2015 Fall 40:2

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Fall 2015 Volume 40 Number 2

ATLANTIC C ABLE BROADSIDES AND LITHOGRAPHS 1856-‐‑1866 By Bill Burns

Several prints were published in New York in 1858, including the above colorful piececco of toba advertising, produced by Sarony, Major & Knapp for Atlantic Cable Fine Chewing Tobacco. Image credit, Bill Burns. Telecommunications may seem an unlikely subject for mid-‐‑19th century broadsides and lithographs, but in the 1850s the prospect of crossing the Atlantic Ocean with a telegraph line seized the popular imagination. During the ten-‐‑year course of the enterprise, at least thirty prints on the topic were produced in Britain, America, Canada, and France. Until recently there has been little information recorded on these prints, which despite their widespread sale at the time are now found only in very small numbers. Some were described and illustrated in “An Atlantic Telegraph: The Transcendental Cable” (Robert Dalton Harris & Diane DeBlois, Ephemera Society 1994), but most were known only through archive catalog entries at various institutions. The Atlantic Cable project originated in 1854 with Cyrus West Field, a retired New York paper merchant who was independently wealthy at age 35. Introduced by his brother to an engineer seeking funding for a telegraph line across Newfoundland to connect to the mainland via Nova Scotia, Field conceived of the possibility of continuing the circuit with an undersea cable from Newfoundland to Ireland. This would reduce the three-‐‑week transit time for messages between North America and Europe to just a few hours. The then-‐‑ (continued on pages 6-‐‑9)

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Volume 40 Number 2 – Fall 2015 Robert Newman, President James Brust , 1st Vice President James Schiele, 2nd Vice President Lauren Hewes, Secretary Charles Walker, Treasurer Nancy Finlay, Regional Activities Chair John Zak, Membership Chair; Past President Sally Pierce, Imprint Editor The AHPCS 2016 Annual Meeting will be held in Santa Jackie Penny,News Letter Editor Fe, New Mexico from Wednesday, May 11 through Sunday May 16, 2016. A preliminary schedule will be forthcoming in Directors: the Winter 2016 issue. The organizers, Peter and Chagit Marshall Berkoff Heller, will have programs and costs per-‐‑person available. Allen W. Bernard La Fonda Hotel, Santa (in Fe the middle of the historic Robert Bolton district) will be the host hotel. Contact Desiree Quintana, Donald Bruckner sales manager, 800-‐‑523-‐‑5002 to make your reservation. The Michael Buehler cost is $160 a night, those attending the conference can get Jourdan Houston the same preferred rate threedays prior and three days after; Mike McKenzie the nearest major airport is in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Erika Piola Eric Terwilliger Above: Hyde, Helen.Teasing the Daruma, 1905. Color Woodcut.New Rosemarie Tovell Mexico Museum of Art,Gift of Mrs. Hallie Hyde Irwin and Mr. Edwin Fraser Gillette, 1943.

Editor’s Note: The AHPCS News Letter is published engraving tools, comments on personal or museum quarterly with occasional supplements. Deadlines for collections, exhibits and publications. The editor information are the 10th of January, April, July and reserves the right to make any changes without October with publication dates of the 1st of February, prior approval. Send contributions to May, August and November. Please allow three weeks [email protected] for delivery. For members wishing to place a classified Any prints of the American scene that are 100 or more advertisement, the cost is $25 for 1/3 of a page and years old will be considered. News items are always $50 for 1/2 a page. Send check and copy to: desirable, as are articles about little-‐‑known engravers AHPCS, 94 Marine Street, Farmingdale, NY 11735-‐‑ and lithographers, shops, remarks about unusual 5606. Your ad will appear in the next issue.

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Archival Item of Interest to Members By Philip Weimerskirch with special thanks to Sandra Markham

