles on the market and cautions collectors.
97. Mina Rieur Weiner, “New York Built Ships, 1818-1865: Prints Document an Industry,” Vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 1991), 20-30.
This well-documented article shows how prints can be used to document commercial activity, in this case, ship building in New York. She found that illustrations from Harper’s Weekly and Harper’s New Monthly Magazine were particularly useful.
98. Margaret Welch, “‘Gentlemen of fortune and liberality’: The Original Subscribers to the Audubon Folios,” Vol. 16, no. 1 (Spring 1991), 11-19.
Based on Welch’s doctoral dissertation, “John James Audubon and His American Audience: Art Science, and Nature, 1830-1860,” this article discusses the patronage that Audubon sought and received. She concludes that it was the enthusiasm of these patrons and collectors that ensured the production of such lavish publications.
Book Review: Buisseret, David, ed. From Sea Charts to Satellite Images: Interpreting North American History Through Maps. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 1991, 32. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Christie’s Auction Galleries, New York. Important Early American Bank Notes, 1810–1874, from the Archives of the American Bank Note Company, 14–15 September 1990. Auction catalog. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 1991, 32. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, New York. United States 19th-Century Clipper Ship Cards, at public auction, 13 June 1990. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 1991, 32. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Schneider, Rona. America Painter Etchings: 1853–1908. Exhibition catalog. New York: The Grolier Club, 1989. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 1991, 31. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 16, no. 2 (Autumn 1991) Purchase this issue!
99. Jean Ashton, “Tall Tales and Whales: Wonders of Barnum’s Museum,” Vol. 16, no. 2 (Autumn 1991), 15-25.
Ashton focuses on prints and posters describing Barnum’s Museum in New York. Ashton’s well-researched essay provides detailed information on Barnum, his activities, and his efforts to enhance his own reputation through self-promotion.
100. James Brust, “A Photograph by Currier & Ives,” Vol. 16, no. 2 (Autumn 1991), 2-3.
Brust has discovered a photograph of the Supreme Court of the United States taken by Napoleon Sarony and published by Currier & Ives in 1890. It suggests that, perhaps following Sarony’s lead, the firm was interested in branching out into photography.
101. Thomas S. Michie, “American Wallpapers of the Nineteenth Century at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design,” Vol. 16, no. 2 (Autumn 1991), 4-14.
Among the collections at the Rhode Island School of Design is one of wallpapers from the seventeenth century to the present. Michie’s article describes American papers, the most commercial form of printmaking. Many of the samples are found on boxes and in trunks; other examples came to RISD with larger collections of ephemera and decorative arts.
102. Wendy Shadwell, “‘1 Year at the Business’–George B. Ellis of Philadelphia,” Vol. 16, no. 2 (Autumn 1991), 26-28.
This brief article discusses an engraving signed by George B. Ellis, The Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch, done in 1819 while Ellis was an apprentice to Francis Kearny. The illustration later appeared in a Bible published by Carey & Lea in 1823.
Book Review: Auchincloss, Louise, ed. The Hone and Strong Diaries of Old Manhattan. New York: Abbeville Press, 1989. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 2, Autumn 1991, 32. Briefly noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Barnhill, Georgia B., editor. Prints of New England. Papers given at the seventh North American Print Conference. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1991. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 2, Autumn 1991, 29–30. Reviewed by Wendy Shadwell.
Book Review: Decker, Ronald M. Kauterskill Falls: 1795–1895. Exhibition catalog. Haines Falls, NY: The Mountaintop Historical Society 1991. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 2, Autumn 1991, 32. Briefly Noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Frank, Stuart M. Herman Melville’s Picture Gallery: Sources and Types of the “Pictorial Chapters” of MOBY DICK. Fairhaven, MA: Edward J. Lefkowicz, Inc., 1986. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 2, Autumn 1991, 32. Briefly noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Lang, Gladys Engel, and Kurt Lang. Etched in Memory: The Building and Survival of Artistic Reputation. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 2, Autumn 1991, 30–32. Reviewed by Brucia Witthoft.
Book Review: Miller, John E., Mark J. Halvorson, and Laura Ries. The Way They Saw Us: The South Dakota State Historical Society Collection of Images from the Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Press. Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society, 1989. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 2, Autumn 1991, 32. Briefly Noted by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Reilly, Bernard F. Jr. American Political Prints, 1766–1876: A Catalog of the Collections in the Library of Congress. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1991. Imprint, vol. 16, no. 2, Autumn 1991, 30. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 1992) Purchase this issue!
103. Gloria-Gilda Deák, “Christopher Columbus and the Flowering of American Iconography,” Vol. 17, no. 1 (Spring 1992), 2-37.
This issue of Imprint honors the Quincentenary of the “discovery” of America. Deák poses twenty-five questions about the Columbus story, illustrating each response with an appropriate print, focusing on early images of America.
Book Review: Burns, Sarah. Pastoral Inventions: Rural Life in Nineteenth-Century Art and Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 1992, 40–41. Reviewed by Richard O. Hathaway.
Book Review: Pierce, Sally, and Catharina Slautterback. Boston Lithography, 1825 to 1880: The Boston Athenaeum Collection. Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 1991. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 1992, 38–39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Yellin, Jean Fagan. Women and Sisters: The Antislavery Feminists in American Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 1, Spring 1992, 39–40. Reviewed by Harold Holzer.
Vol. 17, no. 2 (Autumn 1992) Purchase this issue!
104. Robert P. Emlen, “The Shaker Dance Prints,” Vol. 17, no. 2 (Autumn 1992), 14-26.
In this essay, part of a larger study of how Shaker life was depicted in the popular press, Emlen focuses on prints showing Shakers dancing. At least eighteen prints derive from one engraving issued about 1830 depicting a scene inside the meeting house at New Lebanon, New York. Emlen traces the lines of descent in a careful analysis that includes the architecture of the original meeting house. He suggests that this image “became the one image most people held of Shakerism in the nineteenth century.”
105. Richard O. Hathaway, “Finders Keepers,” Vol. 17, no. 2 (Autumn 1992), 35-37.
Hathaway provides a series of anecdotes about his own collection and comments on the collecting practices of figures such as the Collyer brothers and William Randolph Hearst. He concludes with reasons why we collect–to make order out of chaos, to uncover objects that are transcendent, to create a buffer against mortality.
106. Donald C. O’Brien, “The Promotion of Stafford Springs: Aquatints by Abner Reed,” Vol. 17, no. 2 (Autumn 1992), 27-34.
O’Brien discusses the handsome set of aquatints by Reed, Six Views in Aquatinta (1810), which depict the spa at Stafford Springs, Connecticut. America’s first recognized health spa was owned by Dr. Samuel Willard. O’Brien considers how Reed learned to create aquatints, the history of the spa, the purpose of the prints, and the views themselves.
Book Review: Cunningham, Nobel E. Popular Images of the Presidency: From Washington to Lincoln. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 2, Autumn 1992, 39. Reviewed by Georgia B. Barnhill.
Book Review: Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Print Price Index: 1990–1991 Auction Season. Includes directory of dealers and bibliography. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1991. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 2, Autumn 1992, 39–40. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Reps, John W. Washington on View: The Nation’s Capital Since 1790. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 2, Autumn 1992, 38–39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Roylance, Dale. Graphic Americana: The Art and Technique of Printed Ephemera from Abecedaires to Zoetropes. Princeton: Princeton University Library, 1992. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 2, Autumn 1992, 40. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Trumpy, Sigrid, and Sari Hornstein. Naval Prints from the Beverly R. Robinson Collection. Volume I: 1514–1791. Annapolis: United States Naval Academy Museum, 1991. Imprint, vol. 17, no. 2, Autumn 1992, 40. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 18, no. 1 (Spring 1993) Purchase this issue!
107. James Brust and Wendy Shadwell, “The Many Versions and States of The Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat Lexington: An Update,” Vol. 18, no. 1 (Spring 1993), 27-31.
In 1990 the authors published an article listing thirteen states of the Nathaniel Currier print that existed in three different versions. This article adds a new state of the first version, adds a location for another item, provides some biographical data on a couple of the passengers as well as the full list of passengers and crew, and adds another European version.
108. Steven Miller, “A 1986 Currier & Ives Lament,” Vol. 18, no. 1 (Spring 1993), 15.
This brief note by the former senior curator at the Museum of the City of New York suggests strategies for research on the output of the firm, such as looking at sources for the prints, reviewing Harry T. Peters’ research records, writing about political prints, and using the methodologies of the historian and art historian. In an editorial footnote, Rona Schneider says that there has been progress on the Currier & Ives research front since Miller wrote in 1986.
109. Michael W. Schantz, “James D. Smillie’s The Goldsmith’s Daughter. The Making and Marketing of a Reproductive Master Print,” Vol. 18, no. 1 (Spring 1993), 2-14.
Schantz opens his discussion with a summary history of reproductive engraving, suggesting its importance as a genre and comparing the process to etching. Schantz bases his analysis of a reproductive engraving by Smillie (1833-1909) after Daniel Huntington’s painting, The Goldsmith’s Daughter, on materials and diaries in the Smillie Family Collection at the Archives of American Art. The creation of the print is described as well as its publication and marketing.
110. Kate Steinway, “Early Nineteenth-Century American Children’s Books and Their Relationship to Currier & Ives Lithographs,” Vol. 18, no. 1 (Spring 1993), 17-26.
Considering illustrations in children’s books as the earliest genre images, Steinway suggests that their audience in the 1820s and 1830s formed the audience for Currier & Ives prints in the 1840s and later. She describes several types of imagery as a visual language that formed stereotypes and conventions that appear in both sets of images. Steinway concludes that the motifs became so accepted that the images could be read without the texts.
Book Review: Deák, Gloria-Gilda. Discovering America’s Southeast: A Sixteenth-Century View Based on the Mannerist Engravings of Theodore de Bry. Exhibition catalog. Birmingham, AL: Birmingham Public Library Press, 1992. Imprint, vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1993, 34. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Schantz, Michael W. James D. Smillie: American Printmaker, 1833–1909. Exhibition catalog. Philadelphia: The Woodmere Art Museum, 1991. Imprint, vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1993, 33. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Tatham, David. Winslow Homer and the Illustrated Book. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1992. Imprint, vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1993, 35–36. Reviewed by Gloria Deák.
Book Review: Theran, Susan, and Kathryn Acerbo, eds. Leonard’s Annual Price Index of Prints, Posters and Photographs. Newton, MA: Auction Index, Inc., 1992. Imprint, vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1993, 34. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Witthoft, Brucia. The Fine-Arts Etchings of James David Smillie, 1833–1909: A Catalogue Raisonné. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. Imprint, vol. 18, no. 1, Spring 1993, 32–33. Reviewed by Paul D. Schweizer.
Vol. 18, no. 2 (Autumn 1993) Purchase this issue!
111. Lisa K. Dorrill, “Illustrating the Ideal City: Nineteenth-Century American Bird’s Eye Views,” Vol. 18, no. 2 (Autumn 1993), 21- 31.
This essay focuses on the use of bird’s-eye city views as promotional pieces, especially views of Mid-western and Western cities. Dorrill uses prints of Lawrence, Kansas, 1858-1880, to trace shifting attitudes towards that city as it changed from an abolitionist stronghold to a metropolitan center. Her analysis of these prints is thorough and her methodology can be used on other bird’s-eye views.
112. Anne Cannon Palumbo, “Prints into Paint: The Influence of Prints on Eighteenth-Century American Painting,” Vol. 18, no. 2 (Autumn 1993), 13-20.
Using the Winterthur Museum exhibition of 1992-93 To Please Every Taste, Palumbo focuses on artists who relied on prints as learning devices and as sources for historical paintings. Artists mentioned include Benjamin West, J.S. Copley, and William Williams. The latter artist used prints as sources for settings and poses in portrait painting. John Greenwood was indebted to a print by Hogarth for his painting of Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam. Palumbo also suggests that West derived part of his painting William Penn’s Treaty With the Indians from the cartouche of Henry Popple’s 1733 map of the British Empire in America. This essay points to an important fact about prints relating to North America–the appropriation of them by artists to create additional works of art.
113. Sue Rainey, “J.D. Woodward’s Wood Engravings of Colorado and the Pacific Railways, 1876-1878,” Vol. 18, no. 2 (Autumn 1993), 2-12.
Popular journals met the need for more information about the West, particularly after the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. John Douglas Woodward was hired by D. Appleton’s Art Journal to make drawings along the railroad’s route to California and in Colorado and Utah. Rainey provides information on Woodward’s career relying on his extant drawings for much of her excellent discussion of this project published in The Art Journal in 1876 and 1877 and as a book titled Scenery of the Pacific Railroads and Colorado in 1878.
114. Wendy Shadwell, “The Perkins’ Sun Lithographic Establishment: A New York Mystery,” Vol. 18, no. 2 (Autumn 1993), 32-34.
The first article reprints a lengthy advertisement from the August 1850 New York Sun for a lithographic firm whose output is scanty. Joseph Perkins’ firm advertised only briefly, and only one print bearing its imprint had been found. In the 1997 “Update” Shadwell added another print to Perkins’ known output, American Superiority at the World’s Great Fair (1851).
For the second article, see: “An Update,” Vol. 22, no. 2 (Autumn 1997), 22-25.
Book Review: Carlebach, Michael L. The Origins of Photojournalism in America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. Imprint, vol. 18, no. 2, Autumn 1993, 36. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Olson, Lester C. Emblems of American Community in the Revolutionary Era: A Study in Rhetorical Iconology. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. Imprint, vol. 18, no. 2, Autumn 1993, 35–36. Reviewed by Georgia B. Barnhill.
Vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring 1994) Purchase this issue!
115. Francine Tyler, “The Angel in the Factory: Images of Women Workers Engraved on Ante-bellum Bank Notes,” Vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring 1994), 2-10.
Tyler has assembled images of women at work, including some depicting women in the textile industry. Many bank notes were issued by banks in communities noted for their textile factories. Tyler provides a brief history of textile manufacturing in New England and the makers of the images and their sources. A vignette of a female slave and child is also reproduced in this article.
116. Robert R. White, “The Southwestern Etchings of Peter Moran: A History and Catalog,” Vol. 19, no. 1 (Spring 1994), 11-28.
Peter Moran (1841-1914), attracted to New Mexico by its scenery and people, made his first trip there by railroad in 1880. He returned during the next three years, producing an important body of work including fourteen etchings thoroughly described in this well-researched essay. White adds another etching to the catalog in a brief note in the Spring 1995 Imprint (Vol. 20, no. 1, 34-5): Santa Fe, 1883, which is related to a photograph by William Henry Jackson.
Book Review: Bruhn, Thomas P., with Kate Steinway. The American Print: Originality and Experimentation, 1790–1890. Exhibition catalog. Storrs, CT: The William Benton Museum of Art, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 33–34. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Danforth, Susan. Encountering the New World: 1493 to 1800. Exhibition catalog. Providence, RI: The John Carter Brown Library, 1991. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 37–38. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Doggett, Rachel, et al. New World of Wonders: European Images of the Americas, 1492–1700. Exhibition catalog, Folger Library, Washington, DC. Seattle: Washington University Press, 1992. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 37–38. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Faupel, W. John. “A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia:” A Study of the de Bry Engravings. East Grinstead, England: Antique Atlas Publications, 1989. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 35–37. Reviewed by Christopher W. Lane.
Book Review: Hessler, Gene. The Engraver’s Line: An Encyclopedia of Paper Money and Postage Stamp Art. Port Clinton, OH: BNR Press, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 29–30. Reviewed by Mark D. Tomasko.
Book Review: Holzer, Harold. Washington and Lincoln Portrayed: National Icons in Popular Prints. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland & Co., Inc., 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 30–31. Reviewed by Wendy Wick Reaves.
Book Review: Huttner, Sidney F., and Elizabeth Stege, compilers. A Register of Artists, Engravers, Booksellers, Bookbinders, Printers & Publishers in New York City, 1821–1842. New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 40. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Lane, Christopher W. Impressions of Niagara: The Charles Rand Penney Collection of Prints of Niagara Falls and the Niagara River from the Sixteenth to the Early Twentieth Century. Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd., 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 34–35. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Larson, Judy L., with Cynthia Payne, editors. Graphic Arts & The South: Proceedings of the 1990 North American Print Conference. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 31–33. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Lawson, Sarah, and W. John Faupel. A Foothold in Florida. The Eye-Witness Account of Four Voyages Made by the French to That Region and Their Attempt at Colonisation 1562–1568. East Grinstead, England: Antique Atlas Publications, 1992. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 35–37. Reviewed by Christopher W. Lane.
Book Review: Stanchak, John E. Leslie’s Illustrated Civil War. Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1992. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 39–40. Briefly noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Theran, Susan, ed. Prints, Posters & Photographs: Identification and Price Guide. From “The Confident Collector” series. New York: Avon Books, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 39. Briefly Noted by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Tyler, Ron. Audubon’s Great National Work: The Royal Octavo Edition of “The Birds of America.” Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 1, Spring 1994, 38–39. Reviewed by Robert Braun.
Vol. 19, no. 2 (Autumn 1994) Purchase this issue!
117. Brenda Howitson, Claire Goodwin, and Mary Micarelli, “An Index to Illustrations of Massachusetts People and Places in Ballou’s and Gleason’s Pictorials,” Vol. 19, no. 2 (Autumn 1994), 30-41.
The introduction to this useful checklist provides background on these two periodicals that were published consecutively from 1851 to 1859. The index is very useful for those who must respond to the question, “Do you have a picture of ______ ?”
118. William C. Patterson, “The Philadelphia Society of Etchers,” Vol. 19, no. 2 (Autumn 1994), 17-29.
Patterson sets the Philadelphia Society of Etchers in the context of the etching revival of the late nineteenth century. The founding members included Peter Moran, Stephen Parrish, Stephen James Ferris, Joseph Pennell, and Henry Rankin Poore. Moran was president for the twenty-four years that the Philadelphia Society of Etchers was active. Works by each of the major artists are discussed and reproduced. The organization’s records exist in the Bucks County Historical Society.
119. Eugene C. Worman, Jr., “A Geographical Catalog of Bartlett Prints in American Scenery,” Vol. 19, no. 2 (Autumn 1994), 2-16.
Worman, the authority on William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854), provides excellent background on the publication of American Scenery. Also of interest are titles of books bearing contemporary reproductions of the engravings such as American periodicals, histories, biographies, and guidebooks. In a compact format, the geographical catalog presents valuable information, including the number of each plate, whether or not German and French subtitles are present, dimensions, earliest imprint date, location of the engraving in the published work, and the location of any original drawings.
Book Review: Bansner, Phil, compiler. The Lithography of Theodore Leonhardt. West Lawn, PA: Phil Bansner, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 2, Autumn 1994, 44. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Blum, Ann Shelby. Picturing Nature. American Nineteenth-Century Zoological Illustration. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 2, Autumn 1994, 42. Reviewed by Georgia B. Barnhill.
Book Review: Pritchard, Margaret Beck, and Virginia Lascara Sites. William Byrd III and His Lost History: Engravings of the Americas. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1993. Distributed by University Press of Virginia. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 2, Autumn 1994, 43. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Zinman, Michael, compiler. 18th Century Engravings from American Magazines in the Collection of Michael Zinman. Ardsley, NY, 1994. Imprint, vol. 19, no. 2, Autumn 1994, 43–44. Reviewed by Wendy Shadwell.
Vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring 1995) Purchase this issue!
120. James Brust, “A Nathaniel Currier Family Photo Album,” Vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring 1995), 3-6.
Brust’s article provides genealogical information on and photographs of Nathaniel Currier and family members. Although his name is familiar to all print collectors and scholars, little is known about the man, and Brust remedies this situation.
121. James Brust, “Prints of Questionable Taste That Nathaniel Currier Would Not Sign,” Vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring 1995), 7-11.
Several prints issued during the nineteenth century bear the signs of having been published by Nathaniel Currier, but lack an imprint. Brust illustrates and describes The Wedding Night, When! Shall We Three Meet Again?, The Celebrated Terrier Dog Major Performing His Wonderful Feat of Killing 100 Rats in 8 m. – 58 sec., and The Seven Stages of Matrimony. Brust’s attributions are carefully considered.
See the update (article no. 141): James Brust, “Prints of Questionable Taste That Nathaniel Currier Would Not Sign: An Update,” Vol. 23, no. 2 (Autumn 1998), 25-6.
122. Rich Holmer, “California Currier & Ives: From Amusement to Admiration,” Vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring 1995), 13-21.
Forty-two prints published by Nathaniel Currier and Currier & Ives depict California subjects. Holmer discusses these prints as well as the market for them. A list of the prints, arranged chronologically, follows the text.
