Impressions

Prints of Niagara Falls
1831 to 1840

[ 1821 to 1830 | Index | 1841 to 1850]


Prints from John H. Hinton's The History and Topography of the United States of North America. London: Jennings & Chaplin & J.T. Hinton, 1830-32. Steel engravings by Fenner, Sears & Co..

The print after Cole was used as the frontispiece to the second volume of Hinton's work. Both images were included in other editions of Hinton [220, 221], as well as in other publications and as separate prints.


102. After W.J. Bennett. "Niagara Falls From Goats Island." UR: "PL. 1." Frontispiece from D.J. Browne's The Naturalist, Containing Treatises on natural History, Chemistry, Domestic And Rural Economy, Manufactures, And Arts. With Numerous Illustrations. Volume II. Boston: Allen & Ticknor and New York: P. Hill, January 1832. 4 x 6 1/2. Lithograph by "Pendletons Lithog'y Boston." Hand color.

A reduced copy of Bennett's [97] "View of the British Fall taken from Goat Island." This print was the frontispiece for the January issue of The Naturalist, and it accompanied an article on Niagara Falls by F.W.P. Greenwood. An even smaller copy of this print, entitled "Niagara" and also lithographed by Pendleton, was issued in G.M. Davidson's Traveller's Guide, 1833. (cf. Dow: 897)


103. Joseph Bouchette. "Sketch of Niagara River between Queenston & Chippewa." From The British Dominions in North America. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1832. 7 5/8 x 9 1/4. Engraving by J. & C. Walker. Hand color. DeVolpi: 16; Seibel1: 88.

A map with excellent detail, including depictions of the Fort Schlosher ferry and a Tuscarora Village.


104. "The Waterfall of Niagara." From Christopher Kelly's Universal Geography. London: Thomas Kelly, [1832]. 5 5/8 x 8 1/4. Engraving. Hand color. Dow: 855; Seibel1: 58.

A direct derivative of Metz's [18] "The Falls of Niagara," updated by removing the Indians from the image and changing the dress of the other sightseers to nineteenth-century styles.


105. D. Wadsworth, "from Nature." "Part of Niagara Falls on the U.S. side of the River, seen from the Canada side, Drawn June 1806." New York, 1832-33. 10 x 7 7/8. Lithograph by William R. Browne. Printed by John B. Pendleton, 9 Wall Street, New York. Mounted on blue board. Eland: 113; Kotik: 35; Seibel1: 12/87.

This print is based on a drawing perhaps done by Daniel Wadsworth, founder of the Wadsworth Athenaeum. He was an amateur artist who made sketches as he traveled about the county, and he might have made a sketch of this scene on a visit to Niagara. The dates given are based on J.B. Pendleton's dates at 9 Wall Street.


105ad. After W.J. Bennett. "Niagara." From G.M. Davidson' Traveller's Guide. New York, 1833. 2 5/8 x 4 1/4. Lithograph by Pendleton. Dow: 897; Seibel: 69.

A smaller version of the Pendleton version of Bennet's view [102].


106. William James Bennett. "Niagara Falls. To Thomas Dixon Esq. this View of the British Fall taken from Goat Island, is respectfully Inscribed by his Obedient Serv't. Henry J. Megarey." New York: H. J. Megarey, 1833-1853. 16 1/8 x 20 3/4. Aquatint by W.J. Bennett. Hand color.

A restrike of Bennett's 1830 print of the same title [97], with Terrapin Tower added to the image. The plate for this print would have been modified around 1833, the date Terrapin Tower was built, in order to keep this souvenir print up-to-date. A third state of this print also exists, with the imprint, "Published by Joseph Lord." Lord is listed as a publisher in New York directories for 1853-54.


Prints from John H. Hinton's The History and Topography of the United States of North America. Boston: Samuel Walker, 1834. Steel engravings.

Two prints of Niagara from the American edition of Hinton's History and Topography. The Cole print, which is a reengraving of the print from the London edition [101], is no longer used as a frontispiece, replaced instead by the print by Wall. Both of these prints appear in later editions of Hinton's History and Topography. In the 1845 edition, the Cole print is modified with "Vol. II. page. 348" added below the title and the sky is less heavily engraved than in the first state. In the 1852 edition, a re-engraved print of the Wall image is included. This is entitled "Niagara Falls," with no artist or engraver given, while just below title is the imprint "Boston, Samuel Walker."


#109
109. George and Erhman Zipelius after Jacques Gerard Milbert. "Vues de l'Amerique du nord." Missing from title, "(22me au 32me le.)," that is `panels 22 to 32.' Missing from top: "Jeux Indiens/ Les Chutes du Niagara/ Pont du Virginie." France, ca. 1834. 9 3/8 x 15 7/8. Lithograph by Engelmann Pere et Fils. Hand color. Deák2: 346; Fowble: 34; cf. McKinsey: 61; Seibel1: 94.