The first lithographic shop in America was established in New York by William Armand Genet Barnet and Isaac Doolittle. They lived in Paris for several years and learned lithography there; no one knew, however, just how and where they learned to print lithographs. I recently learned that there are some letters from Barnet and Doolittle to Benjamin Silliman. For those interested in the citation, it is Silliman Family Papers (MS 450), Series II, General Correspondence, Box 21, Folder 56 (additional letters are in Folders 1-‐‑4); they are at the Yale University Library Manuscripts and Archives. Of all the letters in the box, one mentions lithography (although not the word itself). According to the letters’ contents, it appears Doolittle was spending time doing shopping forSilliman . The letters from France are all on the subject of minerals, specimens and copies of French journals. The papers also have a few letters from the Pendleton brothers (of the first lithographic shop in Boston). Of interest is the letter (picturedabove ) from New York, dated [8] October 1821. In it Doolittle writes: “It was not with Mr. Senefelder that we learned the art, he has no establishment of his own – we know him and have from time to time received some practical instruction from him – but it was in the establishment of Count DeLasteyrie (the first who introduced it in France) that we worked.” De Lasteyrie established the first commercial lithographic shop in Paris. Lasteyrie had sent a lithographic stone and ink to Samuel Latham Mitchill, who was then living in Washington, D.C., long before Barnet and Doolittle moved to New York. "ʺThe art"ʺ referenced in this letter could only have been lithography. Alois Senefelder invented it, and Count Charles Philibert de Lasteyrie introduced it to Paris. Earlier Godefroy Engelmann introduced it to Mulhouse in Southern France, so de Lasteyrie was not the first person to introduce it to that country. Senefelder moved to Paris at some point, in part to supervise the translation and publication of the French edition of his manual of lithography.

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WEB RESOURCES OF NOTE TO MEMBERS: America’s River: Images of the Hudson from The William

The family of William and Ruth Diebold donated a significant collection of books, prints, maps, and other ephemera to Historic Hudson Valley. This important collection spans two hundred years and documents nearly every aspect of Hudson River Valley art, history and culture. The online exhibition, entitled America’s River: Images of the Hudson from The William and Ruth Diebold Collection marks the first time that a selection of these objects will be available for study, thanks to generous funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. William (Bill) Diebold was an active member of the AHPCS and served on its board; he had an unparalleled collection of prints of the Hudson River. More information, including the online exhibition, is available at: www.hudsonvalley.org/education/americas-‐‑river

Right: The Statue of "ʺLiberty”-‐‑ Viewing the Harbor from the Torch. Colo red engraving.Gift of the Heirs of William and Ruth . Diebold

Free Early Photography Reference

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A Visit to Richard O. Hathaway'ʹs Memorial Sculpture By Sue Rainey

When in Montpelier, Vermont, AHPCS members who knew Dick Hathaway will enjoy visiting the-‐‑ life size bronze statue of him seated on a bench outside the main building of the Vermont College of Art. Hathaway was the auctioneer at the benefit auctions at our annual meetings for twenty-‐‑five years, beginning in 1980. A professor of American history at what was then Vermont College, he was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about American historical prints. After his death in 2005, colleagues, former students, and friends combined forces to support the erection of a memorial to him-‐‑-‐‑a sculpture by Bridgette Mongeon. Many AHPCS members contributed to this effort, encouraged by John Zak, who matched the amount donated.The statue was unveiled in 2008.

Above: AHPCS member Sue Rainey, and her friend Lois Eby (left) visit Dick Hathaway in Montpelier,. Vermont

The Tales of an Audubon-‐‑phile By Charles Walker

On our way to the annual meeting in New Orleans, Carol and I stopped at the Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, an AHPCS member institution. The exhibition “Drawn to Life: Audubon’s Legacy” featured the museum’s extensive collection of Audubon’s art including pastels, engravings, lithographs, printed books and manuscripts. The museum curator, Sarah Boehme, gave usa personal tour of the exhibit. What a treat! The museum owns Audubon’s personal copy of The Birds of America bound systematically according to Audubon’s Synopsis. The first print is the California Condor, not theWild Turkey. To correct mistakes Audubon thought he had made, he had Havell strike thirteen additional composite plates. This set and the one at the Field Museum in Chicago are the only two sets known to have all thirteen of those plates. The Stark also had on view a complete bound set of the Bien addition, a complete first octavo addition of the Birds in parts, Havell’s copper plate for the Swallow-‐‑Tailed Hawk #72, various letters, contracts and writings. Of interest was volume one of the double elephant folio of the Birds given by Audubon tohis friend John Bachman. Also Audubon’s personal copy of The History of British Birds given to him by wood engraver Thomas Bewick. A breathtaking exhibit of Audubon material, all from the Stark’s own holdings. The museum also has a comprehensive collection of western art including Thomas Moran, N.C. Wyeth, Georgia O’Keefe and others. For an Audubon-‐‑phile like myself this stop was the highlight of the trip.

