Title Sanctified landscape : writers, artists, and the Hudson River Valley, 1820-1909 / David Schuyler

Published Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 206 pages) : [8] pages of plates : illustrations, maps Contents The tourists' river : experiencing the Hudson Valley -- The artist's river : Thomas Cole -- The writers' river : Washington Irving and N.P. Willis -- The river in a garden : A.J. Downing -- Change and the search for continuity at midcentury -- Elegy for the Hudson River School : Jervis McEntee -- The naturalist's river : John Burroughs -- A river in time : preserving landscape, celebrating history Summary The Hudson River Valley was the first iconic American landscape. Beginning as early as the 1820s, artists and writers found new ways of thinking about the human relationship with the natural world along the Hudson. Here, amid the most dramatic river and mountain scenery in the eastern United States, Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper created a distinctly American literature, grounded in folklore and history, that contributed to the emergence of a sense of place in the valley. Painters, led by Thomas Cole, founded the Hudson River School, widely recognized as the first truly national style of art. As the century advanced and as landscape and history became increasingly intertwined in the national consciousness, an aesthetic identity took shape in the region through literature, art, memory, and folklore-even gardens and domestic architecture. In Sanctified Landscape, David Schuyler recounts this story of America's idealization of the Hudson Valley during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Schuyler's story unfolds during a time of great change in American history. At the very moment when artists and writers were exploring the aesthetic potential of the Hudson Valley, the transportation revolution and the rise of industrial capitalism were transforming the region. The first generation of American tourists traveled from New York City to Cozzens Hotel and the Catskill Mountain House in search of the picturesque. Those who could afford to live some distance from jobs in the city built suburban homes or country estates. Given these momentous changes, it is not surprising that historic preservation emerged in the Hudson Valley: the first building in the United States preserved for its historic significance is Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh. Schuyler also finds the seeds of the modern environmental movement in the transformation of the Hudson Valley landscape. Richly illustrated and compellingly written, Sanctified Landscape makes for rewarding reading. Schuyler expertly ties local history to national developments, revealing why the Hudson River Valley was so important to nineteenth-century Americans-and why it is still beloved today Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Subject Landscape protection -- Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- History -- 19th century HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA) HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- General. HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT) Landscape protection Literature Travel SUBJECT Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- History -- 19th century Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- Description and travel Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- In literature Hudson River Valley (N.Y. and N.J.) -- In art Subject United States -- Hudson River Valley Genre/Form Art History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780801464232 0801464234

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