Colton advertising prints

Advertisements, especially those from the nineteenth century, can provide some of the best and most interesting views of American sites. Designed to catch the eye, the images in advertisements are usually quite attractive and advertisers often wanted to show their store, factory, or city. In the exhibit of nineteenth-century printed views of Pittsburgh, Panorama of Pittsburgh which I curated in the summer of 2008, some of the most exciting images were advertisements and the Library Company of Philadelphia, in their project Philadelphia on Stone, features many of the incredible body of Philadelphia advertising prints from the period.

Most of these prints are separately-issued broadsides, intended to be put in a window or pasted to a wall. There is, however, a wonderful group of large Philadelphia advertisements which were issued in an unusual atlas by the Colton cartographic publishing firm of New York. Founded by Joseph Hutchins Colton in 1831, the firm began atlas publishing with a two volume General Atlas in 1855. A year later the firm issued a second edition in one volume. That same year, in 1856, they published the first volume as a separate Atlas of America. What is of particular interest, however, is that they also produced a special commercial edition entitled Colton's Atlas with Business Cards of the Prominent Houses in Philadelphia. Commercial Edition.

What made this version of the atlas special was that it included not only the maps, but also numerous advertisements for Philadelphia firms. Most of these were single page advertisements with wood engraved illustrations, though Colton offered the option of a business paying a premium to get a single page "business card," illustrated with lithography or chromolithography. A number of firms took advantage of this, and some of the larger Philadelphia businesses even purchased double-page, illustrated advertisements.

In the introduction to the atlas, the firm stated that this edition of the atlas was limited to one thousand copies, "and distributed gratuitously, for the interest of the advertisers therein, to leading Hotels and Steamers, throughout the country…" The atlas was successful enough that the Colton firm tried to do the same thing the following year, in 1857 producing Colton's Advertising Atlas of America. This edition had advertisements primarily from New York businesses. However, the response from New York businesses must have been lukewarm, for very few full page advertisements were included and the most elaborate print is for the New York agent of Allsop's Pale Ale, a print lithographed not in this country, but instead by Day & Son of London.

Back to the Philadelphia atlas, probably the most attractive image in the atlas is the print of a passenger locomotive engine by the Richard Norris & Son company. This is one of the best American train prints of the period, a chromolithograph by A. Brett of Philadelphia.

One firm, Cornelius & Baker, paid for two double-page advertisements. This business manufactured lamps, chandeliers, gas fixtures and the like, and they had two factories, just about two miles apart. They paid for an advertisement for each factory, chromolithographed by Philadelphia lithographers Wagner & McGuigan. Interestingly, these factories were connected by a private telegraph line, only the third such line in the country.

There are many other full page, and partial page advertisements in this atlas, but I'll mention only one more of special note. This is the print of Joseph Ripka's Mills in Manayunk, also lithographed by Wagner & McGuigan. Joseph Ripka, "Manufacturer of all descriptions of Plain & Fancy Cottanades For Men & Boy's Clothing," had set up his mills in Manayunk in 1831 and by the time of this print he was the largest cotton manufacturer in the United States. What makes this print of particular interest is that it is not only a wonderful advertising print, but also an excellent view of part of Philadelphia. Manayunk, now a popular residential and shopping section of Philadelphia, is shown with interesting detail and at the top of the ridge behind is shown the then small rural community of Roxborough.

Cartographic Reference Books

The number of print reference books available to collectors and scholars has grown considerably in the last decade or so. The largest increase in number of references related to prints has occured in the field of cartography. When we first went into business in 1982, there were a few basic, mostly general cartographic references, but now there are hundreds and hundreds of such references, with more coming out each year (the photo above is just about 1/5th of our map reference library).

There are still quite a number of good general references, but the real growth has been on subject specific books. Maps of the world, different regions, from different periods or cartographers, and so forth have all been studied and references printed on these topics. While not every topic a collector might focus on has its own reference work (for instance, I collect maps of Oxfordshire and there is no work on this particular topic), but most collectors will find some good references that to some extent focus on their area of interest (there are, for instance, a number of good books on British county maps).