Left: AHPCS Treasurer Charles Walker with Sarah Boehme, Curator, Stark Museum of Art.

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(continued from page 1) new cable industry was a British monopoly, so after raising funds in New York, Field took the first of many voyages to England, and by 1856 work on the vast project had begun. The longest cable in service at that time was just 100 miles, and the proposed Atlantic Cable would be 2,000 miles, so this was a very bold leap both technically and financially. The earliest print located so far is a “Chart Shewing the Intended Telegraphic Communication 1 between Newfoundland & Ireland,” published in December 1856 by Day & Son, London, Britain’s most prolific producer of broadsides and other popular works (fig. 1). This was based on a stock map of the North Atlantic with the addition of the proposed track of the cable, illustrations of the profile of the sea bed, and drawings of the cable itself. Similar maps followed from Korff Brothers, New York, and other companies. By 1857 the manufacture of 2,000 miles of cable was well under way in Britain. The cable was too 2 heavy to be carried by a single ship, so the US government provided its newest warship, USS Niagara, together with support ship Susquehanna, and the British government contributed HMS Agamemnon and support shipLeopard . In August 1857 William Foster of London, a specialist in marine prints, published “The Atlantic Telegraph Cable,” which showed the four ships at sea (fig. 2). The expedition set sail on 6 August 1857, but after a series of mishaps too much cable had been lost and the laying had to be abandoned for the year. Several more extra-‐‑illustrated maps and charts were published after this, and the following year more cable was made for a new attempt. In the summer of 1858, after some initial difficulties, the cable was successfully laid between Ireland and Newfoundland. Congratulatory messages were exchanged over the cable between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan, and the successful completion of the cable was the impetus for mass production of cable broadsides. Immediately after the first exchange of messages, Charles Magnus of New York offered “Wholesale Only: The Submarine Telegraph Panorama.” This 3

Fall 2015 7 Volume 40 Number 2 was followed in rapid succession by two further editions from Magnus, each with the same overall design but different details. H.H. Lloyd in New York issued three versions of a large “Telegraph Chart” as the news arrived, an elaborate production with detailed text and many illustrations (fig. 3). Two of these were published before the conclusion of the cable expedition; the third just after. In San Francisco, Sterett and Butler published a wood engraving illustrating and describing “The Celebration in San Francisco,” although its images are of the celebration rather than of the cable expedition, while A. Weingartner illustrated the participation of firemen in the Atlantic Cable parade in New York City; he shows America as a “fire laddie,” sending a bolt of electricity in the direction of England (fig. 4). Unfortunately, because of mechanical and electrical problems, the cable of 1858 worked for only a few weeks before falling irreparably silent. The British Government’s support and subsidies for the cable had resulted in significant financial losses, and although many other shorter cables continued to be laid all over the world, there was an informal moratorium on the Atlantic Cable while a Board of Trade committee took evidence on the failure. The committee eventually published its 600-‐‑page report in 1861 with many suggestions 4 for improvements in both the cable and the machinery used to lay it, but by that time the Civil War was putting a damper on funding in the USA. In the meantime a map had been published in 1859 by Edward Stanford of London, showing the area around Valentia in Ireland where the cable had been landed, details of the track of the cable, positions of the ships, locations of cable buildings on shore, and much other information which has proved invaluable to historians (fig. 5). In Canada, the only known lithograph from that country on the Atlantic Cable, “A View of the Town and Harbour of St. John’s, Newfoundland,” was published in 1860 and showed the cable fleet at St. John’s after the conclusion of the 1858 5 expedition.