123. Eva Major-Marothy, “The Wild and the Tamed: Bartlett’s Canada Versus Views by his Canadian Contemporaries,” Vol. 20, no. 1 (Spring 1995), 22-28.
The author compares the views of Canada by William Henry Bartlett for Nathaniel Parker Willis’s Canadian Scenery Illustrated with works by Canadian artists. In order to appeal to a European audience, Bartlett emphasized the wild nature of the country. In contrast, views made for home consumption focused on progress and development. Prints after views by James Pattison Cockburn (1779-1847), William Eagar (ca. 1796-1839), Robert Auchmaty Sproule (1799-1845), Thomas Young (d. 1860), and John Gillespie (fl. 1841-59) are compared to Bartlett’s views.
Book Review: Brandt, Frederick R., Robert Koch, and Philip B. Meggs. Designed to Sell: Turn-of-the-Century American Posters. Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 38–39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Dorothy Sloan Rare Books. The Henry H. Clifford Collection of California Pictorial Letter Sheets. Austin, TX: Dorothy Sloan Rare Books, 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 38. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Fielding, Mantle. American Engravers upon Copper and Steel. Photo reprint of the original first edition. Mamaroneck, NY: Sam Seiffer, 1993. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 40. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Gage, Thomas Hovey. An Artists Index to Stauffer’s “American Engravers.” Photo reprint of original first edition. Mamaroneck, NY: Sam Seiffer, 1995. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 40. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Homberger, Eric. The Historical Atlas of New York City. Maps by Malcolm Swanston, design and illustrations by Ralph Orme. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 37–38. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Stauffer, David McNeely. American Engravers upon Copper and Steel. Vol. 1. Mamaroneck, NY: Sam Seiffer, 1990. Photo reprint of original first edition. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 40. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Stauffer, David McNeely, Mantle Fielding, and Thomas H. Gage. American Engravers upon Copper and Steel. 3 vols. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 39–40. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Tyler, Ron. Prints of the West. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 1, Spring 1995, 36–37. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 20, no. 2 (Autumn 1995) Purchase this issue!
124. William Diebold. “Four Great Sequences of Hudson River Prints,” Vol. 20, no. 2 (Autumn 1995), 2-18.
After summarizing notable eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century views of the Hudson River, Diebold describes the production and contents of four significant sequences of Hudson River views: the aquatints of the Hudson River Portfolio by John Hill after William Guy Wall; the lithographs of Jacques Gerard Milbert’s Itineraire pittoresque du Fleuve Hudson; the steel engravings in Willis’s American Scenery after William Henry Bartlett; and the wood engravings in Benson J. Lossing’s The Hudson, from the Wilderness to the Sea. The essay is well-researched and documented.
125. Cleota Reed, “On the Trail of the Arkansas Traveller,” Vol. 20, no. 2 (Autumn 1995), 19-28.
Henry Chapman Mercer’s decorative fireplace surrounds (1916) titled “The Arkansas Traveller” were based on a nineteenth-century print. Reed, an historian of ceramics, traces the history of this image both in folklore and fine art. Edward Payson Washborne painted the subject about 1856 and the painting was reproduced lithographically by Leopold Grozelier in 1859. A bill from the lithographer John H. Bufford documents the size of the edition and the agents engaged to sell it. This lithograph in turn served as the source for other lithographs published by J. H. Bufford’s Sons and Currier & Ives in the 1870s. Reed provides substantial information on Mercer as well.
Book Review: Rainey, Sue. Creating Picturesque America: Monument to the Natural and Cultural Landscape. Nashville and London: Vanderbilt University Press, 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 2, Autumn 1995, 29–30. Reviewed by E. Richard McKinstry.
Book Review: Reps, John W. Cities of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century Images of Urban Development. Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 2, Autumn 1995, 30–31. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Ruge, Valice F., editor. Life Along the Hudson: Wood Engravings of Hudson River Subjects from “Harper’s Weekly,” 1859–1903. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1994. Imprint, vol. 20, no. 2, Autumn 1995, 30. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996) Purchase this issue!
126. Marjorie P. Balge-Crozier, “Through the Eyes of the Artist: Another Look at Winslow Homer’s Sharpshooter,” Vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996), 2-10.
This essay takes a fresh look at one of Winslow Homer’s designs reproduced in the 15 November 1862 issue of Harper’s Weekly. The author provides a synopsis of other visual works depicting sharpshooters and discusses the image in terms of its vision and different levels of meaning. The image is of particular importance because Homer used this subject for his first oil painting.
127. Annette Blaugrund, “John James Audubon: Producer, Promoter, and Publisher,” Vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996), 11-19.
Blaugrund provides an excellent introduction to Audubon’s life and the importance of The Birds of America, focusing on his attempts to sell subscriptions to his work. The article concludes with his death and his widow’s sale of the original watercolors to the New-York Historical Society.
128. Christopher Hoolihan, “Wood Engraving and American Medical Publishing in the Early Nineteenth Century,” Vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996), 20-28.
Changes in publishing, the creation of an educated elite, and the professionalization of the medical profession increased the need for medical literature. Hoolihan discusses the alternative processes for the production of illustrations, focusing on the most popular and economical–wood engraving. Between 1800 and 1810, the firm of Collins & Perkins pioneered the use of wood engravings in their medical texts and realized the great economic advantages to the publisher of publishing illustrations with the text, as opposed to printing the illustrations separately and binding them in. Hoolihan’s observations are applicable to other genres of literature.
Book Review: Barnhill, Georgia B. Wild Impressions: The Adirondacks on Paper. Prints from the Collection of the Adirondack Museum. Boston: David R. Godine with the Adirondack Museum, 1995. Imprint, vol. 21, no. 1, Spring 1996, 31. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Miles, Ellen G. Saint-Mémin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in America. Washington, DC: National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. Imprint, vol. 21, no. 1, Spring 1996, 29. Reviewed by Wendy Shadwell.
Book Review: O’Rourke, Kevin. Currier & Ives: The Irish in America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995. Imprint, vol. 21, no. 1, Spring 1996, 30. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Schieber, Ron. Currier & Ives Trade Card Checklist. Revised edition. Akron, Ohio: published by the author, 1995. Imprint, vol. 21, no. 1, Spring 1996, 30. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Wright, Helena E. With Pen & Graver: Women Graphic Artists Before 1900. Washington, DC: National Museum of American History, 1995. Imprint, vol. 21, no. 1, Spring 1996, 32. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 21, no. 2 (Autumn 1996) Purchase this issue!
129. Robert Braun, “Identifying Audubon Bird Prints: Originals, States, Editions, Restrikes, and Facsimiles and Reproductions,” Vol. 21, no. 2 (Autumn 1996), 12-22.
Braun, an amateur ornithologist and collector, provides a useful guide to differentiating among the various editions of Audubon prints, as well as later reproductions. The essay features enlargements of details of the prints that are helpful in distinguishing different editions and states.
130. Jessie Poesch, “An Artists’ Excursion, Illustrated by Porte Crayon (David Hunter Strother),” Vol. 21, no. 2 (Autumn 1996), 23-35.
The Harper firm selected Strother to illustrate the excursion that a group of artists made on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in June 1858. Poesch provides excellent biographical information on Strother and details about the railroad and the trip. The original article, published in the June 1859 Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, contains important information about attitudes towards railroads and the artists.
131. Steven E. Smith, “Thure de Thulstrup: Harper’s Workhorse,” Vol. 21, no. 2 (Autumn 1996), 2-11.
A prolific illustrator for Harper’s Weekly beginning in the 1880s, Thulstrup (1848-1930) worked for the Harper firm for almost thirty years. Smith provides an excellent biographical sketch of the artist and description of his work, which encompassed political and social events, portraiture, and military scenes.
Book Review: Cheadle, Dave, with Russ Mascieri. Victorian Trade Cards: Historical Reference & Value Guide. Paducah, KY: Collector Books, 1996. Imprint, vol. 21, no. 2, Autumn 1996, 36. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997) Purchase this issue!
132. Joan Macy Kaskell, “Eastman Johnson, Lithographer,” Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997), 11-15.
The author, descended from Eastman Johnson, writes about a small group of portrait lithographs by Johnson (1824-1906), who was better known as a genre painter. Executed before he was thirty years old, the portrait prints depict members of the Folsom family and are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Johnson did one later lithograph, Marguerite, issued about 1860.
133. John and Barbara Rudisill, “Some Previously Uncataloged Currier & Ives Prints,” Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997), 16-24.
The authors summarize the available catalogs of Currier & Ives prints and list 115 unrecorded items. They are eager to receive information on additional prints. (The list, with recent additions, is also available on the AHPCS website.)
134. David Tatham, “Winslow Homer as a Book Illustrator: Further Notes,” Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997), 25-6.
Tatham’s Winslow Homer and the Illustrated Book was published in 1992. This brief note adds two additional books to Homer’s oeuvre: The White Rabbit and Other Stories from Robin-Wood (Boston, 1857) and Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (Boston, 1871).
135. Rosemarie L. Tovell, “Charles Henry White (1878-1918), Canada’s Painter-Etcher of American Cities,” Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 1997), 2-10.
In this well-documented article, Tovell establishes White as a founder of the etching revival of the early 1900s, a movement known for its realistic treatment of subject matter. She focuses on his etchings of American cities, particularly New York, executed beginning in 1901. At the same time he provided illustrations for popular magazines such as Harper’s Monthly. Although he lived abroad beginning in 1909, he exhibited in Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia.
Book Review: Hults, Linda C. The Print in the Western World: An Introductory History. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 1, Spring 1997, 27–28. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Snyder-Grenier, Ellen M. Brooklyn! An Illustrated History for the Brooklyn Historical Society. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 1, Spring 1997, 28. Reviewed by Martin L. Schneider.
Book Review: Wright, Helena E. Prints at the Smithsonian: The Origins of a National Collection. Washington, DC: National Museum of American History, 1996. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 1, Spring 1997, 27. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Autumn 1997) Purchase this issue!
136. Lauren B. Hewes, “Ponderous Folios and Curious Engravings: The Print Collection of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Family,” Vol. 22, no. 2 (Autumn 1997), 11-22.
The Longfellow National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts, houses nearly 1,200 prints acquired by the Longfellow family. Hewes provides a synopsis of Longfellow’s life and identifies several themes evident in the family’s collection: portraits of acquaintances and views of places they visited, prints acquired for their usefulness as reference tools, prints by local artists, and reproductions of important works of art. Both European and American prints are discussed and reproduced.
137. Harry L. Katz, “Love, Lies, and Wood Engravings: Alfred Waud in Boston, 1856-1860,” Vol. 22, no. 2 (Autumn 1997), 2-10.
Waud lived in Boston for several years, using a pseudonym (A. Hill) to try to conceal his whereabouts due to an illicit love affair with a married woman. Katz uncovered this aspect of Waud’s career by comparing extant sketches in The Historic New Orleans Collection with published illustrations in Ballou’s Pictorial. He discusses these years of Waud’s life and work in detail. Eventually the woman was divorced, paving the way for Waud to marry her. The Civil War opened new opportunities for Waud in New York and his reputation as a “special artist” soared.
Book Review: Tovell, Rosemarie L. A New Class of Art: The Artist’s Print in Canadian Art, 1877–1920. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1996. Imprint, vol. 21, no. 2, Autumn 1996, 36. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman. A more extensive review by Thomas P. Bruhn appeared in Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 26–27.
Book Review: Tyler, Ron, editor. Prints and Printmakers of Texas. Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual North American Print Conference. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1997. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 27–28. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: United States Commission on Art. United States Senate Graphic Arts Collection Illustrated Checklist, Volume 1. Washington, DC: United States Senate Commission on Art, 1995. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 30–31. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Gustke, Nancy L. The Special Artist in American Culture: A Biography of Frank Hamilton Taylor (1846–1927). American University Studies, Series XX, Fine Arts, Vol. 21. New York: Peter Lang, 1995. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 29. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Mills, Laura K. American Allegorical Prints: Constructing an Identity. New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1996. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 29–30. Reviewed by Wendy Shadwell.
Book Review: O’Leary, Elizabeth L. At Beck and Call: The Representation of Domestic Servants in Nineteenth-Century American Painting. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 30. Reviewed by Sue Rainey.
Book Review: Pierce, Sally, with Catharina Slautterback and Georgia Brady Barnhill. Early American Lithography: Images to 1830. Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 1997. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 25–26. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Rainey, Sue, and Roger B. Stein. Shaping the Landscape Image, 1865–1910: John Douglas Woodward. Charlottesville: Bayly Art Museum, University of Virginia, 1997. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 31–32. Reviewed by Richard O. Hathaway.
Book Review: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities. Fanny Palmer: A Long Island Woman Who Portrayed America. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1997. Imprint, vol. 22, no. 2, Autumn 1997, 26. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998)
138. Sue Rainey, “Recollections of a Leslie’s Special Artist in the Civil War,” Vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998), 18-26.
Rainey has transcribed and provided an introduction to a memoir by Francis H. Schell (1834-1909) relating his experiences as an artist employed by the publisher of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in the early months of the Civil War. His account provides interesting details about pictorial journalism, the expectations of the publisher, and some of the pitfalls facing the many men who worked for the illustrated newspapers. The memoir, located in the Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library, has provided Rainey the ability to attribute some unsigned illustrations to Schell.
139. David Tatham, “Keppler versus Beecher: Prints of the Great Brooklyn Scandal,” Vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998), 2-8.
In 1872 the famous Brooklyn preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, became embroiled in a scandal over an affair with the wife of Theodore Tilton, a noted journalist. The scandal remained a target of cartoonists for three years. Among the artists who contributed to the pictorial documentation of the scandal was Joseph Keppler, whose lithographs appeared in his magazine Puck. Tatham provides the context for these prints and discusses seven of them in detail.
140. Helena E. Wright, “A ‘Transatlantic Stranger’: Portrait Prints of John James Audubon,” Vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring 1998), 9-17.
In this well-researched article, Wright asserts that Audubon’s style of self-promotion influenced his reception and reputation, using portrait prints and verbal descriptions of him as the basis for her thesis. He even admitted in a letter to his wife that his long hair was as important to his success as his talents. The portrait prints discussed by Wright were derived from life portraits.
Book Review: Barnhill, Georgia B., Diana Korzenik, and Caroline F. Sloat, editors. The Cultivation of Artists in Nineteenth-Century America. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1997. Imprint, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 1998, 27–28. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 23, no. 2 (Autumn 1998) Purchase this issue!
141. James Brust, “Prints of Questionable Taste That Nathaniel Currier Would Not Sign: An Update,” Vol. 23, no. 2 (Autumn 1998), 25-6.
This brief article provides further information on two of the four prints described by Brust in Imprint in 1995 (article no. 121). He has located an impression of The Celebrated Terrier Dog Major with an imprint. However, he no longer believes that The Seven Stages of Matrimony is by Currier, since an impression has surfaced with a plate number that does not correspond to Currier’s numbering system.
142. Cathy Cherbosque, “American Historical Prints at the Huntington–The Prints and Ephemera Collections,” Vol. 23, no. 2 (Autumn 1998), 27-34.
The Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California, has broad collections relating to both American and British history and culture. Cherbosque provides an overview of the history of the collections and the current policy for adding to the print collection. Several representative highlights are reproduced, drawing from collections of posters, broadsides, genre prints, portraits, and social and political caricature.
143. Rona Schneider, “The Canadian Etchings of Stephen Parrish and Charles Adams Platt,” Vol. 23, no. 2 (Autumn 1998), 2-19.
Parrish and Platt traveled together to the Canadian maritime provinces in August and September of 1881, lured by the scenery and stories of other artists. Parrish made fourteen etchings and Platt eight as a result of this trip. In this thoroughly documented essay, Schneider provides biographical information on each artist, background on the etching revival, and information about the creation, publication, and exhibition of the etchings of the two men.
144. Erin Michaela Sweeney, “The Patriotic Ladies of Edenton, North Carolina: The Layers of Gray in a Black-and-White Print,” Vol. 23, no. 2 (Autumn 1998), 20-24.
One British mezzotint that has long fascinated scholars is A Society of Patriotic Ladies, at Edenton in North Carolina, published by Robert Sayer and John Bennett in 1775. Sweeney analyzes the economic, political, and social motives behind the publication of this print that shows women of Edenton signing a petition against the importation of British goods and the consumption of tea. In spite of its ostensibly pro-American sentiment, Sweeney points out aspects of the image that make it ambiguous in its meaning.
Book Review: Farwell, Beatrice. French Popular Lithographic Imagery, 1815–1870. Vol. 12, Lithography in Art and Commerce. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1997. Imprint, vol. 23, no. 2, Autumn 1998, 38. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Zinkham, Helena. A Guide to Print, Photograph, Architecture & Ephemera Collections at the New-York Historical Society. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1998. Imprint, vol. 23, no. 2, Autumn 1998, 37. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: McBurney, Henrietta, with an introduction by Amy R. W. Meyers. Mark Catesby’s Natural History of America: The Watercolors from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts in association with Merrell Holberton, London, 1997. Imprint, vol. 23, no. 2, Autumn 1998, 40. Reviewed by Robert Braun.
Book Review: Smith, Steven E. American Book and Magazine Illustrators to 1920. With Catherine A. Hastedt, and Donald H. Dyal, eds. Detroit, Washington, DC, and London: Gale Research, 1998. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Imprint, vol. 23, no. 2, Autumn 1998, 39–40. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999) Purchase this issue!
145. James Brust and Wendy Shadwell, “Unconventional Currier & Ives,” Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999), 2-26.
In the spring of 1998, Brust and Shadwell mounted an exhibition of uncommon objects relating to Currier & Ives at the New-York Historical Society. This article discusses these items and others, including cases for daguerreotypes, wood engravings of lithographs, unusual lithographs for the firm, job work, trade cards published by the firm based on earlier larger prints, and photographs of their prints. Also noted are works by other artists who copied prints by the firm. This is a fascinating excursion into little-known images.
146. Paul Worman, “The Etchings of Thomas Waterman Wood,” Vol. 24, no. 1 (Spring 1999), 27-34.
Worman is engaged in the compilation of a catalog raisonné of Thomas Waterman Wood. In this essay, he presents Wood’s biography and describes his use of the etching process beginning in 1877 at the first meeting of the New York Etching Club. Wood worked in this medium until 1894 when he refocused his attention on his painting career.
Book Review: Bickford-Swarthout, Doris. Mary Hallock Foote: Pioneer Woman Illustrator. Deansboro, NY: Berry Hill Press, 1996. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 1, Spring 1999, 37–38. Reviewed by Sue Rainey.
Book Review: Bonfante-Warren, Alexandra. Currier & Ives: Portraits of a Nation. New York: Metro Books, 1998. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 1, Spring 1999, 37. Reviewed by Marshall Berkoff.
Book Review: Hunnisett, Basil. Engraved on Steel: The History of Picture Production Using Steel Plates. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1998. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 1, Spring 1999, 35. Reviewed by Wendy Shadwell.
Book Review: Reps, John W. Bird’s Eye Views: Historic Lithographs of North American Cities. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 1, Spring 1999, 37. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Welch, Caroline Mastin, ed. Adirondack Prints and Printmakers: The Call of the Wild. Syracuse, NY: The Adirondack Museum and Syracuse University Press, 1998. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 1, Spring 1999, 35–37. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 24, no. 2 (Autumn 1999) Purchase this issue!
147. Jim Burant, “The Growth and Protection of a Cultural Industry: The Graphic Arts in Canada, 1850-1914,” Vol. 24, no. 2 (Autumn 1999), 25-37.
Based on his presentation at the North American Print Conference held in Ottawa in 1984, Burant’s essay documents the imposition of protective tariffs, the growth of a distinctively Canadian graphic arts industry, its commercialization, and the development of a tradition of fine-art printmaking. Prior to the establishment of a protective tariff in 1858, many Canadian artists turned to the centers of print production in Europe and the United States for lithographs after their works. Burant provides ample examples of each of his major themes in this seminal article.
148. Scott E. Casper, “First First Family: Seventy Years with Edward Savage’s The Washington Family,” Vol. 24, no. 2 (Autumn 1999), 2-15.
Edward Savage’s painting The Washington Family was reproduced by Savage himself as a print in 1798 and by a host of printmakers and publishers over the next seventy years. Casper analyzes Savage’s painting and print and their copies, finding changing cultural and political ideas expressed in the varying adaptations through the nineteenth century.
149. Sloane Stephens, “Electra Havemeyer Webb’s Print Collection at the Shelburne Museum,” Vol. 24, no. 2 (Autumn 1999), 16-24.