One of three prints of a series entitled "Vues de l'Amerique du nord," lithographed by Engelmann Pere et Fils and published in Paris around 1834. These lithographs were based on a panorama of North American scenes drawn by George and Erhman Zipelius, which was commissioned for an elaborate scenic wallpaper that was made in 1834 by the firm of J. Zuber & Cie in Alsace Lorraine. The exact connection between these prints and the wallpaper is unknown, but the prints may have been produced as promotional material for the wallpaper. This print, which illustrates panels 22 to 32 of the wallpaper, shows, from left to right, an Indian dance, Natural Bridge in Virginia, a stage coach, and a number of boats sailing in front of Niagara Falls. All the topographical images of the wallpaper and prints-of New York City, West Point, Boston, Natural Bridge and Niagara Falls-were taken directly from prints in Milbert's 1828-29 Itineraire Pittoresque. The image of Niagara Falls was based on [81] "Niagara falls from the American side."


110. Jacques Gerard Milbert. "Fer a cheval de la chute du Niagara cote du Canada."/"Horse shoe of Niagara from the Canada Side." LC: "39." From Itineraire Pittoresque du Fleuve Hudson et des Parties Laterales. Paris: ca. 1834. Second edition. 8 x 11 1/2. Lithograph by Leon Sabatier. Printed by Ligney Freres.

A later printing of same stone used for [79].


111. "The Falls of Niagara, As Seen From The Table-Rock." From The Saturday Magazine. London: January 10, 1835. 5 1/2 x 8 1/8. Wood engraving.


Prints in Horatio A. Parsons' A Guide to Travelers Visiting The Falls of Niagara. Buffalo: Oliver G. Steele, 1835. Second edition. 12mo. 96 pp. Engravings.

The second published edition of one the first guidebooks of Niagara Falls, and the first edition to include Parsons' maps. The map and view by Weld are reprints of plates used for his original work [22, 25 ]. These were tipped into this particular example of the guide by the publisher, seller, or perhaps the purchaser.


116. Louis Bruguiere. "Tableau Comparatif De la Hauteur Des Chutes D'Eau Les Plus Celebres." From Atlas Classique et Universel. Paris: J. Andriveau-Goujon, 1835. Engraving by Himely.

An atlas sheet giving a comparison of the heights of different water falls of the world. The illustration of Niagara is non-representational except in its width.


116ad. T. Cole. "A Distant View Of The Falls Of Niagara." Boston: S. Walker, 1835. Engraving by T.S. Woodcock. 5 1/2 x 7 5/8.

A second edition of Cole's "Distant View of the Falls of Niagara" [108]. The sky in the first edition was not very successfully rendered and this is corrected in this second state of the same plate. All else is the same except the date is changed of the imprint from 1832 to 1835.


116ada. "Perca Granulata (The Granulated Perch.)/ (Falls of Niagara)/ Native of America." UR: "Plate 1." From Sir William Jardine's The Naturalist's Library. Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars, 1835. 3 3/4 x 6. Engraving by William H. Lizars. Hand coloring.

A view of the American Falls appears behind this illustration of a Perch from Jardine's famous Naturalist Library, though the representation is not very realistic.


117. T. Allom after a sketch by J.P. Cockburn. "Horse-shoe Fall, Niagara; Entrance To The Cavern of, On The English Side." From Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap-book, 1836. London & Paris: Fisher, Son & Co. and Berlin: Asher, and New York: Jackson, 1836. 6 3/4 x 4 3/4. Steel engraving by R. Sands. Dow: 896; cf. Seibel1: 1.

A later edition of this print in the Erie County & Buffalo Public Library has, printed below the title, the line, "Fisher, Son & Co., 1844."


118. "No. 7, Morgan's Improved Protean Scenery, The Great Fall of Niagara." London: W. Morgan, Feb. 24, 1838. 6 1/2 x 8 5/8. Lithograph. Transparent print. Hand color. Mounted on brown paper, with label below.

A rare example of a "transparent" print. These unusual prints were produced so that they changed their appearance when they had a light held up to shine from behind, compared to how they looked when normally viewed. Parts of the print were made to be translucent and different colored paper was put behind, so that a strong light from the rear would allow this color to show through on the front. This print was issued to show an episode in the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837-38. This was a short lived rebellion against the British government in Canada, led by William Lyon Mackenzie. On the night of December 29, 1837, British soldiers rowed across the Niagara River and captured the rebel's supply ship, the Caroline, setting it on fire and sending it toward the cataract. "This Print at first represents the Great Fall of Niagara by day, and upon holding it before the light, it will present to your view the American Steamer, Caroline, on fire, as it appeared a few seconds before it was launched into the awful abyss, on the Night of the 29th of Dec'r, 1837." This view is a modified Hennepin derivative, to which Morgan has added depictions of Navy Island with Mackenzie's base, Fort Schlosser, in the background and the Caroline about to plunge over the brink, even though the ship was in fact grounded by the rapids.


