The Old Print Shop

Fort Armstrong.

  • ARTIST: Henry Lewis

  • PUBLISHER: Published by Heinrich Arnz & Co. Dusseldorf.

  • MEDIUM: Multi-stone lithograph with some handcoloring,

    DATE: 1854-57.

  • EDITION SIZE: Image size 5 3/8 x 7 3/4" (13.8 x 19.7 cm) plus title and margins.

  • DESCRIPTION: Printed by C. H. Muller. Aachen. From DAS ILLUSTRIERTE MISSISSIPPITHAL (The Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated). In the late 1840's Henry Lewis traveled the length of the Mississippi and with the assistance of other artists assembled a collection of sketches detailing scenery of the entire river. Based on these drawings, Lewis proceeded to paint a panorama on a continuous length of canvas which would be moved and viewed through a frame. In the fall of 1848, the completed piece (hundreds and hundreds of feet in length), began its tour of American cities. A European tour followed and while in Dusseldorf, in 1853, Lewis teamed up with the publisher Heinrich Arnz to redo the sketches as lithographs illustrating a book on Mississippi scenery. While production was sporadic and relatively unprofitable, the resulting seventy-eight lithographs provide a early and remarkably complete record of the Mississippi River. Fort Armstrong was one of a chain of western frontier defenses which the United States erected after the War of 1812. It was located at the foot of Rock Island, Illinois, in the Mississippi River between present-day Illinois and Iowa.

  • ADDITIONAL INFO:

  • CONDITION: Good condition save for small in lower margin. Residue of old paper hinge in upper margin.

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