Long before the Shelburne Museum was opened, its founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960), collected American prints and related Americana for her homes in Vermont and Westbury, Long Island, beginning in 1919. Stephens, managing curator at the Museum, documents the collection and its installation at Shelburne, founded in 1947. Collections include important Currier & Ives prints, circus posters, textiles related to prints, as well as railroad, naval, whaling and maritime prints that reflect other major parts of the Museum’s interests.
Book Review: Braun, Nancy and Robert, compilers. An Audubon Concordance: Migration through the Plate Numbers. Fairfield, CT: American Historical Print Collectors Society, 1999. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 2, Autumn 1999, 40. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Howe, Kathleen Stewart, editor. Intersections: Lithography, Photography and the Traditions of Printmaking. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 2, Autumn 1999, 38–39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Reese, William S. Stamped with a National Character: Nineteenth Century American Color Plate Books. Exhibition catalog. New York: The Grolier Club, 1999. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 2, Autumn 1999, 38. Reviewed by Georgia B. Barnhill.
Book Review: Schneider, Rona. Stephen Parrish: Rediscovered American Etcher. Exhibition catalog. Philadelphia: Woodmere Art Museum, 1999. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 2, Autumn 1999, 39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Welch, Margaret. The Book of Nature: Natural History in the United States, 1825–1875. Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1998. Imprint, vol. 24, no. 2, Autumn 1999, 39–40. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
2000s (Vols. 25-34) Imprint Articles
Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000) Purchase this issue!
150. Georgia B. Barnhill. “The Markets for Images from 1670 to 1790 in America,” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 2-15.
This essay discusses the demand for images during the colonial period by book publishers, governments, artisans, merchants, and mariners. Prints, illustrations, and ephemera are not produced in a vacuum but are created for specific purposes and audiences.
151. James S. Brust, “The Celebrated Fighting Pig, ‘Pape’ A Currier Rarity,” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 34-6.
Although noted by Harry T. Peters in a newspaper advertisement, no impression of this elusive print had ever been located until this impression came to light recently in California. Its scarcity may be due the lack of an imprint on the lithograph, advertised by N. Currier in 1851 as a sporting print.
152. Randall and Tanya Holton, “Excavating the Past: Prints and Sandpaper Paintings of the Ancient World,” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 2-14.
The Holtons are scholars and collectors of sandpaper paintings, a popular folk-art medium in the nineteenth-century using charcoal on marble-dusted drawing board. In this essay, they define the technique and explore a genre of works–reproductions of engravings of the ancient world that reflect the aspirations of the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Views of Athens, Palmyra, Sodom, Delhi, and Italian ruins are among the subjects that were popular. The Holtons have been successful in identifying the prints that served as sources for these remarkable drawings.
153. Deborah Jean Warner, “Portrait Prints of Men of Science in Eighteenth-Century America,” Vol. 25, no. 1 (Spring 2000), 26-33.
An important aspect of the 1999 National Portrait Gallery exhibition, “Franklin and His Friends: Portraying the Man of Science in Eighteenth-Century America,” was the importance of portrait prints in establishing scientific identity and in disseminating ideas about the scientific community. Portraits of Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Banneker, John Jeffries, and Benjamin Thompson are discussed in detail.
Book Review: Chambers, Emma. An Indolent and Blundering Art? The Etching Revival and the Redefinition of Etching in England, 1838–1892. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 1999. Imprint, vol. 25, no. 1, Spring 2000, 37–38. Reviewed by Rosemarie Tovell.
Book Review: Falk, Peter Hastings, editor-in-chief. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564–1975. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999. Imprint, vol. 25, no. 1, Spring 2000, 39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Finlay, Nancy. Inventing the American Past: The Art of F.O.C. Darley. New York: New York Public Library, 1999. Imprint, vol. 25, no. 1, Spring 2000, 38–39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Irmscher, Christopher, editor. John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings. New York: The Library of America, 1999. Imprint, vol. 25, no. 1, Spring 2000, 39–40. Reviewed by Margaret Welch.
Vol. 25, no. 2 (Autumn 2000) Purchase this issue!
154. Ruth Alden Graham, “A Look Back at the Founding and Growth of the American Historical Print Collectors Society,” Vol. 25, no. 2, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Issue (Autumn 2000), 2-8.
A brief history of the Society’s establishment and growth. Includes lists of presidents, Ewell L. Newman Book Award Winners, AHPCS Fellows at the American Antiquarian Society, and Annual Meetings.
155. Georgia B. Barnhill, comp., “Annotated Bibliography of Imprint Articles, Volumes 1-25, 1976-2000,” Vol. 25, no. 2, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Issue (Autumn 2000), 10-33. This issue prints Barnhill’s annotated bibliography of all Imprint articles appearing in Volumes 1-25 of the journal The same content precedes this entry in this area of the AHPCS web site. Barnhill is preparing an update of her bibliography on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American graphic arts published in 1979 by the Smithsonian Institution for Arts in America. AHPCS plans to publish it.
Book Review: Neely, Mark E., and Harold Holzer. The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Imprint, vol. 25, no. 2, Autumn 2000, 32–33. Reviewed by Christopher Lane.
Vol. 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001) Purchase this issue!
156. Nicholas Westbrook, “Ticonderoga in Print: Prints from the Fort Ticonderoga Museum Collection,” Vol 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001), 2-18.
Westbrook, Director of Fort Ticonderoga, discusses some of the key images of the strategic Ticonderoga peninsula and the historic fort built by the French and later occupied, and then destroyed, by the British. The images range from an early fanciful view of the French victory in 1758, to a series of picturesque views of the ruins of the fort by such artists as Hugh Reinagle, William Guy Wall, Thomas Cole, and Jacques Gérard Milbert to later images of some of the events of the American Revolution. Westbrook interprets how the different subjects relate to changing cultural concerns.
157. Jacqueline Calder, “The Flower Prints of Vermonters John Henry Hopkins, Sr. and Jr.,” Vol. 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001), 19-24.
Calder tells the story of the creation of the beautiful and extremely rare Burlington Drawing Book of Flowers (1846) by a father-son team. John Henry Hopkins (1792-1868) was a multi-talented man. In 1832 he became bishop of Vermont and moved to Burlington. In 1836 he published an Essay on Gothic Architecture, illustrated with his own lithographs. Struggling to support his school, the Vermont Episcopal Institute, he produced a series of drawing books including The Vermont Drawing Book of Landscapes (1838). He was assisted by his son, John Henry Hopkins Jr., whose name is on the title page of The Burlington Drawing Book of Flowers. This and the portfolio version, titled The Vermont Drawing Book of Flowers, are owned by the Vermont Historical Society.
158. Sally Lorensen Conant, “‘Always Beautiful in My Eyes’ : An American Industrial Entrepreneur and the Picturesque,” Vol. 26, no. 1 (Spring 2001), 25-31.
Conant examines prints of the factories at Matteawan, now known as the city of Beacon, New York, to trace the diminishing use of picturesque conventions and greater attention to commerce and industrial development. The 1832 aquatint by John Hill, Matteawan. Manufacturing Village, Near Fishkill Landing, N. York, after a sketch by O. Neely, combines an accurate depiction of the industrial town with traditional picturesque elements. A state of this print with an extensive legend in both English and Spanish shows it was intended to advertise the Matteawan Company’s products and machinery. Conant speculates that Philip Hone, one of the company’s investors and a sophisticated art patron, may have influenced the choice of aquatint for this print. Hone’s attitude that industry enhanced the natural landscape was probably shared by the Schenck family, owners of the Company.
Book Review: Barnhill, Georgia B. The Catalogue of American Engravings: A Manual for Users. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 2000. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 32. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Baskett, Mary Welch. John Henry Twachtman: American Impressionist Painter as Printmaker, A Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints. With a List of Prints by Martha Scudder Twachtman. Bronxville, NY: M. Hausberg, 1999. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 33–34. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Book Review: Boehme, Sarah E., editor. John James Audubon in the West: The Last Expedition; Mammals of North America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 2000. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 32–33. Reviewed by Margaret Welch.
Book Review: Deák, Gloria-Gilda. Picturing New York: The City from Its Beginnings to the Present. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 35. Reviewed by James S. Brust.
Book Review: Gutjahr, Paul C. An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777–1880. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 36. Reviewed by Sue Rainey.
Book Review: Holzer, Harold. Lincoln Seen and Heard. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 34–35. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Tovell, Rosemarie L. The Stone Age: Canadian Lithography from Its Beginnings. Exhibition catalog. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2000. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 36. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Twyman, Michael, et al. The Bicentennial of Lithography. San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1999. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring 2001, 35–36. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 26, no. 2 (Autumn 2001) Purchase this issue!
159. Jourdan Moore Houston and Alan Fraser Houston, “Lithographer Henry Hitchings: Educator and Early Devotee of Landscape Art,” Vol. 26, no. 2 (Autumn 2001), 2-13.
Henry Hitchings (1823-1902) of Boston had a long career as an artist, printmaker, art teacher, and administrator. Recent discoveries of his works allow the Houstons to present his significant contributions and those of his Boston circle. In 1849 Hitchings became chief lithographer for the four-part series, Landscape Sketches from Actual Views of New England Scenery. Hitchings lithographed some of his own drawings in this series designed to showcase the talents of members of the Boston Artists. Association. In 1859 he traveled with Albert Bierstadt and Seth Frost along the Oregon Trail, making sketches and watercolors, and eventually at least one lithograph. He may have also made photographs in the West. After serving as drawing master at the U.S. Naval Academy, in 1869 he began what would be a long career as an art teacher and administrator in the Boston schools, working with Walter Smith. Hitchings produced drawing texts, including Spencerian Drawing-Book No. 2 in 1871 and Landscape Studies in Sepia, published by Prang in 1876.
160. Wendy Shadwell and James Brust, “Unrecorded Currier & Ives,” Vol. 26, no. 2 (Autumn 2001), 14-18.
The authors present several newly discovered items produced by the various firms Nathaniel Currier established. First, the short-lived firm of Stodart & Currier lithographed a map of China dated 1834. In 1840, N. Currier lithographed the sheet music cover Tippecanoe, the Hero of North Bend, with a portrait of Whig party presidential candidate, William Henry Harrison. A Nathaniel Currier billhead from 1852 shows the firm’s sidelines included imported engravings and frames. Finally, a C & I portrait of Edward Stiles Stokes, murderer of James Fisk in 1872, is shown to be based on a Harper’s Weekly wood engraving from a photograph by “Kurz.”
161. Ron Tyler, “Illustrated Government Publications Related to the American West, 1843-1863,” Vol. 26, no. 2 (Autumn 2001), 19-31.
Tyler surveys the eighteen illustrated federal government publications relating to the West issued from 1843 to 1863-from Fremont’s first report on the Rocky Mountains to Lt. John Mullen’s Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla-Walla to Fort Benton. They contain more than 1600 unique illustrations, and the size of editions ranged from 100 to 53,000. Tyler asks, and attempts to answer, four questions: Why did the government publish these pictures? How widely were they disseminated? What was their impact? And how did they affect the fledgling lithographic industry? Motivations ranged from the need for scientific and practical information to the desire to emulate European governments in publishing expedition reports, although some objected to the expense. Their impact was to acquaint a wide public with largely unknown regions and to encourage westward expansion.
162. David Tatham, “Winslow Homer’s General Giuseppe Garibaldi: An Unrecorded Harper’s Weekly Illustration,” Vol. 26, no. 2 (Autumn 2001), 32-33.
Tatham identifies a portrait of the Italian patriot General Giuseppe Garibaldi that appeared on the front page of the November 17, 1860, Harper’s Weekly as the work of Winslow Homer. It is signed with an elongated “H” similar to that used by Homer in several instances. The Weekly explained that the portrait was drawn from a photograph of a painting by Pagliano.
Book Review: Ambroziak, Brian M., and Jeffrey R. Ambroziak. Infinite Perspectives: Two Thousand Years of Three-Dimensional Mapmaking. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 2, Autumn 2001, 34–35. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Davis, Elliot Bostwick. “The Currency of Culture: Prints in New York City,” in Art and the Empire City, New York, 1825–1861. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 2, Autumn 2001, 35–36. Reviewed by Georgia B. Barnhill.
Book Review: Krieger, Alex, and David Cobb, with Amy Turner, editors. Mapping Boston. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1999. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 2, Autumn 2001, 34–35. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Rickards, Maurice, completed and edited by Michael Twyman. The Encyclopedia of Ephemera: A Guide to the Fragmentary Documents of Everyday Life for the Collector, Curator, and Historian. London and New York: The British Library and Routledge, 2000. Imprint, vol. 26, no. 2, Autumn 2001, 35. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002) Purchase this issue!
163. Gloria Deák, “The Print Legacy of Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes to the City of New York,” Vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002), 2-11.
Architect and pioneering print collector I. N. Phelps Stokes (1867-1944) assembled a comprehensive collection of views of New York City, and eventually of the development of the entire United States. In 1930 he bequeathed his whole collection to The New York Public Library. Deák recounts the story of his collecting and his resolve to publish The Iconography of Manhattan Island, including reproductions of every map, plan, or view of New York City, whether in his collection or not. It eventually reached six volumes.
164. Erika Piola, “Object, Producer, and Consumer of Popular Prints: A Study of Afro-Americana Graphics at The Library Company of Philadelphia,” Vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002), 12-22.
This article stems from questions that arose in cataloging the extensive holdings in Afro-Americana Graphics at The Library Company of Philadelphia (now accessible through the Library’s on-line catalog, Wolf-PAC: www.librarycompany.org). With a focus on the Philadelphia area, the Afro-Americana graphics “elicit an informal visual history of the African American presence in Philadelphia from the late eighteenth to late nineteenth century.” Piola addresses such questions as how African Americans were represented in popular prints and the economic and social motives for producing and consuming prints with an African American theme.
165. William C. Cook, “The Coffin Handbills-America’s First Smear Campaign,” Vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2002), 23-37.
Cook focuses on the many versions of the “Coffin Handbills” attacking Andrew Jackson in the presidential campaign of 1828, when his opponent was John Quincy Adams. In its first version, published by John Binns in Philadelphia as a supplement to The Democratic Press, the handbill depicted six coffins. These represented six Tennessee militia men executed thirteen years earlier, Feb. 21, 1815, after a court martial found them guilty of disobedience. As Commander of the Seventh Military District, Jackson had let the court’s decision stand, and his opponents tried to use this to defame his judgment. Cook has located 27 “Coffin Handbills,” including one covered with 184 coffins. An annotated catalog of these follows the article.
Book Review: Bunker, Gary L. From Rail-Splitter to Icon: Lincoln’s Image in Illustrated Periodicals, 1860–1865. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2001. Imprint, Vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 40–42. Reviewed by Harold Holzer.
Book Review: Cornell, Alice M., editor. Art as Image: Prints and Promotion in Cincinnati, Ohio. Athens: Ohio University Press in association with the University of Cincinnati Digital Press, 2001. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 38–39. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Fenn, Patricia, and Alfred P. Malpa. Rewards of Merit: Tokens of a Child’s Progress and a Teacher’s Esteem as an Enduring Aspect of American Religious and Secular Education. Cazenovia, NY: Ephemera Society of America, 1994. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 42–43. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Gravell, Thomas L., and George Miller, revised with the assistance of Elizabeth A. Welsh. American Watermarks, 1690–1835. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2002. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 42–43. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Holzer, Harold. Prang’s Civil War Pictures: The Complete Battle Chromos of Louis Prang. New York: Fordham University Press, 2001. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 39–40. Reviewed by Christopher Lane.
Book Review: Kissell, Eleonore, and Erin Vigneau. Architectural Reproductions: A Manual for Identification and Care. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and the New York Botanical Garden, 1999. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 42–43. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Krill, John. English Artists’ Papers, Renaissance to Regency. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and the Winterthur Museum, 2002. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 42–43. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Rhodes, Barbara, and William Wells Streeter. Before Photocopying: The Art and History of Mechanical Copying, 1780–1938. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and Heraldry Bindery, 1999. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 1, Spring 2002, 42–43. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 27, no. 2 (Autumn 2002)
166. Christopher W. Lane, “A History of McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America,” Vol. 27, no. 2 (Autumn 2002), 2-15. Purchase this article!
Lane clarifies the extremely complicated publishing history of McKenney and Hall’s monumental work containing 117 lithographed portraits of Native Americans, “the largest and most elaborate lithographed volume” issued in the United States to that time. As head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Thomas L. McKenney assembled an archive of artifacts and portraits by Charles Bird King and James Otto Lewis that would eventually make up the War Department’s Indian Gallery. In 1829 McKenney initiated his “Great National Work,” to publish lithographs of the portraits. Over the next fourteen years, many different publishers and lithographers were involved. Examples of publishers, imprints and their variations can aid in the identification of variant images.
167. Martha R. Wyatt, “Endicott & Co. Lithographs at The Mariners’ Museum,” Vol. 27, no. 2 (Autumn 2002), 16-26. Purchase this article!
Wyatt examines prints by the New York lithographers Endicott & Co. in the collection of The Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia, founded in 1932 by Archer and Anna Huntington. She seeks to understand why the Endicott firm so frequently chose marine subjects and to assess the historical value of such views, particularly in relation to Civil War history. From the 180 Endicott lithographs in the Museum’s collection, she focuses on views of steamships on the Hudson River and Civil War “ironclad” vessels. She gives particular attention to two artists and lithographers, Charles Parsons and Edwin Whitefield.
168. Jourdan Moore Houston, “M. J. Whipple’s New England Scenery From Nature Series: ‘A Yearbook’ of Tappan & Bradford Artists, 1849-1852,” Vol. 27, no. 2 (Autumn 2002), 27-44. Purchase this article!
In 1849, to generate interest in homegrown art, members of the Boston Artists’ Association contributed to a bound portfolio of lithographs of regional scenes published by M. J. Whipple, a dealer in artists, materials, and lithographed by Tappan & Bradford. Houston’s research has turned up several lithographs thought to be from this rare first portfolio and evidence of at least three more bound issues with the same title (more or less) published between 1849 and 1852. Houston recounts Whipple’s contributions to the Boston art community and what is known about a number of the artists and printmakers, including Francis Nalder Mitchell, William Henry Tappan, Edward Augustus Fowle, Benjamin Franklin Smith, Jr., Richard Parrott Mallory, and teachers Edward Seager, Frederick D. Williams, William N. Bartholomew, Henry Hitchings, and Benjamin Franklin Nutting.
Book Review: Goddu, Joseph. Artist’s Proofs for “The Birds of America”: An Exhibition in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Hirschl & Adler Galleries. New York: Hirschl & Adler, 2002. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 2, Autumn 2002, 45. Reviewed by Robert Braun.
Book Review: Hoover, John Neal, editor. St. Louis and the Art of the Frontier. Proceedings of a Symposium: St. Louis, Cradle of Western American Art, 1830–1900. St. Louis: St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, 2000. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 2, Autumn 2002, 47–48. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: LeBeau, Bryan F. Currier and Ives America Imagined. Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 2, Autumn 2002, 45–47. Reviewed by Roger B. Stein.
Book Review: Miles, George A, and William S. Reese. America Pictured to the Life: Illustrated Works from the Paul Mellon Bequest. New Haven: The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, 2002. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 2, Autumn 2002, 47. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Book Review: Wait, Lea. Shadows at the Fair: An Antique Print Mystery. New York: Scribner, 2002. Imprint, vol. 27, no. 2, Autumn 2002, 48. Reviewed by Thomas Beckman.
Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003) Purchase this issue!
169. Thomas Beckman, “Thomas Calvert: Early Life, Innovative Technology,” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), 2-18.
Beckman examines Thomas Calvert’s life and multiple business activities during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, from his immigration from England in 1849 and the founding of his first graphic arts firm in Philadelphia in 1852 until he incorporated The Calvert Lithographing, Engraving and Map Publishing Company in 1867, a firm that .was to dominate the lithographic market in Detroit, and continue long after his death in 1900. Beckman describes a printmaking process Calvert’s firms used frequently in the 1850s and 1860s, the printing of cameo stamps, small metal engravings impressed in color on business cards, billheads, envelopes, and the like. Little attention was afforded this process until Beckman “rediscovered” it.
170. Georgia B. Barnhill, “The Marketing and Collecting of Prints in New York, 1825-1861,” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), 19-29.
Barnhill uses such documentary evidence as newspaper reports and advertisements, prospectuses, and auction catalogs to explore how prints were marketed and collected in New York City between 1825 and 1861. She describes the tastes and interests of several prominent early collectors, including Shearjashbub Spooner, Edward B. Corwin, James Augustus Suydam, Andrew Jackson Downing, Alexander J. Davis, and Lumen Reed. The tastes of New York’s elite during this period favored European works, particularly reproductive prints; whereas artists formed their collections to aid them in their work.