Fall 2015 8 Volume 40 Number 2 Arrangements to finance and manufacture a new cable 6 eventually got under way, and the next expedition was planned for the summer of 1865. By this time Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s big shipGr eat Eastern, a commercial failure in passenger service, had become available at auction and was purchased to lay the cable. Itself a popular subject for illustration,Great Eastern was the only ship large enough to carry the 2,000 miles of cable in a single load. The ship’s passenger accommodations were gutted to make room for three “tanks” to hold the cable, and one of the five funnels was removed. This last detail provides an interesting game for print researchers in determining the source of the image of Great Eastern used on each of the ten 1865/66 broadsides which show the ship. By my count it is evenly split, with half showing five funnels, half showing four. The temptation to re-‐‑use an existing image for a new print evidently triumphed over historical accuracy for some of the publishers. Five Atlantic Cable broadsides were published in 1865, all featuring Great Eastern and providing many additional details of the project. This group includes the only French lithographGreat of Eastern as a cable layer, by marine artist Louis le Breton. The most detailed one was by Bacon & Co. of London, which showed a map of the route, an illustration of Great Eastern with a cross section, and the types of cable and instruments used (fig. 6). Unfortunately the expedition that year lost the end of the cable in 12,000 feet of water just 600 miles out from Newfoundland and the laying could not be completed. The last of the 1865 broadsides, published by theHartford Daily Courant in Connecticut, offers a satirical view of the failure of the expedition (fig. 7). Undaunted, the company reorganized and a further 2,000 miles of cable was made, with which Great Eastern set sail from Ireland to Newfoundland on 14 July 1866. A view showing the ship leaving Sheerness Harbour had been published by Day and Son in London in June (fig. 8). The expedition proceeded without event, and the cable was landed in Heart’s Content Bay, Newfoundland, on 27 July 1866. A Kimmel and Forster lithograph shows Great Eastern perilously close to shore in the bay, and Bacon & Co. released a second edition of their 1865 print updated to reflect the successful landing of the 1866 cable. Kimmel and Forster also published an allegorical print commemorating the harmony between America and Britain which would now be reinforced 7 by the cable.

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One further task remained – the recovery and completion of the 1865 cable. Great Eastern sailed from Newfoundland to the position where the cable had been lost the year before, and after some difficulty retrieved the end, spliced on a new section, and completed the cable to Heart’s Content. The only known image documenting this feat was published by Day and Son and shows various phases of the recovery. This is the last recorded broadside on the first Atlantic Cables. After the successful completion of both cables in 1866, Britain and North America were never again out of instantaneous communication. Today hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cable follow the same routes, carrying many millionsof times the traffic of the telegraph cables, which were finally superseded in the 1960s. All the broadsides described in this article, and many more, are illustrated and fully described at the Atlanticch Cable resear website: http://atlantic -‐‑cable.com/Ephemera/Broadsides/

Image Credits: Figure 1: Day and Sons 1856, image courtesy of Bill Burns. Figure 2: Foster 1857, image courtesy of Bill Burns.yd Figure 3: Llo 1858, image courtesy of AAS. Figure 4: Sterrett 1858, image courtesy Library of Congress. Figure 5: Stanford 1859, image courtesy Dibner Library, Smithsonian Institution. Figure 6: Bacon 1865, image courtesy of Bill Burns. Figure 7: Hartford Dailyimage Courant 1865, courtesy of Bill Burns. Figure 8: Kimmel and Forster 1866, image courtesy Library of Congress.

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Regional Meeting Announcement

A regional meeting will be held in combination with local members of the Manuscript Society, to take place at the Autry National Center of the American West onSaturday, December 5, 2015. We will view their impressive exhibition "ʺEmpire & Liberty, The Civil War and the American West,"ʺ including a gallery tour conducted for us by Carolyn Brucken, Curator of

John Frémont expedition flag, ca. 1841. Gift of Western Woman'ʹs History, and the organizer of this exhibit. Elizabeth Benton Frémont. SouthWest Museum of the The exhibit is on view until January 3, 2016. “Empire and American Indian Collection,utry A National Center; Liberty” is the first major museum exhibition to illuminate the 81.G.5A. causes and legacies of the American Civil War from the vantage point of Westward expansion. The meeting will start at 10 AM, with lunch at Noon at the Autry'ʹs Crossroads West Cafe. All who attend will be free to tour the rest of the galleries at the Autry as well. Combining with the Manuscript Society should add a new dimension for us, a chance to meet other collectors with similar interests, and perhaps serve as a model for future local meetings. For more information, please contact Jim Brust at [email protected] or Nancy Finlay [email protected] .

EXHIBITION OFI NTEREST TO MEMBERS

The Lockwood-‐‑Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk, Connecticut recently opened a new exhibit, “The Stairs Below: The Mansion’s Domestic Servants, 1868-‐‑1938” curated by Kathleen Motes Bennewitz. The exhibit is open through October 30, For 2016. more information on schedules and programs please visit: www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com e -‐‑mail info @lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or call 203-‐‑838-‐‑9799. Telling the story of the Lockwood-‐‑Mathews Mansion’s workforce is overdue, yet timely. Discussions nationwide on issues such as immigration and social justice, as well as the popular TV series Downton Abbey, have audiences visiting this landmark asking about its servants and their lodgings. Little was left behind to reconstruct the servants’ lives and work. “The Stairs Below” aims to make real the ‘invisible’ staff, especially the Irish immigrants and African-‐‑ Americans, whose livelihoods depended on the fortune and tolerance of the elite. Included are prints,photographs and collection items from Historic New England, the Library of Congress, the American Antiquarian Society and the Smithsonian.