The granddaddy of cartographic references is the series of volumes currently under production by the History of Cartography Project. This multivolume reference (currently three volumes have been issued) is planned to cover the entire history of cartography in great detail. This has and will continue to provide the baseline from which all other cartgraphic references will start.

In the latest issue of The Portolan, the journal of the Washington Map Society, Bert Johnson wrote up the results of a survey the society made of its members asking about cartographic references: which volumes they thought were most useful or special in some way. It is well worth reading the article, as it does highlight some of the best references both currently in print and out of print. Washington Map Society member Joel Kovarsky maintains a listing of what he considers to be the best cartographic reference books, which can be seen on his website.

One of the books mentioned in both the Portolan article and by Joel is Barbara McCorkle's New England in Early Printed Maps 1513 to 1800 , an excellent tome detailing the maps of New England from this period, listing different states, giving sources and locations of copies, and including many illustrations. This is a prototype of what the best recent cartographic references are like.

It is not surprising that this work would be so good, as Barbara McCorkle has long provided a shining example of cartographic scholarship. For many years Barbara worked as a reference and map librarian at the University of Kansas, Purdue, and Yale, ending up as the Curator of the Map Collection at Yale between 1981 and 1993.

Barbara's excellent reference on maps of New England was issued after her retirement and she has kept busy since, working on a very long-term project of documenting the many maps issued in English and American geographies of the 18th century. There were a plethora of maps in such volumes and up to now one often found these maps separated from the books, without any way to find out where they came from. That problem has now been ameliorated, for Barbara's efforts have finally resulted in the publication of a Carto-Bibliography of the Maps in Eighteenth-Century British and American Geographies.

This bibliography is published by KU ScholarWorks (University of Kansas) and it is an 0n-line PDF file which can be viewed on-line at no charge. A work clearly of sustained dedication by Barbara, this cartobibliography contains descriptions of about 6,700 maps taken from 470 geographies! This is a tremendous addition to the cartographic reference universe, a universe that, luckily for us, is growing all the time.

Pricing antique prints: other factors

The previous blogs on pricing antique prints we discussed historical and natural history prints, looking at the factors that determined the pricing for those prints. While some of these factors are specific to those particular types of prints, many of them are also important for pricing of other prints. These are general factors which affect the value of any antique print. As discussed elsewhere, the content of antique prints is a crucial element to their character and also, of course, their value. Basically, prints of more popular subjects are going to more desirable and thus more valuable.


This obviously applies for prints like occupation prints (images of lawyers and doctors generally sell for more than those of librarians and cooks), sporting prints (images of baseball sell for more than those of curling), and for many other types of prints as well. It is true that some subjects have avid fans, which can drive up the prices of those prints, but in general, the more people who have an interest in a subject, the more prints of that subject will sell for.

Attractiveness is another obvious value factor, though how important it is depends on what type of print. A print where the interest comes from its historic or scientific content, or one where the subject matter is much in demand (say, medical prints), will not be affected that much by whether the print is attractive or not. However, if there is nothing particular about the content of the print that appeals to buyers, then attractiveness can be the most important factor in determining value.

The age of a print is a factor that has some, but not a huge amount of influence on the price. A very old print (say, from the sixteenth century) might sell for a tiny bit more than a more recent one (say, 19th century), if all other things are equal, but this doesn’t really affect pricing very much. The only time the age really is important, is its relationship to the subject matter. As discussed in an earlier blog, an historical print of a subject contemporary to the print is worth more than one with an historic subject. Being old isn’t important, but having a close temporal relationship to the subject is.

Another way that age has something of a relationship with the print is scarcity. There is an earlier blog specifically on the subject of scarcity in prints, but the short answer is that scarcity can have some affect on value, but only if the print is desirable for other reasons. Basically, scarcity factors into the supply & demand equation. If a print is in great demand and the supply is limited, prices go up. Simply having a low supply with no demand does not affect value.