171. Wendy Shadwell, “Double-Sided Prints,” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), 30-35.
In her years as Curator of Prints at the New-York Historical Society, Shadwell came across several sheets printed on front and back with unrelated images. She focuses here on three such “double-sided prints” and speculates about why they were made. The prints dealt with are Truxton’s Victory [1799] and a proof of G. Washington in his last Illness [1800]; Wreck of the Steamer Oregon (1846); a Family Register and Henriette Sonntag (ca. 1852); and The Discord, (1855).
172. William C. Cook, “The Thrill of Collecting-It Never Ends: Coffin Handbills Update,” Vol. 28, no. 1 (Spring 2003), 36-38.
Soon after Cook published his article in the Spring 2002 Imprint on the anti-Jackson Coffin Handbills and prints of the presidential campaign of 1848, he learned of two other prints bearing on his subject. One was a print titled Hero of Two Wars, which is very similar to the David Claypoole Johnston print titled Richard III discussed in his article, but without any attribution of artist, engraver, or publisher. The second print, a caricature of Napoleon by John Kay after Johann Michael Voltz titled Governor of the Island of Elba (1814) evidently served as Johnston’s inspiration.
Book Review: Pritchard, Margaret Beck, and Henry G. Taliaferro. Degrees of Latitude: Mapping Colonial America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. Imprint, vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2003, 40. Reviewed by Robert P. Emlen.
Book Review: Wright, David Gilmore. R. Swain Gifford, A Catalogue of Etchings, 1865–1891. New Bedford, MA: New Bedford Whaling Museum, 2002. Imprint, vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2003, 39–40. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 28, no. 2 (Autumn 2003) Purchase this issue!
173. Wendy Wick Reaves, “Prints as History,” Vol. 28, no. 2 (Autumn 2003), 2-16.
Reaves, Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, points out that “as a museum of history and biography as well as art,” the National Portrait Gallery is concerned with such questions as: What did a print communicate in its own time? And who made it, and for what audience? She looks carefully at such famous prints as the Van der Passe engraving of Pocahontas and at little-known, rather crude woodcuts of Daniel Shays and George Washington. She assumes there was a commercial market for the 1840s lithograph of African-American bandleader and composer, Frank Johnson, and suggests political and nationalistic messages in depictions of Winfield Scott, the families of McClellan and Lincoln, and portraits of rival presidential candidates Ulysses S. Grant and Horace Greeley.
174. Robert P. Emlen, “Canterbury Views: The Enduring Image of a Shaker Village,” Vol 28, no. 2 (Autumn 2003), 17-28.
The first printed illustration of a Shaker village, a wood engraving of Canterbury, New Hampshire, published in the November 1835 American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, set the pattern for future images of the town, inspiring at least eight other versions of the same scene. The panoramic view of the hilltop community from the Shakers’ ox pasture showed substantial buildings, well-tended fields, and stone walls-a picture of industrious and healthy living. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had visited Canterbury in 1831 and published his story “The Canterbury Pilgrims” in 1832, may have written the description accompanying the 1835 wood engraving.
175. James Brust, “Learning about Currier & Ives from Nineteenth-Century Carte-de-Visite Photographs,” Vol. 28, no. 2 (Autumn 2003), 29-40.
Brust has identified over fifty Currier & Ives prints that have been used on carte-de-visites (CDVs). CDVs by other firms have shed light on C&I lithographs. For example, a CDV of performer Lydia Thompson as “the Girl of the Period” was most likely the source of the C&I print The Girl of the Period. Brust uses a CDV of painter Eastman Johnson to argue that one of the figures in the C&I print Husking, after a Johnson painting, is a self-portrait. And CDVs of paintings by the Scottish artist Erskine Nicol suggest that they were the source of several C&I prints, namely Outward-Bound and Homeward-Bound and Convanience and Inconvanience.
Book Review: Low, Susanne M. A Guide to Audubon’s “Birds of America.” New Haven, CT: William Reese Company and Donald A. Heald, 2002. Imprint, vol. 28, no. 2, Autumn 2003, 42–43. Reviewed by Robert Braun.
Book Review: Morgan, David. Protestants and Pictures: Religion, Visual Culture, and the Age of American Mass Production. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Imprint, vol. 28, no. 2, Autumn 2003, 41–42. Reviewed by Richard Hathaway.
Book Review: Raguin, Virginia Chieffo, and Mary Ann Powers, curators, with the assistance of Leslie Bussis Tait, Georgia B. Barnhill, and Brian C. R. Zugay. Sacred Spaces: Building and Remembering Sites of Worship in the Nineteenth Century. Exhibition catalog. Worcester, MA: Organized by the College of the Holy Cross and the American Antiquarian Society, 2002. Imprint, vol. 28, no. 2, Autumn 2003, 41–42. Reviewed by Richard Hathaway.
Book Review: Tatham, David. Winslow Homer and the Pictorial Press. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003. Imprint, vol. 28, no. 2, Autumn 2003, 43–44. Reviewed by Roger A. Stein.
Vol. 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004) Purchase this issue!
176. Helena E. Wright, “Print Collecting in the Gilded Age,” Vol. 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004), 2-13.
Wright recounts that through much of the nineteenth-century prints were generally acquired for decorative or educational uses. By the 1880s more individuals began to form collections of prints for their intrinsic interest. Among the early collectors, Wright treats are George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882), whose collection illustrated the history of engraving through Old Master prints, Francis Calley Gray (1790-1856), and Senator Charles Sumner (1811-1874), who wrote The Best Portraits in Engraving (1872). Wright also describes the collections of artists John Sartain and Stephen J. Ferris, which served them as working libraries. Some of these collections were acquired by major institutions and are still intact. James Lawrence Claghorn (1817-1884) of Philadelphia acquired the largest collection of prints to date and shared it with the public in numerous exhibitions, some at industrial fairs, such as those in Cincinnati. Interest in etchings and in American prints grew, as documented in exhibitions organized by Sylvester Koehler. The new photomechanical processes were included in some of these exhibitions.
177. David G. Wright, “American Reproductive and Replica Etchings: Reflections on the Deluxe Auction Catalogues of the 1880s,” Vol. 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004), 14-35.
Wright distinguishes between reproductive etchings and replica etchings (when the artist makes an etching of his own work) and provides a brief overview of the development of such etchings in America and Europe. The body of the article discusses the eight American auctions of the 1880s that were illustrated with a total of 115 etchings. Consignors include: Charles H. Truax, J. C. Runkle, Thomas Moran, Mary Jane Morgan estate, Alexander T. Stewart estate, Henry T. Chapman, J. Alden Weir with John H. Twachtman, and James H. Stebbins. Of the 31 American artist-etchers whose works are inventoried and tabulated, several receive considerable discussion with illustrations: Stephen J. Ferris, Peter Moran, Camille Piton, Joseph F. Sabin, Jr., Thomas Moran, Mary Nimmo Moran, James David Smillie, Frederick Juengling, Sidney L. Smith, James S. King, Paul Nimmo Moran, Richard Creifelds, and Stephen Parrish. The significance of auctioneer Thomas E. Kirby to the development and refinement of the illustrated auction catalogues is addressed. Contemporary judgments of the etchings by critics including Sylvester R. Koehler, James Ripley Wellman Hitchcock, Montague Marks, and Charles de Kay are included.
178. W. Dale Horst and Rose Marie Horst, “Frederick Stuart Church, Master of Imagination,” Vol. 29, no. 1 (Spring 2004), 36-47.
With limited training and a few commissions for commercial illustrations, Frederick Stuart Church (1842-1924) developed into a prolific illustrator and artist in several media. Over his lifetime he produced hundreds of illustrations for newspapers, magazines, and books. His works, often including animals and birds, reflected a keen sense of humor, an uncommon imagination, and a gentle spirit. His illustrations were reproduced as wood engravings, photomechanical prints, chromolithographs, and etchings. Although he was among the more successful and prominent American illustrator/artists of the late nineteenth century, changing tastes at the turn of the twentieth century severely reduced appreciation and demand for his work.
Book Review: Finley, William, and Joseph Rosenblum, editors. Chaucer Illustrated. Five Hundred Years of “The Canterbury Tales” in Pictures. New Castle, DE and London: Oak Knoll Press and The British Library, 2003. Imprint, vol. 29, no. 1, Spring 2004, 48. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Book Review: Steiner, Bill. Audubon Art Prints: A Collector’s Guide to Every Edition. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. Imprint, vol. 29, no. 1, Spring 2004, 48. Briefly Noted by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 29, no. 2 (Autumn 2004) Purchase this issue!
179. Catharina Slautterback, “Charles Sumner and Political Prints in the Election of 1862,” Vol. 29, no. 2 (Autumn 2004), 2-17.
This article looks at the political prints surrounding the controversial career of Massachusetts senator, Charles Sumner. Particular focus is given to the Massachusetts state election of 1862 and the campaign print, I’m Not to Blame for Being White, Sir! Slautterback examines the contemporary concerns expressed in this and other prints regarding the direction of the Civil War, abolitionism, and the emancipation of slaves. The works of the lithographic artists Joseph E. Baker, Dominique C. Fabronius, and Alfred Kipps are considered, as is the role of the Boston lithographic firms of Louis Prang & Co. and J. H. Bufford in the production of Civil War era political prints.
180. Michael J. McCue, “A Fashionable Excursion to the Arcadia of Appalachia: Sheppard’s Images for The Land of the Sky,” Vol. 29, no. 2 (Autumn 2004), 18-27.
McCue analyzes the tone and the messages of illustrations by William Ludwell Sheppard (1833-1912) for Christian Reid’s 1875 travel novel that popularized the Asheville, North Carolina region as “The Land of the Sky.” He argues that the prints had much to do with creating a highly positive impression of that area, in contrast to negative stereotypes of Appalachia generally. The relationship between designer and author is discussed, their creative roles deriving from precedents of Sheppard’s innovative collaboration with writer William Dean Howells for the novel A Chance Acquaintance. McCue points out that the enduring moniker “The Land of the Sky” was coined, not by Reid, as previously has been assumed, but rather by Felix G. de Fontaine in Picturesque America. Twelve selected Sheppard illustrations from The Land of the Sky are presented, with commentary on the artist’s unconventional images of nineteenth-century tourism and of Black and White residents in the Southern mountains.
181. Aimee E. Newell, “‘Most walls were bare’: How Prints Are Used at Old Sturbridge Village,” Vol. 29, no. 2 (Autumn 2004), 28-36.
Newell provides an overview of the historic print collection at Old Sturbridge Village, a history museum in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The Village interprets rural New England life between the years of 1790 and 1840, so the collection is strong in prints from these decades. The museum also specializes in everyday life, relying on its collection of vernacular items rather than high style fashions. Specific examples of lithographs and engravings from the collection are used to explore several of the themes introduced in the museum’s village of early nineteenth-century households.
Book Review: Brown, Joshua. Beyond the Lines: Pictorial Reporting, Everyday Life, and the Crisis of Gilded Age America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002. Imprint, vol. 29, no. 2, Autumn 2004, 39–40. Reviewed by Richard O. Hathaway.
Book Review: Ruud, Brandon K., editor. Karl Bodmer’s North American Prints. With essays by Ron Tyler and Brandon K. Rudd, annotations by Marsha Gallagher, and forward by J. Brooks Joyner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press for Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, 2004. Imprint, vol. 29, no. 2, Autumn 2004, 37–38. Reviewed by Helena E. Wright.
Book Review: Siegel, Nancy. Along the Juniata: Thomas Cole and the Dissemination of American Landscape Imagery. Exhibition catalog. Huntington, PA, and Seattle, WA: Juniata College Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, 2003. Imprint, vol. 29, no. 2, Autumn 2004, 38–39. Reviewed by Nancy Finlay.
Vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2005) Purchase this issue!
182. Donald R. Friary, “Illustrations for a New England Village: Print Collecting at Historic Deerfield,” Vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2005), 2-13.
Donald Friary recounts the formation of the print collection at Historic Deerfield in an article that features and illustrates a selection of seventeen representative items. The museum’s founders, Henry Needham Flynt (1893-1970) and Helen Geier Flynt (1895-1986), who established Historic Deerfield, Inc., in 1952, formed a small, but choice, collection of prints, primarily to hang on the walls of ten historic houses that they restored and furnished in the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Among their rarities were a Paul Revere Bloody Massacre, John Faber’s mezzotint of Governor Jonathan Belcher, and Nathaniel Hurd’s tiny portrait of The Reverend Joseph Sewall. DD. Their view of prints as decorative arts is seen in two shellwork shadowbox frames made in Boston for Philip Dawe’s The Bostonians Paying the Excise-Man, or Tarring & Feathering and The Bostonians in Distress. Historic Deerfield’s curators took a more scholarly approach to print collecting and found several that appeared in early Deerfield probate inventories, as well as Boston imprints and local scenes. Thomas Johnston’s first state (1759) of Quebec, The Capital of New-France is among the prizes. Recently, a collection of fashion plates has been formed to complement Historic Deerfield’s outstanding collection of costumes. The print collection now numbers more than 400.
183. Russell and Corinne Earnest, “Pen Work and Press Work: The Taufscheine Collection of Klaus Stopp Challenges Assumptions about Fraktur,” Vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2005), 14-25.
The authors focus on the Taufscheine, or birth and baptism certificates, in the collection of Klaus Stopp. Such certificates are one type of fraktur, the term Americans use for hand-decorated manuscripts and printed forms made by and for Pennsylvania Germans from 1740 to 1910. Stopp’s collection challenges the prevalent assumption that freehand Taufscheine always preceded printed ones. The evidence suggests that many early and major fraktur artists probably preferred printed forms, such as those printed at Ephrata Cloister, especially bird-panel forms and three-heart forms, and at Reading, Pennsylvania, especially angel-type certificates. The authors discuss and give examples of the work of some of the major fraktur artists, including the Early Ephrata Artist, Heinrich Otto, Heinrich Dulheuer, Arnold Hoevelman, Friederich Speyer, Friederich Krebs, Martin Brechall, the Ehre Vater Artist, and Johann Valentine Schuller. They also consider why such artists might have used printed forms.
184. James Brust, “Unconventional Currier & Ives: A Followup,” Vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2005), 26-31.
This is a followup to a 1999 Imprint article titled “Unconventional Currier & Ives,” which presented a wide array of unusual items issued by Currier & Ives, and also examples of C & I images copied by others. Included are a map and book illustration by N. Currier, a charcoal and pencil drawing copied from a Currier & Ives print, an elaborately over-printed small folio lithograph used for advertising, and a 1905 real photo postcard that shows an 1845 Currier print. The discovery of these unconventional Currier & Ives items has become an ongoing process, and it is expected that others will surface in the future.
185. Bruce M. Wolf, “Authenticating a Monumental Lithograph of Pittsburgh,” Vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2005), 32-38.
Wolf recounts how he determined that a large bird’s-eye view of Pittsburgh (43 x 85 inches) owned by Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Club is an original lithograph dating from ca. 1859-1861. With the help of many, including John Reps and Gary Grimes, Wolf was able to attribute the work to James T. Palmatary, who also produced large lithographs of Chicago, St. Louis, and Baltimore, among other cities.
Book Review: Symmes, Marilyn. Impressions of New York: Prints from the New-York Historical Society. Exhibition catalog. New York: Princeton University Architectural Press, 2004. Imprint, vol. 30, no. 1, Spring 2005, 39–40. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 30, no. 2 (Autumn 2005) Purchase this issue!
186. “Notes by James D. Smillie upon Presenting His Father’s Collection of Engravings to the New York Public Library,” ed. by Donald C. O’Brien, Vol. 30, no. 2 (Autumn 2005), 2-6.
James D. Smillie (1833-1909) prepared the “Notes” reproduced here in conjunction with presenting the print collection of his father, James Smillie (1807-1885), to the New York Public Library in 1901. The son describes his father’s work as an engraver in New York City beginning in 1830, after emigrating from Scotland via Quebec. James Smillie engraved plates after the works of numerous artists for several periodicals and for the American Art Union, always striving to effectively translate color into monotone.
187. Katherine Hijar, “The Pin-up, the Piano, and the Parlor: American Sheet Music, 1840-1860,” Vol. 30, no. 2 (Autumn 2005), 7-21.
The piano was a central feature of many nineteenth-century American homes, and pictorial sheet music covers complemented musical pleasures with treats for the eyes. Hijar’s essay draws on American sheet music covers from the antebellum period in order to explore some of the subtle ways that these everyday prints brought the erotic into American homes. Hijar looks closely at eight covers from the collection of the American Antiquarian Society to show how artists, lithographers, and publishers marketed imaginary women as objects of beauty and instruments of pleasure. Included in the discussion are lithographs by Eliphalet Brown, Jr.; P. S. Duval; Sarony; Sarony & Major; Sarony & Co.; Sarony, Major, & Knapp; J. H. Bufford; and Currier & Ives.
188. J. Robert Maguire, “His Excellency and Lady Washington: A Pair of Mezzotint Portraits by Joseph Hiller, Sr., or Samuel Blyth?” Vol. 30. No. 2 (Autumn 2005), 22-33.
Of the nearly nine hundred entries in Charles Henry Hart’s 1904 Catalogue of the Engraved Portraits of Washington, the identity of the engraver of No. 1 on the list has from the start been the subject of speculation. In 1969, Wendy J. Shadwell, a noted authority, persuasively argued the case of Joseph Hiller, Sr., of Salem, Massachusetts, as engraver of the print, together with that of a companion portrait of Martha Washington. Newly considered evidence, however, suggests that the pair of mezzotint portraits may actually have been the work of another Salem engraver, Samuel Blyth. The scholarly collector Hall Park McCullough inspected the Washington print in 1908, and in an unpublished memorandum noted the similarity of the engraving to three unique mezzotints included in the 1904 sale of the celebrated Alfred S. Manson Collection. “It was ptd [painted] the same way,” he wrote, referring to the “contemporary style” of hand-coloring mezzotints with liquid-soluble crayon, concluding that they “may all be by Blythe.” While Nina Fletcher Little discussed the coloring medium in her authoritative 1972 study of the Blyth brothers of Salem, she did not at that date connect either brother with the rare companion portraits of George and Martha Washington–examples of which were present in the extensive collection she and her husband had assembled. By the time their collection was sold in 1994, however, the two scholarly collectors had apparently come to share Hall Park McCullough’s opinion. A single lot in the sale that included the portrait of Lady Washington, two of the three engravings from the Manson sale and a fourth mezzotint, of Cleopatra, signed S. Blyth, are all “attributed to Samuel Blyth (Blythe).” The marked stylistic similarities in the engravings, as well as the coloring, tend to support McCullough’s attribution to Samuel Blyth.
189. Christopher W. Lane, “Even More Unconventional Currier & Ives,” Vol. 30, no. 2 (Autumn 2005), 34-40.
The popular print publisher Currier & Ives used many sources for its prints. While most Currier & Ives prints were based on drawings made specifically for the firm, Nathaniel Currier and James Ives were not above issuing prints taken directly from previously published images. A pair of previously undocumented large folio prints, The Pirates and Slave Trade, were just slightly modified lithographic copies of European engravings after Auguste Francois Biard. Another unrecorded Currier & Ives print was simply a reprinting of a British print of New York City titled Broadway From The Bowling Green with a Currier & Ives imprint added.
Book Review: Birdson, Gavin D. R., James J. White, and Lugene B. Bruno. American Botanical Prints of Two Centuries. Pittsburgh: Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, 2003. Imprint, vol. 30, no. 2, Autumn 2005, 46–47. Reviewed by Michael McCue.
Vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2006) Purchase this issue!
190. Donald C. O’Brien, “William Satchwell Leney, Artist, Engraver, and Entrepreneur,” Vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2006), 2-13.
William Satchwell Leney (1769-1831), a London-trained engraver, migrated to America in 1805 with a letter of introduction from Benjamin West to John Trumbull. Leney worked in New York City for thirteen years, engraving portraits, landscapes, and bank notes. He made enough money to buy a farm near Montreal and moved his family there in 1819. He spent the last twelve years of his life farming and doing some engraving.
Through Stauffer’s American Engravers Upon Copper and Steel the author knew that there had been an account book in the possession of a Warren C. Crane of New York City. O’Brien finally found the account book plus engravings, newspaper clippings, and correspondence at the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Hence this article is based on material in the Crane collection as well as research completed at the American Antiquarian Society.
191. Nancy Finlay, “On His Own: The Prints of E.C. Kellogg, 1851-1854,” Vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2006), 14-28.