Right: Gardening: Prang'ʹs aids for object teaching. Trades & occupations. Plate Published 7. by L. Prang & Co. Boston. ca. 1874, AAS.

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Regional Meeting Recap by Georgia Barnhill

On July 31, about a dozen members of the AHPCS and friends came to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, to see From Birds to Beasts: Audubon'ʹs Last Great Adventure. Andrew Spahr, director of collections and exhibitions, and Rebecca Ronstadt, curator of the New Hampshire Audubon Society art collection and publisher of the Journal of the Print World, selected the prints for the exhibition, largely from the collection of 100 lithographs on deposit from New Hampshire Audubon from the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North Americapublished in Philadelphia by J. T Bowen from 1839-‐‑1844. Spahr and Ronstadt focused in part on depictions of animals found in New England. The exhibition also included several examples of Audubon'ʹs Imperial Folio plates from Havell'ʹs editions, and the Bien elephant folio of Audubon'ʹsBirds of America. Also on display were six major prints by Walton Ford, a contemporary artist inspired by Audubon printed by master fine art printer Peter Pettengill at the Wingate Studio in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. After lunch, we viewed additional prints from the Museum'ʹs collection and Rebecca Ronstadt showed the group prints from her collection and provided each of us a brief outline of printmaking with reproductions and a guide to terminology from the IFPDA website. Seeing these Audubon prints was an unusual treat since they seldom are displayed. We all appreciated the hospitality of the Currier Museum of Art and the collaboration between the Museum and New Hampshire Audubon. Images courtesy of Georgia Barnhill

RECAP OF REGIONAL Upcoming Regional Meetings MEETING AT THE BPL In 2016, regional meetings are tentatively

planned for Cincinnati, Ohio; Hartford, Seven AHPCS members joined Ronald Grim, Connecticut; and West Point, New York. Curator of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, and Mike Buehler, AHPCS board member, for a Firm dates, programs and additional detailswill special tour of We Are One: Mapping America’s Road be available in upcoming issues of theNews from Revolution to Independence at the Boston Public Letter. For more information, please contact Library on September 24. The program began with Nancy Finlay [email protected] . a guided tour of the exhibition followed by lunch in the Library’s Courtyard Restaurant. After lunch, Please let her know if you have ideas for other participants were invited to visit the Leventhal Map future meetings! Center to view a second exhibition, Literary Landscapes: Maps from Fiction.

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THE REJECTED BLOCK By W. Dale and Rose Marie Horst

The appearance of a small work by Frederick Stuart Church (1842-‐‑1924) in a summer decoy auction came as a big surprise. The work was described as a pen and inkdrawing and was virtually identical to The Return from the Bath, a wood engraving by Church published in Harper’s Weekly, July 19, 1879 (fig. 1). Assuming that the sketch was made by Church to be photographed and transferred to a wood engraving block, as was the procedure under the new method of wood engraving in vogue at the time, we sought to place a 1 bid.1 We were the successful bidders; actually the only bidders, and anxiously awaited its delivery. Another surprise awaited us when it arrived two weeks later and we discovered that what we had bought was not a pen and ink on paper but a watercolor sketch on a wood engravers block (fig. 2).The undated image is signed, “Fred S. Church” in the lower left corner. The back of the block clearly reveals that theblock is a composite of seventeen smaller blocks of boxwood with the end grain makingup the front and back surfaces(fig . 3) . In one corner of the back is a small round stamp that reads, “V, M & Co. 18 Duchess Street N.Y.” identifying the block as having come from Vanderburgh, Wells & Co. purveyors of wood type, printers’ supplies, engravers’ tools and boxwood blocks.2 This particular stamp was in use between 1864-‐‑1867 suggesting the block may have been more than a decade old when Church sketched on it.3 For several decades Vanderburgh, Wells & Co. had a near monopoly in 2 supplying Turkey boxwood blocks to the engraving trade. 4 This rare artifact of the print makers craft raises a number of questions. First why was it not engraved? The usual process would have included engraving the block and after the engraving had served its purpose the block would have been sanded smooth and recycled. Perhaps the most plausible reason to reject and discard the block was that it was defective. The vertical black lines on the image represent separations of some joints between the individual blocks. Although we cannot know if these separations were present at the time it was painted, their existence certainly 3