The artist or publisher of a print is another secondary value factor. There are thousands of printmakers who produced images over the centuries and for a very large number of these there is little, if anything, known and few people who care. This is especially true once you look at 19th century prints, where there were publishers producing prints in every major (and some minor) city, most of whom are known only by the few prints that have been recorded.

On the other hand, there are a number of well-known artists and publishers whose prints have an extra value because of who made them. This would include prints by people like John James Audubon, Thomas Moran, Currier & Ives, and Winslow Homer. Now, of course, one of the reasons prints by these printmakers are valuable is because they made great prints, but still, for these and some other printmakers, there is an extra boost in value simply because their name is associated with the print. As an example, there are a number of very fine popular lithographs issued in the nineteenth century by other publishers besides Currier & Ives, but if one compared one of their prints of equal quality, size, scarcity, etc. to a Currier & Ives print, the latter would be priced higher.

There are a few final secondary determinates of value to consider. The quality of a print, in terms of the art and/or craftsmanship, does increase the value of a print, but for non-fine art prints this is definitely not a primary factor in pricing. Likewise, the condition of a print is important for pricing, but less for commercial prints than for fine art prints. Fine art prints were generally, from the time they were issued, treated as something “special,” as objects to be handled carefully and the appearance of which was particularly important. Thus many fine art prints have been kept in excellent condition and generally collectors want them only if they are without significant blemishes.

Commercial prints, in contrast, were generally not treated nearly so carefully. They were either ephemeral or considered to be inexpensive art used for decoration. This means that instances of commercial prints are often not found in good shape and thus collectors, while they desire prints in excellent condition, are quite accustomed to purchasing prints with at least some condition issues. Some commercial prints, like those by Currier & Ives, are often found in excellent condition, so for those there can be a big price difference between those in excellent shape versus those in poor condition, but for other prints, such as some very rare 18th century historical prints, it is almost impossible to find them in excellent condition, so the price on one in poor condition tends not to be as low as one my expect.

Disaster prints

There are basically two types of commercial prints, "job order prints" and "speculative prints." [click here for discussion of the difference between commercial and 'fine art' prints] The staple for most commercial printmakers were job order prints. These were prints where a customer hired the printmaker to produce a specific type of print for a particular need. This included such items as advertisements, menus, tickets, checks, billheads, labels, plans, circulars and many other prints of an ephemeral nature. Other commissioned prints included individual and group portraits and views of buildings or landscapes, ordered by private customers or civic and commercial organizations.

In some cases, printmakers would create non-commissioned prints in hopes that these would find a market and repay the investment of funds and time by the printmaker. Here the printmaker hoped that his sense of what people wanted to buy, and his skill in producing an appealing print, would lead to sales. Sometimes these would be generic prints with a timeless appeal, prints of landscapes, pretty ladies, flowers, birds, animals and the like. More often, though, speculative prints were topical, relating to a political event, military battle, or other event that would spur interest in a topic such that people would want to acquire a print illustrating that event. Disasters, of course, were just such events and it is fairly common that following some tragedy, a print would be created and put out on the market almost immediately in hopes that the printmaker could benefit from the calamity.

This was especially common in the nineteenth century, when lithography allowed a printmaker to very quickly create a colorful image of good size in large numbers and at a reasonable price, thus potentially realizing a significant windfall from sales of the print. Many of the disasters of the nineteenth century were followed almost immediately by the appearance of separately-issued, speculative prints showing the catastrophe in bright colors, often by more than one printmaker.

The most famous of these disaster prints is a broadside print by Nathaniel Currier. On January 13, 1840, the passenger steamer Lexington on its way from New York to Stonington, Connecticut, burned in Long Island sound. There were only four survivors from among the 150 passengers and crew members. This spectacular catastrophe was disastrous for many, but proved a boon for a young New York lithographer named Nathaniel Currier. The news of this tragedy reached New York two days later, and the next day the New York Sun came out with a broadside about the disaster which included a lithographed image of the ship in flames. The sensation caused by the burning of the Lexington continued for weeks, spurred on by the repeated reissuing of updated versions of this broadside.