119. W.R. Callington. "A Bird's eye View of the river Niagara from Lake Erie to Lake Onatrio shewing the situation and extent of Navy Island, and the Towns and Villages on the banks of the river in Canada and the United States.-with the situation of the Caroline Steam Boat off Schlosser." London: J. Robins, 1838. Hand colored lithograph. 11 1/8 x 8 3/8. Dow: 897; Seibel1: 14.

A bird's eye view showing the entire length of the Niagara River, drawn by W.R. Callington, "Engineer, Boston, from an Actual Survey made in 1837." Numbers labeling some sites are placed in the image and these are identified in a key under the title. One of the spots marked is "Schlosser, the place where the Caroline was burnt." This print probably was issued to accompany a lithograph that was drawn by Callington and published by J. Robins (DeVolpi: 23), which shows the Caroline going over the Falls. This print would have helped put this event-which was of much interest in England-into a geographic context.


120. Guillaume Abel Blouet. "Vue De La Chute De Schlosser Prise De La Rive De L'Etat De New-York."/"View of the Schlosser Fall Taken From The New-York Shore." UC: "Chutes Du Niagara/Niagara Falls." UR: "Vue C." LR: "Pl. 3'er." From an album of 6 lithographs, Chutes du Niagara. Dessinees d'apres nature en mars 1837. Paris: Delpech, 1838. 9 1/4 x 14 3/8. Lithograph by C.?G. Remond. Dow: 892; Eland: 137; McKinsey: 73; Seibel1: 10.

Plate 3 from series of views sketched by Blouet in March 1837. This is a view from Prospect Point, showing a group of men standing near the small shed located at the top of the stairs which descended to the base of the American Falls. The lithographer's first initial is not listed on the print, but is listed by Adamson1 as "G" and by Seibel1 as "C."


121. J. Crosby Miller. "Niagara Falls. No. 2. View of the Horse Shoe Fall from Goat Island." Buffalo: O.G. Steele, 1838. 14 3/8 x 18 3/4. Lithograph by Hall. Hand color. Printed by Steele's Lith Press, Buffalo. Dow: 898; cf. Kotick: 30; Seibel1: 65.

Miller took his image largely from Bennett's [97] "View of the British Fall taken from Goat Island." The vantage point and the general shape of the trees, rocks and water all are copies of Bennett. Miller removed the picnickers and replaced them with a couple gazing at the falls. He also updated the image by adding Terrapin Tower and the new buildings constructed along Ridge Road on the Canadian side.


122. "The Falls of Niagara." London: John Newman, ca. 1838. Ca. 4 1/4 x 6 1/4. Steel engraving by J. Newman.

The ascribed date comes from when John Newman was located at the address given on this print, 30 Bridge Street, London.


122ad. After John Vanderlyn. "View of the Falls of Niagara. Taken from Table-Rock." Philadelphia: Saturday Chronicle, 1838-1842. 14 1/2 x 18 3/4. Lithograph by Alfred Hoffy. Printed by P.S. Duval. DeVolpi: 7; Seibel: 86. A premium print for the Saturday Chronicle, a reduced version of John Vanderlyn's "A View of the Western Branch of the Falls of Niagara" [36]. The Chronicle was a weekly journal in existence from around 1836 until 1842. The production of this print involved two of Philadelphia's premier printmakers of the nineteenth century, Alfred Hoffy and Pierre S. Duval, well known for their work together on the U.S. Military Magazine. The starting date given for this print is based on the year Duval went in business by himself. The image is a very close copy of Vanderlyn's though with slightly different proportions. The only significant difference in the images is the inclusion, in this version, of six extra sightseers and a dog. DeVolpi dates this print as 1804, but this is incorrect.


Prints in Samuel De Veaux's The Falls Of Niagara, Or Tourist's Guide To This Wonder Of Nature. Buffalo: William B. Hayden, 1839. First edition. 12mo. Wood engravings by John W. Orr. Adamson2: 187.

This is the first appearance of these woodengravings by John W. Orr, which turned up in several later guidebooks including Hulett's 1843 guide [174-178].


Prints from The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. Vol. I. Boston: John L. Sibley & James B. Dow, 1839. Wood engravings with text. Pp. 29-30.

130. J.R. Coke Smyth. ["Falls of Niagara."] From Sketches in the Canadas. London: Thomas McLean, 1839. 10 3/4 x 15 1/8. Lithograph. Printed by A. Ducotes Lithographic Establishment. Hand color. Mounted on original board. Seibel1: 80.