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would have been cause to discard the block, as they would have resulted in distracting white lines in the finished image. Two large wood screws inserted into the right edge of the block may have been an attempt to salvage the block (fig. 4). Alternatively the block may have been rejected on compositional grounds; however this seems unlikely as the block could easily have been cleaned and repainted. Also, the published engraving does not differ in any substantial way from this image. Having been found unsuitable for engraving the block was likely returned to Church for copying onto another block. The technology existed in 1879 to transfer the image via photography but comparison of 5 this image with the published engraving reveals some differences such as the grass blades in the lower left, the shore line along the right margin, and the relative positions of the birds; these suggest that Church may have made a second sketch. It is well known that several artist/illustrators of the period, including Church, sketched directly on the engraving blocks; however there are no examples of these original works as they were destroyed by the engraving process. One is first struck by the detail included in this sketch. While the background appears to be hastily done, the birds, grass, and foreground provide a surprising amount of detail, sufficient to leave little for the engraver’s imagination. Although it may be risky generalizing from only one example; comparing this sketch on the block with a sketch Church provided on paper to be transferred to the block via photography (fig 5) and with an eyewitness account of Winslow Homer (1836-‐‑1910) drawing on the block in 18745 suggests that this example by Church may be a fair representation of the artists’ work presented to the publishers’ engravers in the 1870’s. The curvilinear top margin was an uncommon form for Harper’s and for Church. Church last used it in two wood engravings for the Elgin Almanac in 1873. Although aesthetically pleasing as it lends added dimension to the sky, the publishers may have seen it as a waste of space and preferred the more compact rectangular image. Another curious feature of the image on the block is Church’s signature. “Fred” nev er appeared as part of his signature in his illustrations, paintings or etchings. His signature usually consisted of “Church,” “FS Church,” or “FSC” – his signature on the wood engraving is “FS Church” (fig 1). He did frequently use “Fred” in his correspondence and he was certainly referred to as “Fred” by his friends and colleagues. Perhaps he was on sufficiently friendly terms with Harper’s engraver that he knew the engraver

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would substitute an “F” in place of “Fred” or he may have added “Fred” when he later gave it away. The history of this block after it was returned to Church is unknown. He frequently gave sketches to his friends, often in return for some favor and it is likely that this block was among those gifts or some visitor to his studio may have expressed an interest and been rewarded with it as a gift. At a much later time it came into the hands of a New Jersey wood carver who translated the image into a miniature woodcarving (fig. 6) that was included in the auction lot with the engraving block.

References Cited:

1. Mott, Frank Luther, A History of American Magazines: 1865-‐‑1885, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1938, p. 187-‐‑190. 2. Vanderburgh, Wells & Co. letterhead, 1877. 3. www.utexas.edu/cofa/rrk/details.php# & www.letterpress.dwolske.com (under categories , middle right, select v. w. & co., p. 18/21) 4. The Inland Printer, vol. 39, p. 879 & The New York Times, January 1, 1886, Vanderburgh, Wells & Co 5. Tatham, David,Winslow Homer and the Pictorial Press, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, 2003, p. 3-‐‑7.

Image Captions:

Fig. 1: F.S. Church,The Return from the Bath, Harper’s Weekly, July 19, 1879, p. 573, 15.0 x 23.0 cm., wood engraving. Fig. 2: F.S. Church, sketch forThe Return from the Bath, watercolor with graphite highlights on boxwood engraving block, 18.9 x 25.8 x 2.3 cm. (7 7/16 x 10 5/32 x 29/32 inches). Fig. 3: Reverse of boxwood engraving block. Fig. 4: Right edge of boxwood engraving block. Fig. 5: F.S. Church,Romance and Reality, sketch for History and Romance published in Scribner’s Monthly, March 1879, p. 624, watercolor with graphite and ink highlights, 25.0 x 15.5 cm. Fig. 6: F.J. DeRobertis carved and painted family of Wilson’s plover after F.S. Church’s The Return from the Bath, July 1980, approximately 23 x 56 x 17 cm. including base.