One week after the first publication, a new, more accurate lithographed image appeared on the broadside, this one attributed to artist W.K. Hewitt and lithographed by Nathaniel Currier. With its correct nighttime imagery, giving it a much more dramatic appearance, this broadside kept interest in the tragedy alive. In the days before photography and television, the combination of fast reportage and a dramatic lithographed image made this Sun Extra a big success. The popularity of the broadside inspired Nathaniel Currier to take over its publication after the Sun stopped its involvement, and he issued another three versions thereafter. According to Harry T. Peters, the popularity of his Lexington lithograph is what firmly established Nathaniel Currier as a financial and popular success, and allowed him to build his firm (later Currier & Ives) into the dominant American printmaking company.

Currier's was not the only "rush print" made of the burning of the Lexington and an anonymous printmaker issued the print above, an unusual and unattributed lithograph of the same scene. The title is similar to the Currier print, but the image is quite different. It was undoubtedly issued within a short time of the event and was aimed at the market created by the public fascination with this famous disaster.

The burning of the Lexington was not the only marine disaster Currier documented, as shown by the print above entitled "Awful Explosion of the ‘Peace-Maker’ on board the U.S. Steam Frigate, Princeton, on Wednesday, 28th. Feby. 1844," just one of a number of this sort of print by Currier.

And it wasn't just popular printmakers like Currier who issued marine disaster prints. On March 6, 1860, the Alfred Thomas exploded on the Delaware River at Easton, PA. The Alfred Thomas was a small passenger steamship built to run on the Delaware River between Belvidere, New Jersey and Port Jervis, New York, a distance of about 60 miles. The ship, constructed at Easton, was completed and after some trials was declared ready for its maiden voyage. On Tuesday morning, March 6th, the Alfred Thomas set off from Easton, filled with an official party of about 100 passengers and watched by many spectators along the shore. After a number of stops, as the ship set off, the boiler suddenly erupted in a huge explosion, throwing the passengers far into the air and totally wrecking the boat. A print drawn by Philadelphia artist James Queen issued shortly thereafter shows that explosion and it was said to have been based on a "Sketch from Nature." The quality of this print is significantly better than the typical popular print, but it still has enough dramatic tragedy to appeal to a wide audience.

The most common type of disaster in the nineteenth century were the fires that raged through many American cities. These fires were usually followed by the appearance of speculative prints which were sold not just in the city in question, but around the country. One of the earliest documented by a lithographic rush print was the great fire in Pittsburgh on April 10th, 1845. Nathaniel Currier once again took advantage of this tragedy to sell a sensational print of the “Great Conflagration At Pittsburgh PA.” The large mountain in the background is totally out of place, but otherwise the print is fairly accurate, likely based on a first-hand drawing.

Another New York publisher, James Baillie, also came out with his own print of the same scene, this with an even more Alp-like mountain in the background. Still the scene is rather accurate, based on a painting by local artist William Coventry Wall. The extent of the fire, the way it is burning on the bridge, and the foreground landscape all come from a painting by Wall which he produced immediately after the fire.

Wall was himself involved in the production of a rather better quality print of the fire, based on his own drawings. This was a three part print which included an image of the city before the fire, and two images showing the ruins of the city. While this print is beautifully made, is larger than the Currier and Baillie prints, and is directly based on first-hand renderings, it is quite a bit scarcer than the other two. Likely not that many were sold as the public was more interested in the drama and color of the scenes showing the fire, rather than the images of the depressing aftermath.

