Picturesque America Vol. I / Picturesque America Vol. II

Title

Picturesque America Vol. I / Picturesque America Vol. II

Description

Two volumes of the popular travelogue of "Picturesque America or The Land we Live In. A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Forests, Water-Falls, Shores, Canons, Valleys, Cities, and Other Picturesque Features of our Country. With a personal dedication from Bertius Ramsay to his brother John Ramsay with coat of arms on the inside cover. With illustrations engraved in steel and wood. Showing some of the work of the best American landscape painters, mostly by Henry Fenn, Douglas Woodward, Granville Perkins and many more. Among the engravers are Hunt S. V., Hinshelwood R., Wellstood W., Brandard E. P., etc. Edited by the poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant. Some light spotting to the steel engravings.

c. 1872

Artist

Bryant (1794-1878)

William Cullen Bryant (1794- 1878 ) was an American writer, lawyer, and journalist. Bryant made a name for himself not only as a political journalist. Especially as a poet, he gave impulses to many subsequent lyricists with his sometimes almost reverent description of nature. In all his articles and pamphlets, Bryant fought against slavery and just as vehemently advocated his country's free trade policies. Throughout his life he was politically active; as a member of the Free Soil Party he was also involved in the founding of the Republican Party. Later, he supported Abraham Lincoln's policies with all his strength. In Bryant's other lyrical work, William Cowper and William Wordsworth stand out as important models; but here a positive, joyful attitude toward life triumphs over a mystical immersion in nature. When an anthology of his poems appeared in London in 1832, Bryant was invited by his publisher. Bryant took advantage of this and in 1834 set out on a journey through Europe that lasted several years; in 1845 he made a second trip with his friend Charles Leupp, visiting Syria and Egypt, among other places. Further trips followed in 1849/50, 1857/58, and 1866/67. The literary fruits of these trips were published as Letters of a traveler in Europe and America and Letters from the East in the feature section of the New York Evening Post. In 1855 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At the age of 83, William Cullen Bryant died in 1878 at his home at 24 West Sixteenth Street in Manhattan, New York.

Historical Description

Under the discovery of Americans, we understand the first sighting of the continent by seafarers from the global civilization. Around 1000, the Vikings established a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland, now known as L'Anse aux Meadows. Speculations exist about other Old World discoveries of the New World, but none of these are generally or completely accepted by most scholars. Spain sponsored a major exploration led by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492; it quickly led to extensive European colonization of the Americas. The Europeans brought Old World diseases which are thought to have caused catastrophic epidemics and a huge decrease of the native population. Columbus came at a time in which many technical developments in sailing techniques and communication made it possible to report his voyages easily and to spread word of them throughout Europe. It was also a time of growing religious, imperial and economic rivalries that led to a competition for the establishment of colonies. The formation of sovereign states in the New World began with the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776. The American Revolutionary War lasted through the period of the Siege of Yorktown — its last major campaign — in the early autumn of 1781, with peace being achieved in 1783. The Spanish colonies won their independence in the first quarter of the 19th century, in the Spanish American wars of independence. Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín, among others, led their independence struggle. Although Bolivar attempted to keep the Spanish-speaking parts of Latin America politically allied, they rapidly became independent of one another as well, and several further wars were fought, such as the Paraguayan War and the War of the Pacific. (See Latin American integration.) In the Portuguese colony Dom Pedro I (also Pedro IV of Portugal), son of the Portuguese king Dom João VI, proclaimed the country's independence in 1822 and became Brazil's first Emperor. This was peacefully accepted by the crown in Portugal, upon compensation.