While one often thinks of the Hartford lithographers E.B. & E.C. Kellogg as inseparable, some of the most ambitious and interesting Kellogg prints were produced by Elijah Chapman Kellogg during the years 1851-1854, when he was operating on his own, without his brother. These include genre scenes, such as Little Bloomers, probably published in 1851; book illustrations such as those for Peter Good’s Materia Medica Animalia (Cambridge, 1853), and a major group of large landscape prints, in collaboration with Connecticut artists Joseph Ropes, Titus Darrow, and J. Denison Crocker.
192. Sarah J. Weatherwax, “A Newly Discovered Rembrandt Peale Lithograph,” Vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2006), 29-32.
In the mid 1820s Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) began to seriously pursue lithography and is known to have produced twenty-six lithographs. One of his earliest attempts, a previously unlocated lithograph known as “a female head from a work by Titian,” was recently acquired by the Library Company of Philadelphia. Peale worked with some of America’s leading lithographic presses, including the Pendleton brothers of Boston, producing prints based on his own paintings as well as the works of others, including Old Masters and his contemporaries. This brief article explores how Rembrandt Peale incorporated the relatively new medium of lithography into his multifaceted artistic career.
193. Christopher Jones and Harry Katz, “Experiment on Stone: An Early Lithograph After Bennett,” Vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2006), 33-36.
Americana dealer and collector Christopher Jones and Harry Katz, former Head Curator in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress, speculate on the production and attribution of a heretofore unknown lithographic variant after a view of Baltimore, Maryland, by English-born topographical artist William Bennett (1787-1844). The authors suggest that the unsigned print represents an early attempt to create a large city view in the new medium of lithography rather than the tried-and-true method of aquatint etching.
Book Review: Kelsey, Mavis P. Sr., and Robin Brandt Hutchinson, editors. Engraved Prints of Texas, 1554–1900. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Imprint, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2006, 37. Reviewed by Dennis Reinhartz.
Book Review: Last, Jay T. The Color Explosion: Nineteenth-Century American Lithography. Santa Ana, CA: Hillcrest Press, 2005. Imprint, vol. 31, no. 1, Spring 2006, 38. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 31, no. 2 (Autumn 2006) Purchase this issue!
194. Lauren B. Hewes, “‘Dedicated to the lovers of art and literature,’ The Cosmopolitan Art Association Engravings, 1856-1861,” Vol. 31, no. 2 (Autumn 2006), 2-17.
The Cosmopolitan Art Association was founded in 1854 to “encourage and popularize the Fine Arts, and disseminate wholesome literature throughout the country.” Started by the book and periodical publisher Chauncey Lyman Derby in Sandusky, Ohio, the organization moved to New York and established a presence on Broadway. Like the American Art-Union, the Cosmopolitan Art Association issued large format engravings as a benefit of membership. This article discusses the five large-format engravings published by the Association and the challenges faced during their production. The popularity of the organization, which at its peak in 1857 numbered 38,000 members, meant that the engravings were printed in large runs (often over 8,000), and were selected to appeal to broad audiences. The article is followed by an illustrated checklist of the small-format engravings that appeared in the Association’s monthly publication, The Cosmopolitan Art Journal, 1857-1861.
195. James Smethurst, “Emancipation Day: Postbellum Visions of African Americans in Currier & Ives Prints,” Vol. 31, no. 2 (Autumn 2006), 18-29.
Currier & Ives lithographs depicting African Americans, especially those in the “Darktown Series,” played an important role in the political and cultural debates over the rights and the status of African Americans in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Allegedly depicting life in an all-black town, the “Darktown” lithographs drew on minstrelsy, plantation literature, and a range of popular visuals to caricature African American men and women. These caricatures demeaned African Americans as citizens (and as people), helping to underpin the establishment of Jim Crow segregation in the 1880s and 1890s. Though the prints were primarily designed to be humorous, like the so-called “coon song,” they often carried hints of more sinister racial threats arising from black citizenship in the Reconstruction era.
196. Georgia B. Barnhill, “The Pictorial Context for Nathaniel Currier Prints for the Elite and Middle Class,” Vol. 31, no. 2 (Autumn 2006), 31-42.
Nathaniel Currier’s career began in Boston in the lithographic firm of William Pendleton. This article traces the impact that his experience there might have had in terms of workshop practices and selection of imagery when he became a print publisher. Currier’s lithographs are compared to the output of other contemporary publishers including George Endicott, James Baillie, Henry R. Robinson, as well as the elegant aquatints of William Bennett and John Hill. Publications of the American Art-Union and the French publisher Goupil, Vibert and Company are likewise discussed in an attempt to set Nathaniel Currier’s publications in the context of other prints.
Book Review: Kinsey, Joni L. Thomas Moran’s West: Chromolithography, High Art and Popular Taste. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. Imprint, vol. 31, no. 2, Autumn 2006, 43–45. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 32, no. 1 (Spring 2007) Purchase this issue!
197. Stephen Longmire, “Early Views of Sag Harbor,” Vol. 32, no. 1 (Spring 2007), 2-9.
In connection with the three-hundredth anniversary of the former whaling port Sag Harbor on eastern Long Island, Longmire searched for historic prints and photographs of the village for his book, Keeping Time in Sag Harbor, which also includes his own photographs. Despite the town’s rich history as a major port from the 1790s to the 1840s and as a watch manufacturing and tourist center thereafter, the pictorial record is thin. It includes a map with lithographs of Sag Harbor’s major buildings, an album of photographs by William Wallace Tooker (1848-1917), and a magnificent D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithograph titled Sag Harbor, (L.I.) N.Y.after a painting by Orlando Hand Bears (1811-1841), which Longmire dates to 1840. Other views of the town include wood engravings by John Warner Barber and after Harry Fenn in Picturesque America.
198. Christopher Pierce, “Practicing Peeping! New Notes and Comments on the Collection des Prospects of New York City,” Vol. 32, no. 1 (Spring 2007), 10-24.
Building on earlier, broader studies of the subject, this article has three principal objectives: it seeks to clarify the sources of Balthazar Frederic Leizelt’s (1755-1812) and François Xavier Habermann’s (1721-1796) New York perspective views; to investigate the practices and motives governing this popular print type; and to present the social and political agenda of these images and raise key questions about our comprehension of colonialism.
The central focus of this research is Pierce’s interrogation of New York City’s material history as delineated in contemporary engravings. There are only eight contemporary fictional views of early New York that are significant in this context, six of which form part of the Collection des Prospects — engravings designed to be viewed through optical devices and published in Augsburg around the time of the American Revolution. While this article focuses its attention on these six perspective views it also contextualizes claims to authenticity of competing views, while extending the socio-cultural message of these six engravings in Europe.
199. Jane R. Pomeroy, “Bookmaking and Bible Illustration in the Early Republic: Letters between Mathew Carey & Alexander Anderson. Part I. Book Illustration,” Vol. 32, no. 1 (Spring 2007), 25-36.
A series of letters between two men prominent in bookmaking at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Mathew Carey (1760-1839), Philadelphia publisher and bookseller, and Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), wood engraver, provides us with insight into their dealings, the cost of illustrations and their management of the press. Anderson made detailed recommendations about the need for good printing, while Carey complained that some of Anderson’s blocks were difficult to print and stated that “strong bold work” was better than fine lines requiring “more care than printers in general will bestow.” Books were suggested by Carey and abandoned due to their cost, and Anderson’s prices were not always agreed to, although Carey understood the selling power of illustrated publications. Part II deals with Bible illustration.
Book Review: Barnhill, Georgia B. Bibliography of American Prints of the Seventeenth through the Nineteenth Centuries. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and the American Historical Print Collectors Society, 2006. Imprint, vol. 32, no. 1, Spring 2007, 37–38. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Poesch, Jessie J., editor. Printmaking in New Orleans. Papers presented at the 1987 North American Print Conference. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006. New Orleans: Historic New Orleans Collection, 2006. Imprint, vol. 32, no. 1, Spring 2007, 38–39. Reviewed by Bill North.
Vol. 32, no. 2 (Autumn 2007) Purchase this issue!
200. Jane R. Pomeroy, “Bookmaking and Bible Illustration in the Early Republic: Letters Between Mathew Carey and Alexander Anderson: Part II. Bible Illustration,” Vol. 32, no. 2 (Autumn 2007), 2-15.
A series of letters between Mathew Carey (1760-1839), Philadelphia publisher and bookseller, and Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), wood engraver, was covered in “Bookmaking and Bible Illustration in the Early Republic…Part I. Book Illustration.” Part II continues the correspondence but deals specifically with Bible illustration. Anderson named the sources of his designs: “Raphael’s Bible,” from frescoes in the Vatican, and copperplates in the luxurious 1812 London Bible edited by John Hewlett. Anderson used the Hewlett images in his wood engravings for Bibles published by Collins & Co. in New York, by John Holbrook in Vermont, and by Carey. Anderson asked for careful printing and cleaning of the wood blocks, a request Carey could not satisfy. The prices Carey paid Anderson are supplied. Anderson’s illustrations were used by different publishers well into the nineteenth century.
201. Nancy Finlay, “Founding Brothers: Daniel Wright Kellogg, Elijah Chapman Kellogg, and the Beginnings of Lithography in Hartford,” Vol. 32, no. 2 (Autumn 2007), 16-27.
Daniel W. Kellogg and his brother Elijah Kellogg established D.W. Kellogg & Co. in Hartford sometime shortly after June 1831, and by November 1833 the firm was shipping substantial numbers of prints to North Carolina by packet ship. The Kelloggs opened their own retail shop on Main Street in Hartford in 1834. Competing lithographic firms in Hartford included Z.E. Adams & Co. (1834), Case & Waters (1833-36), and Case & Skinner (1842); all were short-lived compared to the Kelloggs, although Lucius Case was involved in lithography for a number of years with several different partners, concluding with William Green, from 1849-1852. Early Kellogg subjects included “fashion plates” such as Emeline (1834) and Sarah (1835), portraits, and reproduction prints. The address “110 Main Street” appears on prints published between 1837 and 1840, for example, Girl at her Studies and Blind Man’s Buff (after Fragonard). D.W. Kellogg & Co. was dissolved in July 1840; at that point Daniel W. Kellogg’s two younger brothers, Elijah and Edmund, became the principal partners in the firm, which continued to operate as E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. Kellogg & Bulkeley, the successor to E.B. & E.C. Kellogg continued on into the twentieth century, finally merging with Case, Lockwood & Brainard in 1947 to form Connecticut Printers.
202. Aimee Newell, “Symbols of Brotherhood: A Primer on Masonic Prints,” Vol. 32, no. 2 (Autumn 2007), 16-27.
For the scholar, the curator, and the collector, Masonic symbols and objects are often a source of confusion, more than anything else. This article aims to uncloak Masonic prints, exploring the role that they played in the lodge and at home. The article is illustrated with documents and decorative prints from the collection of the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts. Masonic lodges relied on a wide range of printed documents, forms, and decorations to assist with learning rituals, remembering the teachings of “the Craft,” and accomplishing lodge business. Some prints memorialize famous Masons like George Washington and Paul Revere.
The article provides an overview of functional Masonic charters, summonses, and certificates, along with decorative and instructive Masonic prints. These items found a ready market not only among lodges, where they could be framed and hung for easy reference during rituals and ceremonies, but also in the homes of Freemasons, where they were colorful and decorative reminders of Masonic values. The Masonic fraternity grew up along with the United States, influencing and being influenced by American aesthetics, values, and citizens. The artifacts of American Freemasonry and those of other fraternities have much evidence to offer for an expanded understanding of life in the past.
203. James S. Brust, “Yet Another Unconventional Currier & Ives,” Vol. 32, no. 2 (Autumn 2007), 42-43.
This is the latest in a series of articles in Imprint since 1999 that have presented unusual items published by Currier & Ives, or examples of C&I images copied by others. This article features a single, remarkable, unconventional Currier & Ives lithograph. It is a political broadside issued to convince voters not to support a prohibition initiative in some unspecified election, adorned with a small version of the early 1860s C&I print Freedom to the Slaves, and worded to make it seem that Abraham Lincoln himself, though already dead, was appealing to voters to oppose prohibition.
Book Review: Reps, John W. John Caspar Wild: Painter and Printmaker of Nineteenth-Century Urban America. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, distributed by University of Missouri Press, 2006. Imprint, vol. 32, no. 2, Autumn 2007, 44–45. Reviewed by Lauren B. Hewes.
Book Review: Sloan, Kim, with Joyce E. Chaplin, Christian F. Feest, and Ute Kulemann. A New World: England’s First View of America. Exhibition catalog. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007. Imprint, vol. 32, no. 2, Autumn 2007, 45–46. Reviewed by Donald H. Cresswell.
Vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 2008) Purchase this issue!
204. David Tatham, “Winslow Homer and the Etching Revival in America,” Vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 2008), 2-9.
Though Winslow Homer made all eight of his major etchings during the 1880s, the heyday of the Etching Revival in America, neither he nor his work was considered to be part of that painter-etcher movement. Differences in subject, scale, technique, and mood all played a part. So too did Homer’s practice of adapting images from his recent paintings rather than seeking new subjects, as did most of the movement’s followers including Mary Nimmo Moran whose Solitude of 1880 is contrasted with Homer’s The Life Line of 1884. Strengths that the critic, curator, and connoisseur Sylvester Rosa Koehler found distinguishing in the Moran print had little or no place in Homers thinking as a painter and printmaker in the 1880s. Also reproduced in the article are Homers Eight Bells (1887); Mending the Tears (1888); Fly Fishing Saranac Lake and Saved (both 1889).
205. James E. Schiele, “The Civil War Artwork of Louis Kurz: An Escape from Realism,” Vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 2008), 10-20.
Louis Kurz (1833-1921), an Austrian immigrant who arrived in the United States in 1848, was known early in his career as a portraitist and landscape artist. Having settled in Wisconsin, his clientele was from the Midwest until his 1880 partnership with Alexander Allison catapulted the lithography firm of Kurz & Allison of Chicago to national prominence with the production of thirty-six ten-stone chromolithographs of significant Civil War battles. This article follows Kurz’s transition from making photograph-like renderings of people and street scenes to creating highly dramatized and imaginative representations of battles a generation after the Civil War. Each of the four Kurz & Allison battle prints described in the article—Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Fredericksburg, The Battle of Gettysburg, and Storming Fort Wagner—is contrasted with an illustration produced shortly after the battle that more realistically displays the action of a particular moment.
Louis Kurz intended to convince his Northern audience, including Union veterans, that the battles were characterized by bravery, unflinching loyalty, dedication to the flag, and, with the rare exception of the Battle of Bull Run, that the Union cause would somehow prevail. To achieve this end he often employed creative imagination not shown by the war artists of the day.
206. Lauren B. Hewes, “Lithographs of the Dubois Family, 1850-1865,” Vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 2008), 21-36.
The German immigrant George Dubois (ca. 1811-1888) arrived in the United States in 1848 and spent the next forty years working as a lithographer in Philadelphia and in the Boston area. He and members of his extended family produced commercial lithographs, reproductive images, book illustrations, and original compositions on stone. A family collection and archive of over one thousand prints, which range in date from 1850 to ca. 1900, is housed at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. This article examines the Dubois family’s earliest work up to and including images made during the Civil War by one of the family firms, the Fall River Lithographic Company, Fall River, Massachusetts. The entire Dubois collection is significant because the material it contains helps to expand our understanding of the lithographic printing business in America as it was experienced by one immigrant family.
Book Review: Schneider, Rona. Stephen Parrish: The Etchings. A Catalogue Raisonné. With a forward by William H. Gerdts. New York: The Old Print Shop, 2007. Imprint, vol. 33, no. 1, Spring 2008, 37–38. Reviewed by Cindy Medley Buckner.
Vol. 33, no. 2 (Autumn 2008) Purchase this issue!
207. David Rousar, “Images of Iron Makers’ Pride,” Vol. 33, no. 2 (Autumn 2008), 2-18.
As the United States expanded into the Old Northwest in the 1840s and 1850s, railway building reached a fever pitch. The demand for industrial products, particularly locomotives, gave rise to a spectacular form of advertising that not only described the product offered but also showed the pride of the builders in their company’s technological achievements The result was the creation of a body of large folio, often vividly colored lithographic cards depicting the best designs in locomotive technology.
The prints were commissioned by large firms such as M. W. Baldwin, Richard Norris and Son, and Boston Locomotive Works, as well as obscure companies like Denmead and Son and Virginia Locomotive and Car Mfg. Co. And some can be directly associated with prominent names in the field, such as Zerah Colburn, Walter McQueen, and Thatcher Perkins. As railway development reached its zenith in the mid 1850s, it created the conditions that gave rise to the “golden age” of locomotive builders’ lithographs. When the economic boom diminished, so did the production of the large format prints, which were replaced by photographs.
208. Nat Case, “John Bachmann and the American Birds Eye View Print,” Vol. 33, no. 2 (Autumn 2008), 19-35.
John Bachmann was born in Switzerland around 1814 and died in Jersey City, New Jersey, around 1894. John Reps writes, “No finer artist of city views worked in America”; indeed, Bachmann’s bird’s eye views are unique in the history of American views for their combination of artistic technique inherited from European landscape drawing, in which he was trained and worked in Paris, and his experimental sensibility in constructing his views from vantage points he had never seen. His career saw the transition from one-color stone lithography through multiple-tint-stone techniques into zinc chromolithography, and from printed views as decoration and commemoration to views as promotional and speculative documents. His views reflect not only the changing landscape of New York City and the other cities he drew, including New Orleans and Boston, but the changing landscape of the American print world.
209. James Brust, “Notes on the Life of James Merritt Ives with a Reappraisal of When He Joined Nathaniel Currier,” Vol. 33, no. 2 (Autumn, 2008), 36-41.
Even though Currier & Ives remains a well-known term, even today, surprisingly little has been written about the firm’s junior partner, James Merritt Ives (1824-1895). In this article, the author combines his research about Ives with newly found family material, including a number of previously unknown photographs of Ives and his family, to present a clearer picture of the man behind the name. Genealogical data is presented, along with a list of all of James Merritt Ives’ children. Ives’ Civil war service and his community involvement are discussed. And finally, there is a reappraisal of the date that James Merritt Ives first joined Nathaniel Currier, which appears to be earlier than previously thought.
Book Review: Lane, Christopher W. A Panorama of Pittsburgh: Nineteenth-Century Printed Views. New York: The Frick Art & Historical Center, 2008. Imprint, vol. 33, no. 2, Autumn 2008, 46. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 34, no. 1 (Spring 2009) Purchase this issue!
210. Julie Dunn-Morton, “160 Year of Collecting: Prints at the St. Louis Mercantile Library,” Vol. 34, no. 1 (Spring 2009), 2-11.
The St. Louis Mercantile Library Association was formed in 1846 to provide an educational and cultural resource for a growing frontier city. Its founders were largely art collectors who supported the acquisition of artwork for the young institution. Included are prints of pivotal historical events and their impact on everyday life, as in Currier & Ives’ Great Fire at St. Louis … (1849), George Caleb Bingham’s Martial Law or Order #11 (1872) and Kyra Markham’s Lockout (1937). Among the treasures of the collection are the complete set of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America (1826-1838) including rare pattern proofs and composite plates. St. Louis history and the expansion of the American West are also widely represented with works ranging from a handbill advertising the exhibition of a live buffalo at a local stable (1816) to the poignant portrait prints of McKenney &Hall’s The Indian Tribes of North America… (1836-1844). The Library continues to build its print collection, focusing on works by Missouri artists and on American Art Union prints.
211. John Neal Hoover, “’Mr. Heine Took a Sketch of the View…’: The Career of William Heine, Official Illustrator of the Perry Expedition to Japan and Far East,” Vol. 34, no. 1 (Spring 2009), 12-23.
The career of William Heine (1827-1885) typifies that of the many writer-artists accompanying the various American government-sponsored exploring expeditions of the mid-nineteenth century with one major difference: it spanned two continents whereas most of the others documented national expansion in the new territories of the American West. The German-born Heine, as senior artist for the Perry Expedition, one of the most far-reaching diplomatic missions in U.S. history, depicted, through sketches and widely published prints, the events surrounding American activity in the Far East in 1853 and 1854—the tense negotiations, parades, ceremonies, customs, and entertainments—as well as the natural settings in which American diplomats and scientists found themselves. The expedition’s artistic output has received surprisingly scant attention considering its importance and original warm reception. Numerous prints are reproduced from the massive government reports that ensued in the late 1850s and the rare Graphic Scenes in the Japan Expedition (1856) as well as Heine’s Passing the Rubicon, lithographed by Sarony & Co.