Probably the most famous city fire of the nineteenth century was the great fire in Chicago of 1871. Currier & Ives, of course, produced a number of images of this fire, including the one above. In order to rush this image to the market, they seem to have taken a stock bird's-eye view of Chicago and simply added a lot of flames. This print is a good example of why prints can be used as historical documentation only with great care, for not only are the flames not in the right place in the city, but they are clearly blowing to the south, while in fact the wind that day was blowing north.

Disaster prints continued to appear throughout the nineteenth century, including late in the century when the prints were usually produced by chromolithography. Kurz & Allison, a Chicago publisher, produced a very dramatic print of the Johnston Flood of May 31, 1889. Even into the early twentieth century, printmakers produced similar disaster prints, like Carl Beck chromolithograph of the great fire in San Francisco following the great earthquake of April 18, 1906 (shown below). The scene is a bird’s-eye view of the conflagration in the evening of the first day, from above the foot of Market Street. The fire, showing burning in the downtown area and on Nob Hill, had a length of over five miles.

These prints range from the crude to the sophisticated, and from the accurate to the made-up, but they are all interesting in documenting the lives of our ancestors and their fascination (which of course continues to today) with tragedy.

Original or Reproduction?

Telling an original print or map from a reproduction can sometimes be very easy, and other times quite difficult. [Click here for discussion of the differences between originals and reproductions] Below are some tests you can make which might tell you what you have.

Printing process
The most definitive method of determining whether a print is an original or a reproduction is by examination of its production process. All reproductions are made by a different process than originals; reproductions are photomechanically produced and originals are not. This difference in process can usually be spotted by an expert and in some cases is quite obvious.

• Most reproductions are made from a dot-matrix or half tone process, which produces a lentiginous image composed of a symmetrical pattern of small dots.. If you look through a fairly powerful magnifier (e.g. 10X) and you see little dots (either black & white or color), then you have a reproduction.
  
  
• If the print is supposed to be an intaglio print (engraving, etching, mezzotint, aquatint, etc.), then if there are big enough margins, a platemark should appear. Note that fake platemarks are not uncommon, but these usually differ in character from real platemarks. Also, the ink in an itaglio print will often feel raised from the surface, so if the print surface feels absolutely smooth, this is a clue that it is not an intaglio print.
  
  
• If the print is supposed to be a lithograph or woodcut or wood engraving, then there should be no platemark. If a platemark appears, you likely have a reproduction.
  
  
• Most intaglio prints, woodcut and wood engravings, when colored, are colored by hand with watercolors. If the color is printed and the print is supposed to be one of these types, then this is another clue you have a reproduction.
  

Paper
As a general rule, almost all prints and maps printed before 1800 are on laid paper and almost all prints and maps printed after 1800 are on wove paper.

• Laid paper is made by hand in a mold, where the wires used to support the paper pulp emboss their pattern into the paper. This pattern of closely spaced, crossing lines can be seen when the paper is held up to light. The first example of the use of wove paper in western printing was in 1757, so any print or map made before that should certainly be on laid paper. However, even in the second half of the eighteenth century, the use of wove paper was relatively rare, increasing in instances the closer to the end of the century. Also, some modern paper has false laid lines and reproductions often add false laid lines to make the item look more authentic. Thus the appearance of liad lines in the paper is a clue to authenticity, but not proof positive.
  
  
• Wove paper, in contrast, is made on a woven belt and lacks the laid lines. Thus the paper will lack the pattern of crossing lines when held up to the light. Though laid paper was used after 1800, the use of laid paper became less and less common as the nineteenth century progressed.
  

Other

• Look for any printed information which indicates the print is a reproduction, e.g. “reproduced from” or a copyright notice, etc.
  
  
• The best way to tell what you have is to try to find a reference book which features the map or print you are trying to research. This can be a collection listing, an exhibition catalogue, or a or catalogue raisonné. These references often list details about the prints or maps and you can compare these to your print or map. Among the details to check are title, measurements and the exact wording of any imprint information. Note that old prints do vary a bit in size, but the measurements should be within about 1/4” of the recorded size.
  
