The
Robert S. and Margaret A. Ames Collection of Illustrated Books
Early Days: Private and Government Sponsored Exploration
in the Early National Period
The earlier books in the Ames Collection are illustrated by engravings
in metal or wood. Even after lithography made its appearance in the United States
in the 1820s, both woodcuts and the wide variety of engraving techniques remained
popular with many books exhibiting all three techniques.
Click on an image to view a larger version or a detail.
ISAAC
WELD, JUNIOR
TRAVELS THROUGH THE STATES OF NORTH AMERICA AND THE PROVINCES OF UPPER
AND LOWER CANADA DURING THE YEARS 1795, 1796, AND 1797.
London: John Stockdale, 1799.
Drawings by Weld; engravings by T. Storer, J. B. Drayton et al.
Ames Collection
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"View of the Horse-Shoe
Falls of Niagara" |
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A member of the Irish gentry, Isaac Weld traveled to North America as a young
man in search of adventure. Accompanied by a servant, he visited the settled
eastern seaboard and explored the more rugged hinterland of both the United
States and Canada. Often using Indian guides, Weld journeyed on foot and by
canoe for a two-year period, taking notes and producing sketches which would
serve as the basis for his Travels, one of the earliest
illustrated amateur travel accounts to be devoted to North America. Although
he expressed upon his return to Ireland not even "the slightest wish to revisit"
America, he quickly published an account of his adventures which proved very
popular, going through several editions in English and translations into French,
German, Italian and Dutch. The Ames copy is the first edition, opened to the
plate depicting the Horseshoe Falls at Niagara.
Weld was an active member of the Irish intelligentsia for the remainder of
his life, being elected a member of the Royal Dublin Society the year following
the publication of his Travels. Among his later accomplishments
were a topographical study, Illustrations of the Scenery
of Killarney and the Surrounding Country, the invention of a boat made
of compressed paper, and various efforts to improve Irish industry.
ROBERT SUTCLIFF
TRAVELS IN SOME PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA IN THE YEARS 1804, 1805 AND 1806.
York: W. Hargrove for W.
Alexander & Co., 1815.
Drawings by Sutcliff; engraver unknown.
Ames Collection
Sutcliff, a Quaker, was a native of Sheffield,
England, where he was a merchant. His business required two voyages
to the United States and during the second he kept a journal and made
several drawings. He had no intention of publishing the account of his
travels but was persuaded by friends that his observations might prove
instructive to young people. Perhaps impressed by Pennsylvania Quakers,
Sutcliff and his family emigrated to Philadelphia in 1811, despite the
fact that England and the United States were again at war. Sutcliff
died within a year of his arrival, having contracted a fever while assisting
in fighting a fire.
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"American Friends going to Meeting in Summer." |
The Ames copy of Sutcliff's Travels is a second English
edition with six plates which complements Brown's copy of the first American edition
(Philadelphia, 1812) which contains only one plate, Niagara Falls. The plate shown
is described in the text thus: "The open carriages described in this plate,
are called waggons, and the best of them Jersey waggons. They are made very light,
hung on springs with leather braces, and travel very pleasantly. They are covered
at the top with canvas painted. On the sides, there are three rows of curtains,
and those in the outer row are likewise painted. Those of the middle row are made
of linen, and the inside curtains are green baize. The season and weather regulate
the use of them".
The Travels was first published, also in York, in
1811, and contained all six plates that are present in the second edition.
Horse Shoe Falls & Table Rock, Niagara
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JOHN MAUDE
VISIT TO THE FALLS OF NIAGARA, IN 1800.
London: Longman, Rees, Orme,
Brown & Green, 1826.
Drawings by Maude; engravings by J. Cousen. Green full-leather binding
possibly by Oliver Sumner of York.
Ames Collection
A substantial number of books in the Ames Collection
depict Niagara Falls, a particular favorite of the collectors who lived
for a number of years in nearby Buffalo, New York. Both Weld and Sutcliffe
contain illustrations and descriptions of Niagara, but Maude, an Englishman
of independent means, focused his entire attention on an 1800 trip from
New York City to the Falls and on into Canada. Like Sutcliffe, Maude
had no intention of publishing the account of his expedition, but his
fond recollections of Americans inspired him to have printed an edition
of 250 copies of his journal. Three of the eight engravings made from
Maude's drawings were of Niagara.
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The Ames copy is additionally interesting for its inclusion of two added engraved
portraits of Maude, his laid-in armorial bookplate, and a colored lithograph
of Moor Park, his house in Yorkshire. Also laid in is a signed manuscript poem,
in Maude's hand, dedicated to a young lady named Maria:
"Ye Western Wilds which won my Noontide Hour
Which o'er my Heart usurpt a Mystic Power;
Go, teach Maria, Nature has a Charm
To sooth her Mind, and Shield her Soul from harm." |
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ALEXANDER WILSON
and CHARLES LUCIAN BONAPARTE
AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; OR THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED
STATES.
Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1871?
Drawings by Wilson; engravings by Alexander Lawson, J. G. Warnicke and
G. Murray, hand-colored.
Ames Collection
With the exception of Wilson's American
Ornithology, the Ames Collection contains no bird books; the
reason for its inclusion is that plate 26, the white-headed (bald) eagle,
is depicted perched above Niagara Falls, the Falls being of particular
interest to the Ameses.