212. Nancy Finlay, “Mary Maguire, Girl Lithographer,” Vol. 34, no. 1 (Spring 2009), 24-28.
Mary Maguire, who was born in Hartford about 1835, won a gold medal for drawing on stone at the Hartford County Agricultural Fair in 1851. This article includes reproductions of Mary’s two known lithographs, Christ Church, Hartford, Conn. and Rev. Thomas Robbins, D.D. Librarian of The Connecticut Historical Society, and places them in the context of contemporary developments in lithography in Hartford. Mary also exhibited her artwork at the National Academy in New York and the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1858, she moved to Baltimore to take charge of art instruction at the Maryland Institute and opened her own art school a few years later. She died there in 1900.
Book Review: Lacey, Barbara E. From Sacred to Secular: Visual Images in Early American Publications. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007. Imprint, vol. 34, no. 1, Spring 2009, 29–30. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Book Review: O’Brien, Donald C. Amos Doolittle: Engraver of the New Republic. Wilmington, DE, and Farmingdale, NY: Oak Knoll Press and the American Historical Print Collectors Society, 2008. Imprint, vol. 34, no. 1, Spring 2009, 30–31. Reviewed by Caroline W. Stoffel.
Vol. 34, no. 2 (Autumn 2009) Purchase this issue!
213. Donald C. O’Brien, “T. Addison Richards’ American Scenery Illustrated and the Origin of Its Plates,” Vol. 34, no. 2 (Autumn 2009), 2-17.
Addison Richards (1820-1900), a landscape painter, art teacher, and author and illustrator of travel books, was an English immigrant who ultimately settled in New York City. Once there he wrote for Harper’s Magazine and published novelettes and other tales. Realizing that the American public had a keen interest in topographical views, he published American Scenery, Illustrated in 1854, containing thirty-two steel engravings of views of different sections of the country. O’Brien shows that many of these were copied from William Henry Bartlett’s American Scenery (1837, 1840). Some were taken from Richards’ earlier book, Georgia Illustrated, and others came from Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834 by Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied. The plates had been engraved for other publications by the New York engravers, Rawdon, Wright & Hatch or later by Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Smillie. Apparently the plates were in the company’s inventory, and Richards’ publisher purchased them rather than commissioning new plates. They simply rubbed out the attribution and titles. The selling of plates became standard practice, as O’Brien points out, and remained so until it became fashionable, as well as cheaper, to use wood engravings or lithography.
214. Laura Groves Napolitano, “’Equally Clever and Humorous’: Lilly Martin Spencer’s Reassuring Lithographs of Children,” Vol. 34, no. 2 (Autumn 2009), 18-33.
This article examines lithographs of children designed by American genre painter Lilly Martin Spencer and published by William Schaus between 1853 and 1860. By analyzing images featuring both biracial working-class youths and white middle-class boys and girls, Napolitano uncovers how these pictures may have served the purpose of comforting Anglo-Americans afraid of what they saw as menacing minority groups, including African Americans and Irish and German immigrants. At the time New York police and journalists saw immigrant street children as a threat to social stability, and some linked miscegenation between Irish immigrants and working-class blacks to declining morality, poverty, and crime. In her first two lithographs, representations of biracial children entitled Power of Fashion (1853) and Height of Fashion (1854), Spencer used humor and parody to render the children unthreatening and apparently inferior to her middle-class New York viewers. The artist, however, soon abandoned the fraught imagery of amalgamation and instead concentrated her efforts on portraying the “charming mischief” of white youngsters—pictures that likely provided a humorous and calming antidote to the perceived danger posed by urban urchins and products of miscegenation.
215. John Zak and James Brust, “Which Currier & Ives Prints Were Most Popular in the Nineteenth Century,” Vol. 34, no. 2 (Autumn 2009), 34-41.
In this article, the authors studied original Currier & Ives sales lists and catalogues in an attempt to determine which print subjects were most popular in the nineteenth century. Since virtually no business records have survived, these primary source documents issued by the C&I firm serve as a guide to the relative importance Currier & Ives placed on different categories of prints. By examining which subjects were listed first and how many titles there were in each category, the authors conclude that for small folio prints, which were the bulk of the firm’s output, sentimental and religious prints, now among the least popular with collectors, were the most popular at the time they were issued. The findings for the more expensive large and medium folio prints were different, however, and more closely approximated modern collectors’ taste for landscapes, marine, and sporting prints.
Book Review: Finlay, Nancy, editor. Picturing Victorian America. Prints by the Kellogg Brothers of Hartford, Connecticut, 1830–1880. Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society; distributed by Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 2009. Imprint, vol. 34, no. 2, Autumn 2009, 43–44. Reviewed by Rosemarie Tovell.
Book Review: Grim, Ronald E., Roni Pick, and Eileen Warburton, editors. Boston & Beyond: A Bird’s Eye View of New England. Exhibition catalog. Boston: The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2008. Imprint, vol. 34, no. 2, Autumn 2009, 42–43. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
2010s (Vols. 35-44) Imprint Articles
Vol. 35, no. 1 (Spring 2010) Purchase this issue!
216. Allison Stagg, “Family–Ambition: A Political Caricature of the 1804 New York Gubernatorial Election,” Vol. 35, no. 1 (Spring 2010), 2-9, 8 illus.
Stagg describes the cast of characters and contentious circumstances depicted in Family—Ambition, a previously undocumented caricature that she encountered in the Brooklyn Historical Society’s collection in the course of her work on early American political prints. The caricature was part of the “vicious and vengeful” election campaign waged by the supporters of Aaron Burr and Morgan Lewis as they vied for the position of governor of New York. The article explores the historical context for Family—Ambition, delving into New York politics in 1804 when the controversial Burr was opposed by an alliance between the powerful Clinton and Livingston families. Comparison is made to an earlier political caricature, A genuine View of the parties in an AFFAIR OF HONOR, published in 1802. Quotations from newspaper notices and private correspondence document the use of caricatures as political propaganda, and the responses that they elicited.
217. Georgia B. Barnhill, “Looking North: Views of Canada Published in the United States,” Vol. 35, no. 1 (Spring 2010), 10-25, 13 illus.
This overview of American involvement in the production of Canadian views ranges from 1745, when Thomas Johnston of Boston engraved the Plan of Cape Breton & Fort Louisbourgh through the late 1870s when Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler, Herman Brosius, Albert Ruger, and Eli Sheldon Glover produced numerous views of Canadian cities, often made from an aerial perspective. Commercial printmaking in Canada developed slowly for a variety of reasons. In many cases, Canadian artists and publishers relied on the expertise of American printers to realize their projects. In other instances, American artists, who moved easily across the shared border, made sketches in Canada that were printed and published in the United States and marketed in both countries. Early on, American prints reflected military conflicts between the two countries, but a growing curiosity prompted the inclusion of Canadian views in American magazines. In the early 1800s, Canada’s beautiful and picturesque scenery lent itself to illustrations in literary annuals, gift books, and travel narratives. As the century progressed, scenic views were published in larger portfolio format, such as Hunter’s Ottawa Scenery in the Vicinity of Ottawa City, Canada, published in Ottawa by William S. Hunter Jr. in 1855, with lithotints by J. H. Bufford of Boston. American view makers, including John W. Hill and Edwin Whitefield, traveled north during the 1850s to create large, separately issued views of Canadian cities that were printed and published in New York for a largely Canadian audience. The symbiotic printmaking relationship continued even after Canadian Confederation in 1867.
218. James Brust, “Unconventional Currier & Ives, More Examples,” Vol. 35, no. 1 (Spring 2010), 26-33, 9 illus.
Three examples of creative adaptation of Currier & Ives images and a trade card published by J.M. Ives are discussed. In the 1880s, when Currier & Ives was still in business, two of the firm’s lithographs were copied by an English manufacturer onto ceramic transfer ware mugs. The comic images, A Mule Train on an Up Grade, and A Mule Train on a Down Grade (both 1881), were part of the “Darktown” series created by Thomas Worth. The mugs are further evidence of British interest in the “Darktown” comics. The second example is an impression of the small folio Currier & Ives lithograph The Great East River Suspension Bridge (1881), that has been extensively overpainted to expand the scene beyond the lower border. The purpose of this exercise has not been determined. Another manipulated lithograph is the small folio The Flower Vase, published by N. Currier in the late 1840s, to which the owner has affixed two decorative die-cut embossed fabric labels. The final example is a trade card copyrighted by James Merritt Ives under his own name in 1881, the year after Currier retired from the firm.
Book Review: Fredericks, Stephen A. The New York Etching Club Minutes: November 12, 1877, through December 8, 1893. Houston: Rice University Press, 2009. Imprint, vol. 35, no. 1, Spring 2010, 34–35. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Vol. 35, no. 2 (Autumn 2010) Purchase this issue!
219. Michael W. Schantz, “‘A Joy To the Eye:’ The Floral Prints of James D. Smillie,” Vol. 35, no. 2 (Autumn 2010), 2-15, 15 illus.
James D. Smillie (1833-1909) was trained by his father, James Smillie (1807-1885) to become one of the most respected banknote engravers in America. He was also a master of reproductive engraving. In 1877, James D. Smillie played a central role in the founding of the New York Etching Club and embraced freehand printmaking. Among Smillie’s painter etchings, a group of floral prints made between 1888 and 1894, are outstanding for their freedom, tonality, and experimentation. He used the flower studies to explore the expressive handling of drypoint, aquatint, roulette, and mezzotint. Excerpts from Smillie’s diary describe his process, and the author’s close examination of the technical qualities of the prints is supported by reproductions of nine florals and six details. Although Smillie felt that his creativity was crushed by his rigorous technical training, the curator and critic Frank Weitenkampf (1866-1962) and others recognized his floral prints as extraordinary and rank them among the best artistic work of his time.
220. Richard Samuel West, “A Britisher among the B’Hoys: Thomas Butler Gunn and His Forgotten Comic Gem,” Vol. 35, no. 2 (Autumn 2010), 16-29, 12 illus.
In 1949, the British artist Thomas Butler Gunn (1826-1904) arrived in New York City in search of work. The young artist was a skilled draughtsman with a comic bent, and also a talented writer, so he decided to seek fame and fortune by creating illustrated comic books. Gunn began his New York diary on July 17, 1849, when he was trying to sell his first effort, “Cholera in Gotham,” which was never published. The diary, filled with self-pity and pain, expresses Gunn’s financial worries, the difficulty of dealing with publishers, and his relationship with the girl he left behind. It also contains descriptions of Gunn’s lodgings, excursions and entertainments, and street life, including the activities of the New York firemen–the “B’hoys.” These colorful toughs inspired the theatrical character Mose, acted by Frank Chanfrau (1824-1884) in the hit play New York as It Is. Inspired by seeing Chanfrau’s performance of the character, Gunn purchased wood blocks and began engraving the plates for Mose among the Britishers. This tale of a clash of cultures when Mose travels to London to see the sights, was eventually published by A. Hart in Philadelphia in 1850, with hand-colored lithographs printed by Thomas Sinclair of that city. It is the earliest sequential comic art book published in the United States. The diary excerpts constitute a rare and vivid account of the struggles of a young artist along the road to his first success, and the process of developing, printing, and publishing illustrated works in this period.
221. Martha Catchpole, “Early Christmas Cards in North America: Examples from Library and Archives Canada,” Vol. 35, no. 2 (Autumn 2010), 30-43, 15 illus.
Examples of published Christmas cards are found in diverse collections of Library and Archives Canada. The majority of images reproduced in this article are from the collection of Kenneth Rowe, a prominent philatelist who immigrated to Canada from England in 1953, and donated his Christmas card collection to the Archives in 2004. Commercially printed cards became popular in England when John Calcott Horsley published a Christmas and New Year greeting card in 1843. Their development coincided with advancements in color printing in England, France, and Germany and the card market was launched. In London Marcus Ward & Co. and Raphael Tuck & Sons were prolific card publishers. Initially Canada and the U.S. imported cards from England and Europe. After the Civil War, Louis Prang became “Father of the American Christmas card” and also sold to Canadian and European markets. Significant commercial production of Christmas cards in Canada began about 1874. No single printer or publisher dominated the Canadian market. The iconography of Canadian cards included winter landscapes, sleighing, snowshoeing, tobogganing, religious images, Santa Claus, and national symbols such as the beaver and maple leaf. Canadian publishers could not compete with cheap English and American imports, and World War I destroyed existing international publishing partnerships, bringing the great era of the Christmas card to a close.
Book Review: Bohleke, Karin J. “Americanizing French Fashion Plates: Godey’s and Peterson’s Cultural and Economic Translation of Les Modes Parisiennes.” Article published in a special issue of American Periodicals: A Journal of History and Criticism, vol. 20, no. 2, 2010, published by Ohio State University Press for the Research Society for American Periodicals, and devoted to “American Periodicals and Visual Culture.” Imprint, vol. 35, no. 2, Autumn 2010, 47. Briefly noted by Sue Rainey.
Book Review: Jarman, Baird. “The Graphic Art of Thomas Nast: Politics and Propriety in Postbellum Publishing.” Article published in a special issue of American Periodicals: A Journal of History and Criticism, vol. 20, no. 2, 2010, published by Ohio State University Press for the Research Society for American Periodicals, and devoted to “American Periodicals and Visual Culture.” Imprint, vol. 35, no. 2, Autumn 2010, 47. Briefly Noted by Sue Rainey.
Book Review: Sloan, Kim, editor. European Visions: American Voices. British Museum Research Publication Number 172. London: The British Museum, 2009. Imprint, vol. 35, no. 2, Autumn 2010, 44–45. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Book Review: Wood, Marcus. The Horrible Gift of Freedom: Atlantic Slavery and the Representation of Emancipation. From the series Race in the Atlantic World, 1700–1900. Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 2010. Imprint, vol. 35, no. 2, Autumn 2010, 45–46. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Vol. 36, no. 1 (Spring 2011) Purchase this issue!
222. Corey Piper, “A Fair Field and No Favor: The Visualization of American Idealism through Currier & Ives Harness Racing Prints,” Vol. 36, no. 1 (Spring 2011), 2-12, 12 illus.
Corey Piper explores the social resonances that contributed to the success of Currier & Ives harness racing prints. In keeping with the values generally expressed in their imagery, Currier & Ives portrayed harness racing as “a democratic sport rooted in America’s agrarian values, in which performance counted more than pedigree and progress appeared limitless.” Harness racing was America’s first modern sport, and the Currier & Ives lithographs, with their exhaustive captions detailing the place, distance, and times of the races, naming the driver, and often including past accomplishments of the horse, became the visual record. Winning horses and their owners became celebrities. This was particularly true of William Rysdyk and his trotter Hambletonian, the foundation sire of the American Standardbred. Rysdyk’s story is an American success story— as a young stable hand he purchased Hambletonian for $125 and became rich on the stud fees. Similarly, Flora Temple, another celebrity trotter, was “discovered” and purchased for $175. Early prints stressed the amateur nature of the sport and its connection with agricultural fairs, but harness racing quickly became an urban phenomenon. When wealthy industrialists like Cornelius Vanderbilt, Leland Stanford, and John D. Rockefeller became the sport’s leading owners and breeders, harness racing became socially respectable, and champion trotters became luxury status symbols. Through the efforts of the new elite, the sport became professionalized and the National Trotting Association was founded. Currier & Ives harness racing prints, comprising nearly one-tenth of their total output, document all aspects of the sport in its heyday.
223. Sarah. J. Weatherwax, “James M. Vickroy: Publishing Certificates for America,” Vol. 36, no. 1 (Spring 2011), 13-22, 7 illus.
James Monroe Vickroy (1847-1913) of Terre Haute, Indiana, was an important publisher of genealogical records and membership certificates for fraternal and labor organizations. These certificates, generally 27- by-21 inches and printed in bright colors, were designed to be hung on walls as visual statements of personal and family identity. Vickroy’s format provided a central blank pre-printed form to be filled out by the owner. The form was surrounded by blocks of elaborate scenes and symbols appropriate to the subject. Surviving Vickroy products date from 1889 to 1908, and include a Protestant, middle-class Family Record, and an Afro-American Historical Family Record. Membership records for labor groups included the United Mine Workers of America and fire and police departments. Vickroy obtained exclusive rights to produce certificates for twenty-eight fraternal groups, including the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also published a book of generic lodge forms that were used nationwide.
224. Richard Ellis and James Brust, “Nineteenth-Century Trade Cards Related to Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution,” Vol. 36, no. 1 (Spring 2011), 23-34, 19 illus.
The article brings together an uncommon group of late nineteenth-century trade cards that reference, through image and text, popular American perceptions of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Most of these attention-getting cards feature images of monkeys engaged in human activities. A metamorphic trade card physically transforms a monkey into a gentleman wearing a top hat and monocle. Several cards use shadows to link man and monkey in insidious ways. Most of the cards are comic; some are satirical. In two cases they touch directly on religious opposition to the implications of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
Book Review: Horst, W. Dale, and Rose Marie Horst. Frederick Stuart Church: A Brush with Imagination. Goessel, KS: Goose Pond Press, 2010. Imprint, vol. 36, no. 1, Spring 2011, 38. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Book Review: Patterson, Cynthia Lee. Art for the Middle Classes: America’s Illustrated Magazines of the 1840s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010. Imprint, vol. 36, no. 1, Spring 2011, 35–37. Reviewed by Nancy Finlay.
Book Review: Wright, David Gilmore. Domestic and Wild: Peter Moran’s Images of America. Volume 1, The Life and Art of Peter Moran, Painter-Etcher. Volume 2. Catalogue of Prints by Peter Moran (1841–1914). Baltimore, MD: Creo Press, 2010. Imprint, vol. 36, no. 1, Spring 2011, 37–38. Reviewed by Rona Schneider.
Vol. 36, no. 2 (Autumn 2011) Purchase this issue!
225. Jack H.T. Chang and James S. Brust, “Ladies Fashion Plates and Other Illustrations Used for Scrimshaw,” Vol. 36, no. 2 (Autumn 2011), 2-13, 18 illus.
The authors explore print sources used by American seamen for their scrimshaw engravings. Dr. Chang developed a methodology for comparing scrimshaw designs with fashion plates and other illustrations in Godey’s Lady’s Book, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, and other periodicals. His considerable success in making matches is demonstrated in the illustrations to the article.
226. Margaret D. Richardson and Barbara A. Bither, “The Historic Collections of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,” Vol. 36, no. 2 (Autumn 2011), 14-25, 16 illus.
Drawing on the collection of the Historical Resource Center of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the authors illuminate the history of security printing for the Bureau by focusing on the careers and accomplishments of six engravers: George W. Casilear, Charles K. Burt, G.F.C. Smillie, Charles Schlecht, Sukeichi Oyama, and Louis Sartain Schofield
227. Donald C. O’Brien, “Franklin D. Roosevelt: An Insatiable Collector,” Vol. 36, no. 2 (Autumn 2011), 26-44, 14 illus.
Donald C. O’Brien uses reminiscences and personal records to create a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a collector, focusing on his acquisitions of naval prints and views along the Hudson River. Goodspeed’s Book Shop in Boston and the Old Print Shop in New York City were favorite stops for FDR when he visited those cities; and recollections by the owners, correspondence between the print shops, the president, and his secretaries, and bills of sale demonstrate the president’s enthusiasm and collecting strategies. Roosevelt’s personal secretary, Louis McHenry Howe, actively sought out and purchased prints for FDR, and later William Hassett, his correspondence secretary, took over these duties. Archival records held at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum provided documentation for many of the prints discussed.
Book Review: Grim, Ronald E., and Debra Block. Torn in Two: 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. Exhibition catalog. Boston: The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library, 2011. Imprint, vol. 36, no. 2, Autumn 2011, 45–46. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Vol. 37, no. 1 (Spring 2012) Purchase this issue!
228. Hazel Brandenburg, “Re-Presenting the Past: Currier & Ives in 1920s America,” Vol. 37, no. 1 (Spring 2012), 2-13, 8 illus.
Drawing on her knowledge of the 1920s enthusiasm for collecting American antiques, Hazel Brandenburg examines the reasons why Currier & Ives prints became the visual representation of traditional American heritage and were eagerly collected during that decade. As Americans struggled with and embraced changes brought about by technology, urbanization, and mass media, they also wished to maintain older values and traditions that were threatened by foreign influences represented by immigrants and Communists. For anxious and nostalgic Americans, “the scenes depicted in these [Currier & Ives] prints provided direct visual ‘evidence’ of a simpler and happier American past.” Brandenburg discussed the antiques periodicals and books about antique collecting, and cites their opinions regarding these prints and their aesthetic value. She also covers the major C&I auctions. This article expands on Brandenburg’s presentation at Old Sturbridge Village, MA, during the AHPCS annual meeting in May 2011.