  
• Many prints and maps were issued in bound volumes and if the item is large, then it will often have to have been folded to fit into the volume. This is especially true for old maps, where the majority of original antique maps from before the nineteenth century have a "centerfold." The appearance of a centerfold is often good evidence that you have an original.
  

Note that none of these tests are certain, for there are exceptions to all of them. Also, even if your print passes these tests this doesn’t mean that it is original, though failure of any indicates it probably is a reproduction. Ultimately the issue must be decided by knowing what process the print should be and knowing what the paper should be like. This often takes an expert to determine for certain.

You can read more about how to tell an original map in a "Tips of the Trade" article on the Antiques Roadshow web site.

You can read more about the different ways prints were made in the Antique Prints Blog posts on print processes.

Prester John

Time for another exploration of a cartographic myth, in this case one that appears on maps of Africa in the sixteenth century, the myth of the Kingdom of Prester John.

The beginning of the legend

In the 1130s, under the leadership of Imad ad-din Zengi, Turkish power became a serious threat to the Crusader kingdoms in the Holy Land. This caused these kingdoms to seek aid from Western Europe, and around 1145, Hugh, Bishop of Jabala, was sent to meet Pope Eugenius to ask for help. Otto von Freisingen, Bishop of Freising, recorded in his Historia de Duabus Civitatibus (1158) that Hugh told the Pope about a certain Prester John, a Christian priest and king whose kingdom was in the extreme Orient, beyond Persia and Armenia. Prester John was supposed to be a descendent of the Magi and a possessor of great wealth. It appears that Hugh talked to the Pope about Prester John because rumors had been circulating in Europe that he was going to come to the rescue of the Crusader kingdoms and Hugh wasn't to emphasize that this would not happen as Prester John was cut off from the Middle East by the Tigris River.

In 1165, a (forged) letter allegedly from Prester John was delivered to Emperor Manuel Comnenus of Byzantium. Manuel forwarded the letter to Emperor Frederic Babarous of the Holy Roman Empire. The forgery was quite clever, for the forger had obviously read Otto von Freisingen's report and he repeated many of the same stores and further played upon the hopes and fears of the Europeans vis-à-vis the infidel Turks. The letter caused a sensation and not only were copies circulated widely, but excepts were even put to song.

Excerpts from letter

"...I, Prester john, who reign supreme, surpass in virtue, riches and power all creatures under heaven. Seventy kings are our tributaries. I am a zealous Christian and universally protect the Christians of our empire, supporting them by our alms. We have determined to visit the sepulchre of our Lord with a very large army, in accordance with the glory of our majesty to humble and chastise the enemies of the cross of Christ and to exalt his blessed name."

"For gold, silver, precious stones, animals of every kind and the number of our people, we believe there is not our equal under heaven."

"If again thou askest how it is that the Creator of all having made us the most superpotential and most glorious over all mortals-does not give us a higher dignity or more excellent name than that of Priest (Prester), let not thy wisdom be surprised on this account, for this is the reason. We have many ecclesiastics in our retinue of more dignified name and office in the Church, and of more considerable standing than ours in the divine service. For our house-steward is a patriarch and king; our cup-bearer is an archbishop and king; our chamberlain is a bishop and king; our archimandrite, that is chief pastor or master of the horse, is a king and abbot. Whereof our highness has not seen it repugnant to call himself by the same name and to distinguish himself by the order of which our court is full. And if we have chosen to be called by a lower name and inferior rank, it springs from humility."

The only official response to the letter was that Pole Alexander III sent out a Papal emissary in 1177 with a letter for Prester John, carried by his physician, Magister Philippos, but nothing was ever heard of what became of him. Years later, in the mid-thirteenth century when Asia was opened again to Europeans by the ascendancy of the Tartars, the great search began to find this Prester John, a search which was very important opening up Asia and re-establishing ties with China. Though he was never found, his legend continued throughout the middle ages, with Kings and Popes sending off letters at different times seeking his help and dreams of his riches filling the heads of many.