First published in parts between 1808 and 1814,
Wilson's Ornithology was the first American
bird book with colored plates to be printed in the U.S. Wilson died
before the work was completed and his friend George Ord finished the
task; Ord also brought out two later editions during the 1820s. Charles
Lucian Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I and a well-known scientist, expanded
American Ornithology while resident at his
exiled uncle Joseph's estate in New Jersey during the late 1820s and
early 1830s.
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The expanded American
Ornithology went through several editions including the "Philadelphia"
edition, of which the Ames Collection copy is an example. Drawings for the expanded
edition were produced by Titian Ramsay Peale and A. Rider. John James Audubon,
soon to become famous for his monumental Birds of America,
also collaborated on one plate. Thanks to the Ames gift of the "Philadelphia
Edition," the John Hay Library now owns all the important editions of Wilson's
American Ornithology, the earlier editions being included
in the Lownes Collection of Significant Books in the History of Science.
White Headed Eagle at Niagara Falls
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[ALEXANDER WILSON]
THE FORESTERS: A POEM, DESCRIPTIVE OF A PEDESTRIAN JOURNEY TO THE FALLS
OF NIAGARA, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1804.
Newtown, Pa.: S. Siegfried & J. Wilson, 1818.
Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays
Wilson, a native of Scotland, emigrated to America
in 1794, where he supported himself as a school teacher in the Philadelphia
area. Greatly impressed by the natural beauty of his new home, he began
to develop the ideas that would result in his American
Ornithology. Befriended and encouraged by the renowned naturalist
John Bartram, Wilson was soon at work collecting specimens, drawing
their likenesses, and writing the text for his magnum opus. He seldom
traveled far from Philadelphia, a notable exception being his trek to
Niagara Falls in 1804. Not only was the expedition commemorated by the
plate of the bald eagle perched above the Falls, the entire trip was
described by Wilson in a lengthy poem, The Foresters,
first published posthumously in 1818.
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Great Falls of the Columbia River |
[NICHOLAS BIDDLE]
AND PAUL ALLEN
HISTORY OF THE EXPEDITION UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPTAINS LEWIS AND CLARK,
TO THE SOURCES OF THE MISSOURI, THENCE ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS AND
DOWN THE RIVER COLUMBIA TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN....
Philadelphia: Bradford and
Inskeep, 1814.
Maps by Samuel Lewis from drawings by Capt. William Clark
Gift of Madeline L. Ames and Frank Mauran, Jr.
The first scientific expedition to explore the
trans-Appalachian American continent was that of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806.
The Ames Collection does not include a copy of Lewis and Clark's Account
for the simple reason that, except for maps, it was not illustrated, although
it was intended to be. The fact that the John Hay owns a copy of the History
is but one indication of how well the Ames Collection complements existing
library holdings.
The purpose of the expedition, to gather information
that would aid in the settlement of the western reaches of the continent,
is a well-known story while the publication history of the expedition
account is a less familiar, though equally fascinating, tale. Soon after
his return from the West, Meriwether Lewis was in Philadelphia making
plans for the publication of a three-volume history of the expedition;
having contracted with a printer/publisher, he was in discussions with
several artists, including Charles Wilson Peale, Alexander Wilson, and
C.B.J. Fevret de Saint-Memin, in the expectation that some, or all,
would contribute illustrations.
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At this point, Lewis discovered that others who had served
on the expedition were attempting to cash in on their experiences by publishing
their own, unauthorized, accounts. The first of these accounts, by Patrick Gass,
was of little practical or scientific value but it does possess the minor distinction
of being the first published account of the Lewis and Clark expedition (the
John Hay Library owns copies of Gass' account, both in English and in the rare
French edition of 1810).
Publication of the official account was delayed as
a result of Lewis' appointment as governor of Louisiana and, soon thereafter,
his suicide (or possible murder--the cause of death has never been completely
resolved). Ultimately, Lewis' journal of the expedition was sent to President
Madison who requested William Clark, Lewis' expedition partner, to complete
publication arrangements, but Clark turned the task over to Nicholas Biddle,
the wealthy Philadelphia litterateur who would later gain renown as a nationally
important financier. With the assistance of Paul Allen, the History as published
is essentially Biddle's work.
Publication of the History
was delayed yet again because of the War of 1812 and the collapse of the publisher,
A. and C. Conrad. These factors also prevented the book being illustrated, although
it does include a series of well-done maps. The lack of illustrations and the
long delays in publication caused the History to sell
poorly with only 2000 copies of the first edition being printed, among them
the copy at the John Hay Library.
"Indian record of a battle between the Pawnees and Konzas delineated
on a bison robe." |
EDWIN JAMES
ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION FROM PITTSBURGH TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, PERFORMED
IN THE YEARS 1819 AND '20
Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea,
1823.
Drawings by Samuel Seymour and Titian Ramsay Peale; engravings by C. G.
Childs, Francis Kearney, Young and Delleker, William Hay, and Alexander
Lawson.
Rare Book Collection
Botanist and geologist Edwin James compiled
the account of the expedition of Stephen H. Long, sent out by Secretary
of War John C. Calhoun to explore and occupy the western territories
while driving out British fur traders and subduing the Indians. The
importance of the Long expedition to this exhibit lies in the fact it
was the first American expedition to include artists.
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Samuel Seymour and Titian Ramsey Peale, of the famous family of artists, produced
well over 200 sketches although only 8 were included in the published atlas
that accompanied the text. Despite its modest appearance, the atlas of the
Long expedition was much admired and served as the progenitor for the array
of richly illustrated government-sponsored expeditions to the west that would
begin to appear some twenty years later.
Last Updated: Tuesday, 10-Mar-2015 13:48:17 EDT.
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