229. Allison M. Stagg, “After the New York Public Library: Frank Weitenkampf and His Scholarship on American Political Caricatures,” Vol. 37, no. 1 (Spring 2012), 14-24, 7 illus.
Allison M. Stagg pays tribute to Frank Weitenkampf (1866-1962), the super-energetic, long-term curator of prints at the New York Public Library. After his retirement in 1942, Weitenkampf embarked on the writing of two great books, A Century of Political Cartoons: Caricatures in the United States 1800 to 1900, (1944), and Political Caricature in the United States in Separately Published Cartoons, an Annotated List (1952/1953). Weitenkampf’s enthusiasm for political and social caricature was shared by Clarence S. Brigham of the American Antiquarian Society, Allan Nevins, professor of History at Columbia University, and Robert W. G. Vail, director of the New-York Historical Society. Stagg quotes extensively from their correspondence to demonstrate the mutual interest and friendship that united these men in their determination to preserve caricature published in America. This article expands on Stagg’s presentation at Old Sturbridge Village, MA, during the AHPCS annual meeting in May 2011.
230. David J. Bottjer, “Robert Havell Jr. and Creating The Birds of America,” Vol. 37, no. 1 (Spring 2012), 25-39, 14 illus.
David J. Bottjer examines the extent of the significant contributions made by Robert Havell Jr. (1793-1878) to the final compositions of the plates for John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. In addition to his role as engraver and publisher, Havell exercised his considerable artistic ability to adjust the placement of birds and sometimes created complete backgrounds. After comparing the Audubon watercolors with the published engravings, Bottjer has quantified the extent of Havell’s compositional changes, which increased over the course of publication.
Book Review: Brandt, William H. Interpretive Wood-Engraving: The Story of the Society of American Wood-Engravers. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2009. Imprint, vol. 37, no. 1, Spring 2012, 40–42. Reviewed by Rosemarie Tovell.
Book Review: Spangenberg, Kristin L., and Deborah W. Walk, editors. The Amazing American Circus Poster: The Strobridge Lithographing Company. Exhibition catalog. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 2010. Imprint, vol. 37, no. 1, Spring 2012, 42–43. Reviewed by Georgia B. Barnhill.
Vol. 37, no. 2 (Autumn 2012) Purchase this issue!
231. Jeffrey Croteau, “From Blind Man’s Bluff to the Poor Blind Candidate: David Claypoole Johnston’s Anti-Masonic Illustrations for New England Almanacs,” Vol. 37, no. 2 (Autumn 2012), 2-21, 13 illus.
This article offers new insights into political satire of the Jackson era. In his study of David Claypoole Johnston’s anti-Masonic illustrations for New England almanacs published in the late 1820s and early 1830s, Jeffrey Croteau shows how these prints were motivated by the same politics that fueled Johnston’s caricatures of Andrew Jackson. Croteau addresses these prints “within the context of the political climate from which they emerged” and analyses Johnston’s use of Masonic symbols and ritual in constructing politically motivated satire.
232. Allison Lange, “Picturing Tradition: Images of Martha Washington in Antebellum Politics,” Vol. 37, no. 2 (Autumn 2012), 22-39, 15 illus.
The growing strength of the woman’s rights and woman suffrage movements from the 1840s through the 1860s challenged views of gender behavior held by the majority of Americans. Allison Lange explores the ways in which First Lady Martha Washington was promoted by traditionalists as a foil to the woman’s rights activists. Portraits and scenes from the life of Martha Washington were marketed to the public as a correct model for political womanhood. Lange references the interpretation of the first lady as presented by Rufus Griswold in The Republican Court, or, American Society in the Days of Washington (1855), and shows how popular prints perpetuated his traditionalist principles in visual form.
233. David Gilmore Wright, “Emily Kelley Moran: Philadelphia’s Ground-Breaking Female Painter-Etcher,” Vol. 37, no. 2 (Autumn 2012), 40-54, 10 illus.
David. G. Wright has undertaken the delicate task of recovering the life and art of Emily Kelley Moran (1841-1903). Overshadowed by her more famous in-laws Thomas and Mary Nimmo Moran, her husband Peter Moran, and her brother-in-law Stephen James Ferris, Emily Moran was in the vanguard of women taking up the etching needle. She actively practiced her art and participated in etching exhibitions throughout the 1870s and 1880s. With scant primary source material and almost no personal recollections, Wright has painstakingly developed her story, making the most of the evidence, codifying her surviving etchings, confining speculation to the notes. Contains a list of nineteen documented titles of the etched plates of Emily Kelley Moran.
Book Review: Barnhill, Georgia B., editor. With a French Accent: American Lithography to 1860. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 2012. Imprint, vol. 37, no. 2, Autumn 2012, 58–59. Reviewed by Nancy Finlay.
Book Review: Hills, Patricia, with Peter J. Brownlee, Randy Ramer, and Amanda Lett, contributors. Perfectly American: The Art-Union and its Artists. Tulsa: The Gilcrease Art Museum and University of Oklahoma Press, 2011. Imprint, vol. 37, no. 2, Autumn 2012, 55–56. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: O’Neill, Mora Dianne. Reinvention: The Art and Life of H. M. Rosenberg. Halifax: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2012. Imprint, vol. 37, no. 2, Autumn 2012, 57–58. Reviewed by Rosemarie Tovell.
Vol. 38, no. 1 (Spring 2013) Purchase this issue!
234. Lydia Mattice Brandt, “Picturing Mount Vernon,” Vol. 38, no. 1 (Spring 2013), 2-19, 15 illus.
Lydia Mattice Brandt describes the evolution of images of George Washington’s house, Mount Vernon, from its original role as an attribute in the iconography of Washington, to assuming its own identity as an architectural monument and place of pilgrimage. In the earliest prints, Mount Vernon represents the private retreat of America’s greatest public figure and is used to reinforce the comparison of Washington with the Roman statesman Cincinnatus. The appearance of the house in three series of American views, by George Isham Parkyns (1795), Alexander Robertson and Francis Jukes (1800), and William Birch (1808), established it as “an example of American architecture: well positioned on a major river, articulated with classically inspired features, and fashionably landscaped.” The memorial role of the house is represented, and its identity as a plantation worked by slaves is discussed.
235. Donald C. O’Brien, “Steel Engravings in Illustration: The End of an Era,” Vol. 38, no. 1 (Spring 2013), 20-39, 17 illus.
Women of Beauty and Heroism from Semiramis to Eugenie, A Portrait Gallery of Female Loveliness, Achievement, and Influence (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1859) was one of the last elegant gift books designed to feature steel engravings. The author, Frank Boot Goodrich, had made a career of publishing illustrated compilations and called upon an already familiar team of artists, Jules Champagne and James B. Wandesforde (fl. 1850-1870) to draw the portraits. The plates were engraved by six English-trained engravers working in New York: William G. Jackman (fl. 1841–after 1860), Frederick W. Halpin (1805-1880), Henry Bryan Hall Sr. (1808-1884), George R. Hall (1818-?), Samuel Hollyer (1826-1919), and John Rogers (ca. 1808-ca. 1888). O’Brien traces the history of the steel engraved plates that were commissioned for this work and subsequently sold for use in other publications, including The Ladies’ Repository.
236. Correction, “A New Date for D. C. Johnston’s Symptoms of a Locked Jaw,” Vol. 38, no. 1 (Spring 2013), 40, 1 illus.
Reader response to Jeffrey Croteau, “From Blind Man’s Bluff to the Poor Blind Candidate: David Claypoole Johnston’s Anti-Masonic Illustrations for New England Almanacs,” Imprint, Vol. 37, no. 2 (Autumn 2012) (bibliography #231) establishes that the correct date for Symptoms of a Locked Jaw is 1827.
Book Review: Cooperman, Emily T., and Lea Carson Sherk. William Birch: Picturing the American Scene. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. Imprint, vol. 38, no. 1, Spring 2013, 42–44. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Piola, Erika, ed. Philadelphia on Stone: Commercial Lithography in Philadelphia, 1828–1878. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press in association with the Library Company of Philadelphia, 2012. Imprint, vol. 38, no. 1, Spring 2013, 45–47. Reviewed by Jim Burant.
Vol. 38, no. 2 (Autumn 2013) Purchase this issue!
237. Robert C. Vitz, “Audubon and Cincinnati,” Vol. 38, no. 2 (Autumn 2013), 2-17, 14 illus.
Robert C. Vitz gives a delightful account of John James Audubon’s early years in America when he tried various ways of supporting himself and his wife Lucy, while always pursuing his passion for birds. The Audubons arrived in Cincinnati in January 1820, drawn there by the offer of work at the Western Museum, which quickly foundered in an economic downturn. In Cincinnati, Audubon went birding with Robert Best, the museum’s curator, and showed his work to members of the Long Expedition, including Thomas Say and Titian Peale. To support his family, he taught drawing, painting, and French, and sought portrait commissions. It was from Cincinnati that Audubon embarked for New Orleans on October 12, 1820, determined to systematically paint as many birds as he could and to publish a great work that would surpass Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology. Details are provided for two complete sets of The Birds of America associated with Cincinnati.
This article is developed from the talk presented at the Mercantile Library during the AHPCS annual meeting in Cincinnati in May 2013.
238. Laura Wasowicz, “Monkeys, Misrule, and the Birth of an American Identity in Picture Books of the Rising Republic,” Vol. 38, no. 2 (Autumn 2013), 18-31, 13 illus.
Laura Wasowicz pursues the theme of monkeys as central characters in American children’s books. Clearly distinguished from domestic animals that can be trained and become learned under human control, the monkeys are willful, untrained free agents. Selecting examples from 1798 to 1859, Wasowicz shows how the simian characters act out commentaries on human behavior. Publication of natural histories of exotic lands inhabited by monkeys and apes contributed to the initial popularity of such stories. After the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859, the fictional roleplaying of monkeys took on added resonance. Featured illustrators include Joseph Andrews, Hugh Anderson, and Augustus Hoppin.
239. Gilbert L. Gignac, “William Hind Prints of the Labrador Peninsula,” Vol. 38, no. 2 (Autumn 2013), 32-48, 15 illus.
Gilbert L. Gignac gives a definitive, step-by-step, account of the making of a heavily illustrated, two-volume documentary work, Henry Youle Hind’s Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula: The Country of the Montagnais and Naskapee Indians (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1863). Fortunately, many of the preliminary sketches and finished watercolors of William Hind (1833-1889), the expedition artist and brother of the author, are preserved in public collections across Canada. Likewise, pertinent production records of the Longman publishing house are preserved at the University of Reading Library, Special Collections, Records of British Publishing and Printing: The Longman Group. These business records detail the major steps and costs of the book’s production, including the wood engravings, color lithographs, and etched maps. Gignac’s account is suffused by his appreciation of the talent that both brothers brought to a life-long dedication to give a true “picture” of Canada in text and image.
Book Review: Felcone, Joseph J. Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1761–1898, from the Collection of Joseph J. Felcone. With an introduction by Elizabeth G. Allan. Princeton: Morven Museum & Garden, 2012. Imprint, vol. 38, no. 2, Autumn 2013, 53–54. Reviewed by Nancy Finlay.
Book Review: O’Brien, Donald C. The Engraving Trade in Early Cincinnati: With a Brief Account of the Beginnings of the Lithographic Trade. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2013. Imprint, vol. 38, no. 2, Autumn 2013, 51–52. Reviewed by James Schiele.
Book Review: Slautterback, Catherina. Chromo-Mania! The Art of Chromolithography in Boston, 1840–1910. Boston: The Boston Athenaeum, 2012. Imprint, vol. 38, no. 2, Autumn 2013, 49–50. Reviewed by Michael J. McCue.
Vol. 39, no. 1 (Spring 2014) Purchase this issue!
240. David Gilmore Wright, “Behind the Scenes: Early Civil War Views of Fort McHenry by Edward Stuart Lloyd,” Vol. 39, no. 1 (Spring 2014), 2-13, 9 illus.
Investigating two lithographs of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry, published in 1861 from drawings by Edward Stuart Lloyd, a corporal in the Third Battalion of Rifles, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, led author David Wright to explore significant historical events connected with the fort and the early conduct of the Civil War. Edward Stuart Lloyd (1835-1879) is a little-known artist, descended on his mother’s side from the families of American painters Gilbert Stuart and Gilbert Stuart Newton. Lloyd enlisted for military service with his local Massachusetts militia just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Wright’s account of the training, transport, quarters, and duties of Lloyd’s unit illuminates life in the three-month regiments dispatched to the front with all possible speed when hostilities broke out. As it happened, Lloyd served at Fort McHenry at the time when many secessionist political prisoners were incarcerated there without due process of law. Foremost among them was John Merryman, a high-profile Confederate sympathizer who, aided by Chief Justice Roger Taney, challenged Lincoln’s war-time decree suspending the writ of habeas corpus. Published views of the fort, based on Lloyd’s sketches show how the historic fort adapted to wartime needs. Lloyd’s life and career remain obscure, but he wrote and drew for the weekly New York humor magazine Puck from shortly after its founding in 1876 until his death.
241. Christopher W. Lane, “The Beginnings of Cincinnati Lithography: With a List of Lithographs Made in Cincinnati to 1845,” Vol. 39, no. 1 (Spring 2014), 14-33, 15 illus.
This is the first in a series of articles on lithography in Cincinnati. The article discusses the situation of the printing trade in that city when Louis Samyn, a Frenchman, life dates unknown, attempted to establish a lithographic business in 1838 and 1839. Like many early lithographers on the East Coast, Samyn sought clients among the intellectual and professional class, printing book illustrations for investigations into the geology, fossils, and history of his area. Emil Klauprech (1815-1896) arrived from Germany about 1837 and seems to have been a better businessman. In partnership with Adolphus Menzel (ca. 1812-1874), Klauprech printed a variety of products including book and magazine illustrations, advertisements, sheet music, maps, views, portraits, and framing prints. Like Samyn, Klauprech& Menzel enlisted the skill of local artists. Their connection with John Jollasse, the American name adopted by the German architect Jean David Jollasse (1810-1876) during his brief stay in Cincinnati, is particularly noteworthy. The “List of Lithographs Made in Cincinnati to 1845,” is a chronological listing by firm of all the lithographs the author has been able to substantiate printed by Klauprech & Menzel and Louis Samyn from ca. 1837 through 1844. The next installment of this series appears in Imprint, vol. 39, no. 2 (Autumn 2014).
Book Review: Rainey, Sue. Creating a World on Paper: Harry Fenn’s Career in Art. Amherst and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013. Imprint, vol. 39, no. 1, Spring 2014, 34–35. Reviewed by Nancy Finlay.
Book Review: McKinstry, E. Richard. Charles Magnus, Lithographer: Illustrating America’s Past, 1850–1900. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, 2013. Imprint, vol. 39, no. 1, Spring 2014, 36–37. Reviewed by Rosemarie Tovell.
Vol. 39, no. 2 (Autumn 2014) Purchase this issue!
242. Donald C. O’Brien, “The Engravings of Alfred Jones: Illustrations, Folio Prints, and Bank Note Vignettes,” Vol. 39, no. 2 (Autumn 2014), 2-23, 18 illus.
When the American Antiquarian Society acquired the highly important archive of the engraver Alfred Jones (1819-1900), Donald C. O’Brien was one of the first to examine it. Jones, famed for his American Art Union prints, book illustrations, and bank note engravings, had retained many proofs, assembled scrapbooks, and kept correspondence and ephemera related to his career. O’Brien used the archive to trace Jones’s professional development and his sustained friendships with fellow artists, including F. O. C. Darley, and Marcus W. Baldwin, a former student. It is hoped that this appreciative article will inspire others to delve into the rich resource of the Alfred Jones Collection.
243. Christopher W. Lane, “History of Cincinnati Lithography, 1845 to 1849: With a List of Lithographs Made in Cincinnati during Those Years,” Vol. 39, no. 2 (Autumn 2014), 24-40, 14 illus.
Christopher W. Lane has written the second installment of his presentation, delivered at the AHPCS annual meeting in May 2013, on the history of lithography in Cincinnati up to the Civil War. Covering the years 1845 to 1849, Lane discussed the work of Klauprech & Menzel, Cincinnati’s principal lithographer, and the output of newcomers Fleetwood & Son, J. B. Rowse, John Sherer, and the arrival of Otto Onken, who would rise to prominence in the following decade. During this period, the Mexican War inspired several firms to produce large folio battle scenes and sheet music covers related to that conflict. There was an increase in book illustration and lithographed covers and wrappers. The most notable city view of the period is Flood of 1847. A View of the City of Cincinnati and the Ohio River…, beautifully drawn on stone by J. B. Rowse. The story will be continued in the Spring 2015 issue.
Book Review: Chalmers, Claudine. Chronicling the West for “Harper’s”: Coast to Coast with Frenzeny & Tavenier in 1873–1874. Volume 12 in the Charles M. Russell Center Series on Art and Photography in the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. Imprint, vol. 39, no. 2, Autumn 2014, 44–46. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Book Review: Twyman, Michael. A History of Chromolithography: Printed Colour for All. London: The British Library, and New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2013. Imprint, vol. 39, no. 2, Autumn 2014, 41–43. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 40, no. 1 (Spring 2015) Purchase this issue!
244. Paul D. Schweizer, “James Smillie’s Studio Practice: Two ‘Reduction’ Drawings for His Voyage of Life Prints,” Vol. 40, no. 1 (Spring 2015), 2-15, 9 illus.
Paul D. Schweizer has spent a lot of time looking at and writing about Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life, the iconic series of four paintings, Childhood, Youth, Manhood, and Old Age. As Director Emeritus of the Museum of Art, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, owner of these masterpieces, he is eminently familiar with the oil paintings and the popular engravings made after them (see his two-part article “ ‘So Exquisite a Transcript:’ James Smillie’s Engravings after Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life” in the Autumn 1986 and Spring 1987 issues of Imprint). In this article, Dr. Schweizer investigates the mechanical aides—the camera obscura, the camera lucida, and the daguerreotype— possibly used by James Smillie to reduce Cole’s enormous compositions to the size of 15 x 20 inch engravings. A careful analysis of the recto and verso of two surviving drawings use to transfer the reduced images to the engraving plates adds to the understanding and appreciation of the exacting process of reproductive engraving.
245. Christopher W. Lane, “History of Cincinnati Lithography, 1850 to 1859: With a List of Lithographs Made in Cincinnati during Those Years by Klaurpech & Menzel and Otto Onken,” Vol. 40, no. 1 (Spring 2015), 16-40, 15 illus.
This is the third article in Christopher W. Lane’s series on the history of lithography in Cincinnati through the Civil War. Covering the years 1850 to 1859, Lane discusses the work of Klaurpech & Menzel and Otto Onken, who were already well established in the city, and charts the development of many new businesses that emerged in this decade of growth, including Archibald MacBrair, Gibson & Co., Ehrgott & Forbriger, and the firm that became the powerhouse of Cincinnati lithography, Middleton, Strobridge & Co. During this period maps, particularly railway maps, became an important aspect of lithographic job printing. Views such as the bird’s-eye view of Sumner, Kansas, promoted the settlement of new towns, while finely finished colored views such as Spring Grove Cemetery, Near Cincinnati, and Wilberforce University, Xenia, Ohio, the Colored Peoples College, celebrated the landmarks of more settled areas.
Book Review: Chandler, Robert J. San Francisco Lithographer: African American Artist Grafton Tyler Brown. Volume 14 in the Charles M. Russell Center Series on Art and Photography in the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014. Imprint, vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2015, 44–45. Reviewed by Georgia Barnhill.
Book Review: Kirkpatrick, Robert J. From the Penny Dreadful to the Ha’Penny Dreadfuller: A Bibliographic History of the Boys’ Periodical in Britain, 1762–1950. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press and the British Library, 2013. Imprint, vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2015, 46–48. Reviewed by Mora Dianne O’Neill.
Book Review: Tomasko, Mark D. The Feel of Steel: The Art and History of Bank-Note Engraving in the United States. New York: American Numismatic Society, 2012. Imprint, vol. 40, no. 1, Spring 2015, 41–43. Reviewed by Tom Serfass.
Vol. 40, no. 2 (Autumn 2015) Purchase this issue!
246. Christopher W. Lane, “History of Cincinnati Lithography: The Civil War Years,” Vol. 40, no. 2 (Autumn 2015), 2-20, 17 illus.