Historical basis to the legend

The Khitai were a tribe that had ruled much of China in the late 10th century as the Liao Dynasty. As their dynasty collapsed, in 1124, a body of the imperial family escaped to Central Asia, where they established a new empire over the Turkish tribes, called Kara-Khitai (or "Black Cathay"--Black being a term of honor at the time). In 1141, in their expansion to the west, they met the eastward reaching kingdom of the Seljuk Turks of Persia. In a battle fought Sept. 8-9, 1141, at Qatawan (Katvan), near Samarkand, Yeh-lü Ta-Shih (or Yeliutashi), ruler of the empire of Kara-Khitai, defeated Sultan Sanjar, the Seljuk Turk ruler of Persia.

Reports of this great victory over the Turks reached the Crusader kingdoms soon thereafter and included was the rumor that Yeliutashi was a Christian. This appears to be unlikely, based perhaps on a confusion between the Kara-Khitai and the Keraits, a Christian-Nestorian tribe from central Asia.

Prester John's move to Africa
By the 14th century, all searches for Prester John and his kingdom in Asia had turned up empty. Rather than give up on this hopeful and glamorous legend, however, Europeans decided that they must have been looking in the wrong region and they turned their eyes on the interior of Africa. This was spurred by the fact that there was an actual Christian kingdom there, the Nestorian kingdom of Abyssinia or Ethiopia. Mysterious Abyssinian pilgrims sometimes visited the Holy Land, though their kingdom was rumored to be bordered by inaccessible mountains. What better place to put the Kingdom of Prester John? Eastern Africa was sometimes conflated in European thinking with the "Indies," and so here must be that great Christian King in the East. The Portuguese sent several expeditions to make contact with this kingdom and the reports which came back further confirmed the belief that finally Prester John had been found. Thus the venerable legend moved to a new continent, and it was in Africa that Prester John's Kingdom was thought to lie when the earliest printed maps made their appearance. The most famous map showing Prester John's kingdom (illustrated above) was a map by Abraham Oretlius first issued in 1573. The legend eventually passed from common belief, but not before leaving a few maps illustrating this wonderful myth.

Monticello

Last weekend I had the great pleasure of visiting Monticello again. Charlottesville was lovely with fall foliage and Thomas Jefferson's house is a wonderful building, with many facets of interest and beautiful grounds. Not surprisingly, of course, I was particularly interested in the many prints and maps that hang in Monticello and which can be seen on the tour.

Before I get into my thoughts about items I saw last weekend, I want to talk a bit about the curitorial collection at Monticello, curated by Susan R. Stein. Susan has been Monticello's curator since 1986, and in 2005 was named Gilder Curator and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s vice president for museum programs. Susan is well known for the excellent "Worlds of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello" exhibition and book from 1993 and she has been very active in building the collections of Jefferson material, developing museum programs, and placing items from the collection in Monticello so that Jefferson's home is as close to how it was when he lived there. Susan is also a print enthusiast and scholar and a wonderful asset to Monticello and the print world.

The Monticello curitorial collection includes approximately 5,147 artifacts, books, and works of art connected to Jefferson and the Monticello community. About 75 percent of these collections are exhibited and the remainder are available for study. Jefferson originally owned 60 percent of the artifacts on display.

There are many drawings, silhouettes, and paintings hanging on the walls, but I was struck with how many prints and maps are on display in Monticello. To me this reflects something about the character of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was a man who appreciated art, but my feeling is that he never looked at art simply for its aesthetics, but rather always looked for "content" or "meaning." While many paintings and drawings have meaning beyond their aesthetics, it is specifically the content or meaning of most prints which is their raison d'etre. Prints and maps, especially during Jefferson's life-time, were created specifically to depict the physical appearance of a place or person of interest, to tell a story, make a point, educate the viewer, or provide other useful information. These are things that would appeal to Jefferson's inquiring mind and so it is of no surprise to me that Jefferson had so many maps and prints hanging in Monticello.

