Rare Book Monthly
Articles - October - 2008 Issue
Connecting Word and Image
Glens Falls 150 years ago
Here is some further detail on the living room east wall.
[1] Glens Falls. A painting by Henry A. Ferguson painted around 1865;
[2] A photograph of the Reuben Clark, that ran aground at Marlborough in 1882;
[3] Two small broadsides. One captures that fleeting moment when the railroad reaches only as far as Poughkeepsie and the onward leg is yet by steamboat [1851]. The other small broadside is an 1856 flyer for the Independent Day Boat. The railroad is now cutting into the trade and this broadside includes this statement:
"Passengers by taking this boat, enjoy the delightful scenery that flanks the Hudson, and escape the annoyance, confusion and dust incident to Railroad traveling."
[4] Three lithographs from the presses of Charles Magnus of New York. All are thought to date from the mid 1850's. Two are cities plans for Albany and Buffalo, the third is a city view of Troy as the town looked ten years after the Swallow [see 5] set out on its final voyage;
[5] A broadside of the Loss of the Swallow in 1845.
[6] A broadside advertisement for a sailing of the Swallow on Wednesday May 25th, 1844. This ship exploded while making the same trip on April 7th, 1845, just 318 days later.
[7] Map of Albany and Schenectady [1840] by Stone & Clark;
[8] "The Roundhouse," an engraving by Roland Mousseau of Rondout [1934];
[9] An unidentified painting. It seems to be a Hudson River scene. The colors don't seem quite right but as an after thought, set above and out of the way, it seems to fit well enough.
[10] The Catskill Mountain House in the far distance, a painting by Paul Weber, 1855;
[11] A Map of Dutchess and Putnam Counties by David Burr, 1829;
[12] A painting by Anna Young of Marlborough. She is a distant relative of F. B. Morse who lived on the east side of the Hudson about 7 miles north. The scene seems to be the Hudson, from the Marlborough side looking east. It feels right. In the 1950's my father bought Desotos from Young's Motors and on the 4th of July, we and hundreds of other patriotics, assembled on their farm to relive the "rockets' red glare."
[13-14] Off to the right are two Currier & Ives images of ships that plied the Hudson in its golden era;
All these many years later, as I begin to do yoga in the living room at 6:00 am, I turn to face this Hudson wall, look deeply in the scene of the Catskill Mountain House on which the sun is always shining late into the day. I glance right and left, and am once again in the embrace of history, slipping back in time, glad to be alive, and privileged to have learned to appreciate and uncover such extraordinary material. What a love of books has began only time will tell what the outcome of all this may be.
A video accompanies this article. To view it click here. AE Youtube video