J.R. Coke Smyth was the drawing master to the household of the Earl of Durham, Governor General of Canada. His portfolio contained 22 lithographs plus a title page illustration and included only this one image of Niagara Falls. This is the first print to show Niagara by moonlight.


#130ad
130ad. Richard G.A. Levinge. "The '43rd Light Infantry' As They 'Turn Out' In Their Sleighs, At The 'Falls of Niagara' 1839." London: Ackermann & Co., 1839. 14 3/8 x 25 3/8. Lithograph. Original hand color. DeVolpi: 24; Seibel: 61.

The 43rd Light Infantry was in the Niagara frontier in 1839. This wonderful winter scene was drawn by a member of the regiment, Sir Richard Levinge, and it clearly shows a pleasure trip to the falls in mid-winter.


Prints by William Henry Bartlett. From Nathaniel Parker Willis's American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature. London: George Virtue, 1840. Steel engravings. Adamson2: 213.

These prints were first issued in parts from June 1837 to November 1839, then issued as part of a complete two volume book in January 1840. This work, American Scenery, was issued many times thereafter. The first state of the print, "Niagara Falls From The Ferry," appeared also in Bartlett's The History Of The United States Of America (London & New York, George Virtue, 1856). Of some interest is the sunset over Lake Ontario that is depicted in "The Outlet Of Niagara River," for the sun is shown setting directly to the North.


Prints in Steele's Book Of Niagara Falls. Buffalo: Oliver G. Steele, 1840. Seventh edition. 12mo. 110 pp. Six views and one map. Lithographs by Hall & Mooney. Cf. Seibel1: 46f/81.

The four views after Bennett and the view of Brock's Monument appeared first in the fifth edition of Parsons' A Guide To Travelers Visiting The Falls Of Niagara, issued in 1838. For this seventh edition guide, newly renamed Steele's Book Of Niagara Falls, the view based on Bartlett was added and the other prints were slightly redrawn. The most noticeable differences between the prints of the seventh and the earlier editions are that the name of the lithographer, Hall & Mooney, appears in this edition only on the first image, that Park's name is not given on the view of Brock's Monument, and that the goat is erased from the view from Goat Island. Hall & Mooney was a Buffalo lithographic firm, located "Over Steele's Bookstore."


Two prints by William James Bennett. New York: W.J. Bennett, 1840. First states. Aquatints by W.J. Bennett. Hand color.

One of the greatest American artists to make prints of Niagara Falls was William James Bennett, who produced two pairs of large aquatints on this subject in 1829 [84, 85] and 1830 [96, 97]. The success of those plates encouraged Bennett to produce a third magnificent pair of Niagara aquatints a decade later.


147. Thomas Cole. "The Falls of the Niagara. (Twenty years ago)." UR: "III." From Our Globe. A universal picturesque album. Philadelphia: North American Bibliographic Institution, 1840. 3 3/4 x 5 3/4. Steel engraving. Dow: 893; Seibel1: 23.

A copy of Cole's [101] "A Distant View of the Falls of Niagara." This image was printed from the same plate as [148] and [187].


148. Thomas Cole. "La Chûte du Niagara." Paris: l'Institut Bibliographique, ca. 1840. 3 3/4 x 5 7/8. Steel engraving.

A copy of Cole's [101] "A Distant View Of The Falls Of Niagara." This image was printed from the same plate as [147] and [187].


149. A. Dervieu (?). "Ex Pede Herculem." London, ca. 1840? 5 5/8 x 3 5/8. Lithograph by A. Ducôtés. Cf. Dow: 915; Seibel1: 94.

A delightful print showing the Horseshoe Falls from the porch of the Pavilion Hotel. The boots of a foot-sore tourist are shown stuck out the window and a book entitled "Niagara A Guide" is tossed on the porch. This has the same image as the German print, "Aussicht auf den Niagara-Fall," listed in Dow and Seibel1, which was lithographed by Winckelmann & Sohne in Berlin.


149ad. Inset of Niagara ("78"). On print IV from Panorama Of The Earth or Representation of the organical products which are own to each clime. Seven hundred designs representing the human races, animals, plants and the most remarkable sceneries of the globe. Philadelphia: John Weik, ca. 1840? 10 1/2 x 15 1/2. Lithograph. Full hand color.

An unrecorded print of Niagara Falls from a series of natural history prints published by John Weik in the first part of the nineteenth century. These folio images show "the human races, animals, plants and the most remarkable sceneries of the globe." In the background of this print showing various animals, fish, and humans from the temperate clime, is a small vignette of Niagara Falls, complete with a rainbow. Though not based on any other image, the scene is easily recognizable.


[ 1821 to 1830 | Index | 1841 to 1850 ]
[ Impressions of Niagara ]




Impressions of Niagara

All text and illustrations are copyrighted by The Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd.
The text and the illustrations may not be reused without prior authorization.
©The Philadelphia Print Shop, Ltd. 2006