The tour of Monticello begins in the Entrance Hall, which is where visitors would wait before being greeted there by Jefferson. To help them pass the time, educate them, and provide topics for conversation, Jefferson hung many natural history and cultural artifacts there, as well historical prints and a number of wall maps. Over the fireplace is a nice example of Asher B. Durand's engraving of John Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence." (The other two famous prints after Trumbuill's paintings, of the Death of Montgomery and the Battle of Bunker's Hill, are hanging in the library). Jefferson was, naturally, proud of his seminal role in the event depicted, so this was a perfect print to have on display when visitors entered him home.

For safety, the maps in the entrance hall are facsimiles, not originals (all the prints on display are originals), because as wall maps they are attached to wooden rollers and hanging on the wall without any sort of protection from a frame and glazing. The maps shown are mostly eighteenth century maps of the different continents, but there are also two important American maps. One is the Aaron Arrowsmith "“A Map of the United States of North America" from 1802. This is an interesting map in that is shows the country the year before Jefferson added the huge western territories through the Louisiana Purchase. The other map is the famous “A Map of the most Inhabited Part of Virginia" by Joshua Fry and Thomas' father, Peter Jefferson.

In the South Square room are hanging two prints from the Boydell Shakespeare portfolio. These are the actual prints that were owned by Thomas Jefferson, but which had been sold in the 1827 sale of Jefferson's estate. Two nicely engraved portraits are also hanging here, one of Lafayette and the other a colored aquatint of Jefferson. That portrait (image near top of this blog) was engraved by Michel Sokolnicki after Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a hero of the Revolution who later in life became one of Jefferson's friends. The tour guide told us that this print is referred around Monticello as the "Bob Hope" portrait of Jefferson, for obvious reasons! A note from Jefferson's grand-son indicated that this print hung in this room. Also in this room is a lovely example of John Binn's 1819 engraving of the text of the Declaration of Independence (this print usually hangs in the entrance hall, which is where Jefferson hung it). The text of the Declaration is surrounded by portraits of John Hancock, George Washington, and Jefferson, as well as the seals of the thirteen colonies. One of the interesting things in this room is the manner in which a series of small silhouettes and engravings are hung, one above the other, with ribbons. This was a popular way of displaying small frames in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century and it is nice to see this 'in the flesh.'

The next rooms (the library, study and bedchamber) show a number of engravings on the walls, but it is floor to ceiling paintings and prints once one walks into the parlor. This art is hung, one above the other, from wires attached to the top moulding or brass rods. This was one not-uncommon way of displaying art in a gallery at the time, which allowed for hanging lots of frames without having to hammer nails all over the walls. Jefferson's inventory of Monticello lists 24 portraits and 17 paintings in the parlor and it makes an impressive display. Included are a number of engraved portraits, including those of David Rittenhouse, Thaddeus Kosciuzsko, and Louis XVI.

I am not going to remark on every print nor every room at Monticello, but I will finish with the dining room, as it is graced by two of my favorite prints, the pair of 1804 aquatints of Niagara Falls by John Vanderlyn. Jefferson was interested in the natural beauty of America and so it was natural to include prints of this great natural wonder. Also shown in this room is another fine view, this an 1808 aquatint by J.C. Stadler after William Roberts showing Natural Bridge in Virginia. Jefferson thought Natural Bridge was a natural wonder to rival Niagara and indeed he owned the site from 1774 until his death. William Roberts, the artist, had given Jefferson original paintings of Natural Bridge and Harper's Ferry, which hung in the dining room, but these have since been lost. Jefferson also owned an aquatint after Roberts, an example of which currently graces this room.

There are more prints that can be seen at Monticello than I've mentioned, and even more in the curitorial collections. One can get more information on the prints by visiting the Monticello web site. Not only do they have descriptions of a number of the engravings in the Th: Jefferson Encyclopedia, but one can also get a virtual tour of the house. Still, the best way to see these prints and maps is by visiting in person, a trip well worth making.