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AHPCS Members Visit the Lewis Walpole Library By Nancy Finlay

Image courtesy of Miloslava Waldman

Seven enthusiastic members of the American Historical Print Collectors Society gathered at the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut on Friday August 21. Originally the private home and collection of Wilmarth Lewis, the Library has been a department of Yale University since 1980. Nicole L. Bouché, W.S. Lewis Librarian and Executive Director of the Lewis Walpole Library, greeted the visitors and provided a brief introduction to the history of the library and its collections over coffee and Danish. Susan Walker, Head of Public Services, then provided an in-‐‑depth tour of the original historic eighteenth-‐‑century house, later additions made by Wilmarth Lewis to house his collections, and recent renovations by Yale University, including a spacious new reading room, completed in 2007. Curator Cynthia Roman brought out a fascinating selection of prints. Nicole and Sue and Cindy all spoke about Wilmarth Lewis as a collector, his relationships with other collectors and dealers, and his passion for acquiring everything associated with the great eighteenth-‐‑century British collector, Horace Walpole. Since Walpole’s broad collecting interests encompassed what were then the American colonies, the Walpole Library has strong holdings of prints relating to America, especially eighteenth-‐‑century cartoons and caricatures. Several prints were related to the notorious case of Elizabeth Canning, who claimed to have been kidnapped from her home in London in 1753ld and he captive for almost a month.After Canning escaped, she brought charges against her captors, but was convicted of perjury and sentenced to transportation—to Wethersfield, Connecticut, where she spent the remainder of her life. Members enjoyed a chance to see one of the volumes of George Steevens’s collection of Hogarth prints, assembled during the 18th-‐‑century and including many early notations the by collector. Also on view were a number of American prints that hung in the Lewises’s private living quarters, prints that held personal meaning for Lewis and his wife. These include early views of San Francisco, where Lewis was born and brought up, and Newport, where Mrs. Lewis’s family had a summer home, as well as a number of small folio Currier & Ives prints. The Walpole Library continues to collect, a recent acquisition, “The brave old Hendrick, the great Sachem or chief of the Mohawk Indians,” published In London by Elizabeth Bakewell, probably in 1755, reflects not only Walpole’s interest in native Americans, but Lewis’s own interest in the subject. A large collection of Indian artifacts unearthed on the property is housed in an eighteenth-‐‑century Indian house that Lewis had moved there. Heavy rain precluded any possibility of a picnic on the lovely grounds, but a delicious lunch was served in an indoor dining room. The rain finally stopped before the group dispersed to head for home.

Fall 2015 16 Volume 40 Number 2

EXHIBITION OF NOTE TO MEMBERS

Currently at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is “What Fools These Mortals Be! The StoryPuck of ” which is on exhibit through January 24, 2016. Discover the history and highlights ofPuck , America’s first and most influential humor magazine of color political cartoons. For nearly forty years,Puck was a training ground and showcase for some of the country’s most talented cartoonists. This exhibit will include chromolithographs by Joseph Keppler, Rose O’Neill, Frederick Opper, F.M. Howarth, Rolf Armstrong, Bernhard Gillam, J.S. Pughe, and more. As David Sloane has said inAmerican the Humor Magazine and Comic Periodicals, Puck “created a genre and established a tradition,” spawning dozens of imitators. It also led the way for that great American institution, the comics. This show presents somePuck of ‘s greatest cartoons featuring politicians, personalities, and issues that dominated its forty years of publication. The exhibit wasurated c by AHPCS Members Richard Samuel West and Michael Alexander Kahn. Their recent book,What Fools These Mortals Be! The Story of Puck w as published by IDW Publishing inOc tober 2014. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is one of The Ohio State University Libraries’ special collections. Its primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to the collections. Visit http://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. Also on exhibit is “Seeing the Great War.”World War I represented a watershed in the history of warfare, both on the battlefield and in communication. This exhibit explores the power of images generated during wartime, through the work of James Montgomery Flagg, Bud Fisher, Billy Ireland, Percy Crosby, Nell Brinkley, Frederick Burr Opper, Louis Raemaekers, and more. It was curated by Professor Emerita Lucy Shelton Caswell.

Right: fromPuck “I rather like that imported affair” by Grant Hamilton.Published September, 21, 1904. “Mark Twain America'ʹs Best Humorist” by Josephpler. Kep Published December 23, 1885. Left: The interior of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.