This is the concluding article of Christopher W. Lane’s four-part series on lithographic printing in Cincinnati. Focusing on the Civil War years, Lane examines the work of Donaldson & Elmes, Gibson & Co., Middleton, Strobridge & Co., and Ehrgott, Forbriger & Co., all firms that continued to flourish till the end of the century and beyond. Particular notice is given to the soldier-artists Alfred E. Mathews, and John Nepomuck Roesler. Mathews, who signed his work A. E. Mathews, served with the 31st Ohio Volunteers and had over forty of his war sketches printed by a number of Cincinnati lithographers. Roesler, who styled himself J. Nep Roesler, served with the 47th Ohio Volunteers and produced an Album of the Campaign of 1861 in Western Virginia, printed and published by Ehrgott, Forbriger & Co. This same firm produced, in Lane’s words, “a notable series of portraits of Union politicians and military officers, each with the rendering of the subject’s face based on a photographic image.” There is considerable discussion of the standard backgrounds devised for each category of sitter, and of the arrangement of the portfolios in which the portraits were typically published.
247. Thomas P. Bruhn, “The Erotic Print in Nineteenth-Century America, 1810 to 1890,” Vol. 40, no. 2 (Autumn 2015), 22-44, 22 illus.
Thomas P. Bruhn offers a survey of erotica developed for the male audience in nineteenth-century America. He characterizes the various presentations of sexual imagery, noting “the imagery can range from the socially acceptable idealized nude to nudity or attitudes that allude to sexual activity. Erotica finds its way into the public sphere and not just the private when it has aesthetic pretensions or, more importantly, meets a threshold of general social acceptance as for example in some forms of advertising.”
Book Review: Child, Deborah M. Soldier, Engraver, Forger: Richard Brunton’s Life on the Fringe in America’s New Republic. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Imprint, vol. 40, no. 2, Autumn 2015, 45–46. Reviewed by Nancy Finlay.
Book Review: Forbes, David W. Engraved at Lahainaluna: A History of Printmaking by Hawaiians at the Lahainaluna Seminary, 1834–1844, with a Descriptive Catalogue of All Known Views, Maps, and Portraits. Honolulu: Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, distributed by Mission House Museum, 2012. Imprint, vol. 40, no. 2, Autumn 2015, 48–49. Reviewed by Lauren B. Hewes.
Book Review: Kahn, Michael Alexander, and Richard Samuel West. What Fools These Mortals Be! The Story of “Puck,” America’s First and Most Influential Magazine of Color Political Cartoons. San Diego, CA: IDW Publishing, 2014. Imprint, vol. 40, no. 2, Autumn 2015, 50–52. Reviewed by Alexis L. Boylan.
Vol. 41, no. 1 (Spring 2016) Purchase this issue!
248. Olivia C. Thomas, “Through the Looking Glass: The Curious World of Perspective Prints and Zograscopes in Early America,” Vol. 41, no. 1 (Spring 2016), 2-14, 9 illus.
Olivia C. Thomas delves into the parlor amusement known as vues d’optique. Estate inventories and the provenance of surviving viewing devices link this phenomenon to cultivated households interested in science and education. Perspective views were imported from Europe, and although many of the subjects are events related to the American Revolution the representations of urban architecture are fabrications and details of the events are inaccurate. By serendipity, just before going to press, I discovered an article by Christopher Pierce in the Spring 2007 issue of Imprint that contains a detailed discussion of vues d’optique of New York. Titled “Practice peeping! New Notes and Comments on the Collection des prospects of New York City,” it tackles the tangled issue of sources, authorship, and publication history. Pierce’s article is a good companion to Thomas’s examination of the vues as items of domestic material culture.
249. David Bosse, “The Earliest Printed Maps of Springfield, Massachusetts,” Vol. 41, no. 1 (Spring 2016), 15-25, 9 illus.
David Bosse, librarian and curator of maps at Historic Deerfield, writes about the early practice of mapmaking in Springfield, how it was tied to surveys ordered by the town selectmen, and later responded to state mandates. Requiring accuracy and elegance of execution on a large scale, mapmaking was a demanding undertaking and financial remuneration was uncertain.
250. James M. Goode, “Ephemera in the Albert H. Small Collection of Washingtoniana,” Vol. 41, no. 1 (Spring 2016), 26-40, 14 illus.
James M. Goode, curator of the Albert H. Small Collection of Washingtoniana at the George Washington University Museum, has selected a dozen items from the collection that take the reader on a tour of nineteenth-century print media. Exploring themes of real estate development, transportation, tourism, and the Civil War. All the items illustrated and discussed are linked to the history of Washington, D.C.
Book Review: Pomeroy, Jane R. Alexander Anderson’s New York City Diary: 1793 to 1799. 2 vols. Washington, DC: Smithsonian; New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press; and Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 2014. Imprint, vol. 41, no. 1, Spring 2016, 41–44. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Vol. 41, no. 2 (Autumn 2016) Purchase this issue!
251. Kevin H. Lynch, “Ten Quintessential Nineteenth-Century California Sheet Music Publications,” Vol. 41, no. 2 (Autumn 2016), 2-16, 11 illus.
Kevin H. Lynch, a collector and dealer with a discerning eye for nineteenth-century sheet music, attended the 2016 AHPCs annual meeting in Santa Fe. The examples that he brought to the Print Mart were outstanding for their visual quality and condition. For this issue Mr. Lynch prepared an article featuring ten early sheet music covers produced in his native state of California. The covers date from 1852 through 1897, and feature iconic California imagery including pioneers, gold mining, grapes and wine, and San Francisco Bay. Topical subjects include trotting horses, minstrel performances, snowbound trains, the Franco Prussian War, and U. S. Grant and the anti-immigrant movement.
252. Sara M. Picard, “Facing Jules Lion: Portraits of Louisiana’s Distinguished Men,” Vol. 41, no. 2 (Autumn 2016), 17-33, 17 illus.
Sara M. Picard gives us a professional portrait of Jules Lion (1806-1866), one of the earliest lithographers and daguerreotypes working in New Orleans. Lion, whose race is open to question, was born in Paris and began his lithographic career there. He arrived in New Orleans at the age of twenty-one and became a noted figure in the visual culture of the city until old age and the Confederacy’s lost cause clouded his final years. Lyon was a prolific lithographic illustrator and produced many portraits of distinguished men, possibly intended for his proposed illustrated biographical series, Notabilités de la Louisiane, that never came to fruition. Picard’s essay is developed from her presentation at the 2015 AHPCS annual meeting in New Orleans.
James Brust and John Zak, “An Essential Currier & Ives Library: Books that Every C&I Collector Should Have,” Vol. 41, no. 2 (Autumn 2016), 36-44.
This special section includes the choices of Currier & Ives experts James Brust and John Zak of the most essential books on Currier & Ives for collectors. Discussed books consist of:
o Berkoff, Marshall, editor. Currier & Ives: The New Best Fifty. Farmingdale, NY: The American Historical Print Collectors Society, 1991, limited edition of 2,000 copies.
o Bland, Jane Cooper. Currier & Ives, a Manual for Collectors. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931.
o King, Roy, and Burke Davis. The World of Currier & Ives. New York: Random House 1968, first edition. New York: Bonanza Books, 1969, reprint.
o Peters, Fred J., compiler. Clipper Ship Prints by Currier and Ives. New York: Antique Bulletin Publishing Company, 1930, limited edition of 500 copies plus library edition.
o Peters, Fred J., compiler. Railroad, Indian, and Pioneer Prints by Currier and Ives. New York: Antique Bulletin Publishing Company, 1930, limited edition of 500 copies plus library edition.
o Peters, Fred J., compiler. Sporting Prints by Currier and Ives. New York: Antique Bulletin Publishing Company, 1930, limited edition of 750 copies.
o Peters, Harry T. Currier & Ives, Printmakers to the American People. Volume 1, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran & Co., 1929, limited edition of 501 copies, reprint by Arno Press, 1976; Volume 2, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Doran and Co., 1931, limited edition of 501 copies, reprint by Arno Press, 1976; Condensed popular edition, Garden City NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1942.
o Rawls, Walton. Currier & Ives’ America: From a Young Nation to a Great Power. New York: Abbeville Press, 2016. This is a new edition of Rawls’ The Great Book of Currier & Ives’ America. Imprint, vol. 41, no. 2, Autumn 2016, 42.
o Simkin, Colin, editor. Currier & Ives’ America: A Panorama of the Mid-Nineteenth Century Scene. New York: Crown Publishers, 1952.
o Simkin, Colin, editor. A Currier & Ives Treasury. New York: Crown Publishers, 1955.
o The Old Print Shop. Best Fifty Currier & Ives Lithographs, Large Folio Size. New York: The Old Print Shop, 1933.
o The Old Print Shop. Best Fifty Currier & Ives Lithographs, Small Folio Size. New York: The Old Print Shop, 1934.
Book Review: Rawls, Walton. Currier & Ives’ America: From a Young Nation to a Great Power. New York: Abbeville Press, 2016. This is a new edition of Rawls’ The Great Book of Currier & Ives’ America. Imprint, vol. 41, no. 2, Autumn 2016, 34-35. Reviewed by James Brust and John Zak.
Vol. 42, no. 1 (Spring 2017) Purchase this issue!
253. Christopher W. Lane, “Middleton’s National Oil Portraits,” Vol. 42, no. 1 (Spring 2017), 2-28, 22 illus.
This article is the product of decades of research by Christopher W. Lane, owner of the Philadelphia Print Shop West. Lane encountered Middleton’s National Oil Portraits while researching Cincinnati lithography. He became fascinated by the number of portraits produced and the story of their printing and marketing. As a print-seller himself, Lane enthusiastically tracked down advertisements related to the portrait series. The result is a major article on a previously obscure lithographic venture that had national ambition and success.
254. Marcus Ladd, “Printed in America: Challenging the German Monopoly in the Golden Age of Postcards,” Vol. 42, no. 1 (Spring 2017), 29-42, 15 illus.
Marcus Ladd, librarian at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, is a postcard enthusiast. His article on American firms operating in the early twentieth century introduces fresh imagery and information to the pages of Imprint. Firms discussed include the Detroit Publishing Company; E. C. Kropp of Milwaukee; Edward H. Mitchell of San Francisco and his subsidiary companies including Art Litho. Company, Cardinell-Vincent, Pacific Novelty Company, and Van Ornum Colorprint; and the Curt Teich Company of Chicago. Innovations in style and printing are discussed. All examples used for this essay are from the Clyde N. Bowden postcard collection in the Walter Havighurst Special Collections, Miami University.
Book Review: Milgram, James W., M.D. American Illustrated Letter Stationary, 1819–1899. Lake Forest, IL: Northbrook Publishing Company, 2016. Imprint, vol. 42, no. 1, Spring 2017, 43–44. Reviewed by Virginius C. Hall.
Vol. 42, no. 2 (Autumn 2017) Purchase this issue!
255. Ron Tyler, “‘Entirely New and Very Interesting Things’: Louis Choris and the Kotzebue Expedition, 1815–1818,” Vol. 42, no. 2 (Autumn 2017), 2-43, 28 illus.
This issue is devoted to an in-depth evaluation of the work of Louis Choris, expedition artist for the Russian-sponsored Kotzebue expedition that visited the coasts of Alaska and California, and the islands of Hawaii in 1816 and 1817. The author emphasizes the scientific brief that Choris was given. His images were intended as visual documents recording the new lands and peoples encountered during the voyage of the Rurik. Accuracy was particularly important when portraying indigenous peoples, because the pictures would be used as evidence in the debate among leading European and American scientists regarding the origin of the different races. Ron Tyler, retired director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, has devoted over three decades to this study, the first exhaustive account of Choris’s career. Includes an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
Book Review: Barnhill, Georgia B., and Melissa Geisler Trafton, with a forward by Martha Oaks. Drawn from Nature & on Stone: The Lithographs of Fitz Henry Lane. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum, 2017. Imprint, vol. 42, no. 2, Autumn 2017, 45–48. Reviewed by Rosemarie L. Tovell.
Vol. 43, no. 1 (Spring 2018) Purchase this issue!
256. David G. Wright, “Peter Moran’s Monotypes Rediscovered,” Vol. 43, no. 1 (Spring 2018), 2-21, 17 illus.
The recent discovery of six monotypes signed by Peter Moran has enabled David G. Wright to evaluate Moran’s use of the process as it relates to his work as an etcher and painter. The freedom and bravura displayed in these monotypes places Moran at the forefront of artists who have employed this graphic process. The essay includes an appendix of monotypes exhibited by Moran during his lifetime, at the Philadelphia Society of Etchers, December 1882-February 1883, Frederick Keppel Gallery, New York, December 1887-January 1888, and James McClees Gallery, Philadelphia, November-December 1888.
David G. Wright is the author of Domestic and Wild: Peter Moran’s Images of America (2010), a two-volume work on the life and art of Peter Moran, painter-etcher, with a catalog of prints.
Book Review: Hewes, Lauren B., and Laura E. Wasowicz. Radiant with Color & Art: McLoughlin Brothers and the Business of Picture Books, 1858–1920. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 2017. Available from Oak Knoll Books, New Castle, DE. Imprint, vol. 43, no. 1, Spring 2018, 22–24. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Vol. 43, no. 2 (Autumn 2018) Purchase this issue!
257. Nancy R. Davison, “E. W. Clay’s Life in Philadelphia: A Moment in Time,” Vol. 43, no. 2 (Autumn 2018), 2–30, 20 illus.
Stimulated by the 2006 discovery of E. W. Clay’s European scrapbooks, Nancy Davison has reexamined and contextualized Life in Philadelphia, Clay’s visual satire on black society in Philadelphia, 1828 to 1830. The hand-colored etchings are essentially theatrical set pieces complete with dialogue. The situations and interactions of the characters are real and nuanced. The extravagant clothing is exaggerated but reflects actual prosperity. This truly is a moment in time. Life in Philadelphia’s relaxed attitude of racial mockery is in stark contrast to representations of African Americans made just a few years later, when race relations deteriorated in response to the abolitionist movement and declining economic circumstances. Includes an appendix listing the entire set of 14 plates as cataloged and numbered by the author in her PhD dissertation based on examination of prints in the collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia, The New-York Historical Society, and the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
258. Kevin Hugh Lynch, “Lithographic Luminaries Illustrate American Music, 1835 to 1861,” Vol. 43, No. 2 (Autumn 2018), 31–50, 22 illus.
The production of illustrated sheet music covers was an important component of the job work that supported lithographic studios. Sometimes the design and execution were assigned to young artists beginning to master the medium, but skilled European artists used it as a point of entry into American shops, and specialists in portraiture were always in demand. Kevin Hugh Lynch has assembled a visual feast of lively, entertaining, and topical cover illustrations drawn by the best artists of their time. The artists singled out for attention are: George T. Sanford, James Queen, Peter Kramer, Francis D’Avignon, Leopold Grozelier, Robert Cooke, Winslow Homer, Alphonse Bigot, Fitz Henry Lane, and Napoleon Sarony.
Book Review: Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. Fanny Palmer: The Life and Work of a Currier & Ives Artist. Edited by Diann Benti. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2018. Imprint, vol. 43, no. 2, Autumn 2018, 51–52. Reviewed by Kate Meyer.
Book Review: Thompson, Barbara. Over There—Over Here: American Print Makers Go to War, 1914–1918. Wichita, KS: Wichita Art Museum, 2018. Imprint, vol. 43, no. 2, Autumn 2018, 54–56. Reviewed by Rosemarie Tovell.
Vol. 44, no. 1 (Spring 2019) Purchase this issue!
259. Bettina A. Norton, “Benjamin and Samuel Blyth’s Roles in Printmaking,” Vol. 44, No. 1 (Spring 2019), 2-23, 15 illus.
Bettina Norton’s examination of impressions of Revolutionary War era portraits by the brothers Benjamin Blyth (1746-1811) and Samuel Blyth (1744-1796) reveal their reworking of plates and complex relationships between artists, engravers, and publishers. The Blyth brothers worked in Salem, Massachusetts, from the mid-1770s to the early 1780s, and participated in producing mezzotints and one pair of engravings.
260. James S. Brust, “Nineteenth-Century Historical and Popular Prints Reproduced on Vintage Carte de Visite Photographs,” Vol. 44, No. 1 (Spring 2019), 24-54, 108 illus.
For many years, James S. Brust has been exploring the relationship between the carte de visite, a small card-mounted photograph popular during the 1860s and 1870s, and prints produced for the general market of that time. His article demonstrates the multiple iterations of popular imagery in the mid-nineteenth century. Traditionally, a painting that was well-received would be copied as an engraving or lithograph, creating relatively inexpensive multiple copies to be sold. After the invention of photography, the carte de visite took this a step further, enabling everyone to amass their own personal art collection for a price so low that the pictures could be acquired, traded, or discarded at whim.
Book Review: Iancono, Domenic J., compiler and editor. The Rona and Martin Schneider Collection of European and American Prints. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Art Galleries, 2018. Imprint, vol. 44, no. 1, Spring 2019, 55–57. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Iancono, Domenic J., exhibition curator. Selections from the Rona and Martin Schneider Collection of Late 19th and Early 20th Century American and European Fine Art Prints. Syracuse, NY: Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery, (Syracuse University Art Galleries), 2018. Imprint, vol. 44, no. 1, Spring 2019, 55–57. Reviewed by Thomas P. Bruhn.
Book Review: Vittoria, Shannon. “Nature and Nostalgia in the Art of Mary Nimo Moran (1842–1899).” PhD dissertation, Graduate Faculty in Art History, City University of New York, 2016. Imprint, vol. 44, no. 1, Spring 2019, 58–60. Reviewed by David G. Wright.
2020s (Vols. 45-) Imprint Articles
Vol. 45, no. 1 (Spring 2020) Purchase this issue!
261. Sally Pierce, comp., “Bibliography of Book Reviews Published in Imprint, Volumes 1-44, 1976-2019,” Vol. 45, no. 1 (Spring 2020), 2-19. This issue contains a bibliography compiled by editor Sally Pierce of book reviews published in Imprint from 1976 to the present. These reviews represent over forty years of concerted effort to explore, interpret, and promote American historical prints.
Book Review: Cook, Preston, with a foreword by Rolf Thompson. American Eagle: A Visual History of Our National Emblem. San Francisco: Goff Books, 2019. Imprint, vol. 45, no. 1, Spring 2020, 20-21. Reviewed by Sally Pierce.
Book Review: Hewes, Lauren B., and Nan Wolverton. Beyond Midnight: Paul Revere. Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 2019. Imprint, vol. 45, no. 1, Spring 2020, 21-22. Reviewed by Allison M. Stagg.
Book Review: Tyler, Ron. Western Art, Western History: Collected Essays. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. Imprint, vol. 45, no. 1, Spring 2020, 23-24. Reviewed by Mark Thistlethwaite.
Vol. 46, no. 1 (Spring 2021)
262. Christopher W. Lane, “Currier and Ives Prints of the American West,” Vol. 46, no. 1 (Spring 2021), 2-23.
263. David G. Wright, Henry Farrer’s Last Old New York Etching: A Pre-Raphaelite Artist Poised for Transition,” Vol. 46, no. 1 (Spring 2021), 2-23.
Book Review: Manthorne, Katherine. Restless Enterprise: The Art and Life of Eliza Pratt Greatorex. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2020. Imprint, vol. 46, no. 1, Spring 2021, 40-42. Reviewed by Helena Wright.
Vol. 46, no. 2 (Autumn 2021)
264. Georgia B. Barnhill, “Fitz Henry Lane and Coastal New England,” Vol. 42, no. 2 (Autumn 2021), 2-17. Barnhill looks at a group of related lithographs of coastal New England by artist Fitz Henry Lane, focusing on earlier views that may have been familiar to Lane and the construction of his compositions.
265. James S. Brust and Lauren B. Hewes, “J.H. Bufford’s Parlor Gems,” Vol. 46, No. 2 (Autumn 2021), 18-29. This article provides a deep dive into “Parlor Gems,” a category of small lithographs produced in the early 1860s by J.H. Bufford of Boston. Brust, a collector, and Hewes, a curator, explain this small and short-lived format that made fine art available for parlor albums.
Book Review: Cape Ann Museum. Laid Down on Paper: Printmaking in America, 1800-1865. Gloucester, MA: Cape Ann Museum, 2020. Imprint, vol. 46, no. 2, Autumn 2021, 30-32. Reviewed by Thomas B. Bruhn.
Book Review: Emlen, Robert P. Imagining the Shakers: How the Visual Culture of Shaker Life was Pictured in the Popular Illustrated Press of Nineteenth-Century America. Clinton, NY: Richard W. Couper Press, 2019. Imprint, vol. 46, no. 2, Autumn 2021, 33-34. Reviewed by Julie Nicoletta.