Description

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.