United States Senate graphic arts collection : illustrated checklist PDF
Preview United States Senate graphic arts collection : illustrated checklist
United States Senate Mvrs i \_L\ L i Illustrated Checklist Volume 1 United States Senate Commission on Art United States Senate Commission on Art Bob Dole, Kansas, Chairman Thomas A. Daschle, South Dakota, Vice Chairman Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Wendell H. Ford, Kentucky Ted Stevens, Alaska Sheila P. Burke, Executive Secretary Sonoma County Library DEPOSITORY PUBLICATION Property of the U. S. Govt- United States Senate Graphic Arts Collection Volume 1 i SONOMA COUNTY LIBRARY OOO 06 322403 United States. Congress United States Senate GRAPHIC ARTS COLLECTION V.l 110909050-6 32240305 CENT >!*)> \ : . ■ - "■Mill ^'toiHHeK^ J? 1 United States Senate Graphic Arts Collection Illustrated Checklist Volume 1 United States Senate Commission on Art Office of the Curator, U.S. Senate James R. Ketchum, Curator Diane K. Skvarla, Associate Curator John B. Odell, Registrar Scott M. Strong, Museum Specialist Melinda K. Smith, Assistant Registrar Richard L. Doerner, Curatorial Assistant Photography by the Office of the Curator, U.S. Senate Prepared by the Office of the Curator, U.S. Senate John B. Odell, Editor Cover: "Winter at the National Capital— A Night Session" by William H. Redding after Charles Graham, wood engraving, published in Harper's Weekly, March 7, 1885 Frontispiece: "The United States Senate in Session" by Charles W. Breck after photograph by William Kurtz, halftone, published in Harper's Weekly, 1894 Senate Publication 103-25 U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1995 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 94-62211 United States Senate Graphic Arts Collection Illustrated Checklist Volume I United States Senate Commission on Art For sale by the Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402-9328 ISBN 0-16-046810-8 Contents Introduction V vi Using the Checklist Capitol Exterior & Grounds 1 The Senate Chambers 14 23 Capitol Interiors Portraits 35 Group Portraits 51 59 Beyond Capitol Hill Bibliography 65 Index 67 INTRODUCTION Over the past quarter-century, the United States Senate Commission on Art has collected more than 700 historical prints and engravings. This collection, administered by the Office of Senate Curator, contains a rich variety of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century images portraying the events, people, and settings of the U.S. Senate. Today, these illustrations help demonstrate how the Senate was portrayed to the American public during that period. Subscribers paid in advance for the highest quality nineteenth-century engrav¬ ings, which were made from metal plates. More broadly distributed, but of a lesser quality, were images from books, such as biographies and histories. Of lowest quality were broadsides — oversized sheets printed in large quantities that usually included text and wood engraved images. Any of these illustrations could take weeks to complete. However, a new engraving procedure developed in the early 1850s reduced the time needed to make wood engravings. Previously, an artist traced his illustration onto a wooden block, but once he had finished only one engraver could work on it at a time. In the new process, the block was cut into sections so several engravers could work simultaneously, after which the sections were bolted together to form a finished plate. This process enabled publishers to produce engravings in hours rather than days or weeks. These "assembly line" wood engravings lacked the detail and subtlety of metal engravings and were used primarily in a new medium— the illustrated newspaper. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and Harper's Weekly were the first and most successful periodicals to use this technique. These innovative publications disseminated the news of Washington, D.C. throughout the nation and visually documented the pursuits of the Senate for hundreds of thousands of readers. Publishers capitalized on the astonishing popularity of the illustrated newspa¬ pers by sending "special artists" to sketch events as they took place. Although most of the artists were quickly forgotten, others, such as Winslow Homer, Thomas Nast, and Theodore Davis, later earned wide recognition. Least well known were the engravers, who often worked in anonymous teams while transferring the artists' images onto wood. In publishing these images, the Commission on Art seeks to broaden recognition and understanding of the Senate's graphic arts holdings. This volume reproduces only the representational illustrations in the Senate print collection — those realistic images, sometimes based on photographs, whjch illustrated news articles, histories, and biogra¬ phies. A future volume will contain the collection's political cartoons and caricatures. Sheila P. Burke Executive Secretary U.S. Senate Commission on Art USING THE CHECKLIST This publication is divided into six thematic chapters: Capitol Exterior and Grounds, The Senate Chambers, Capitol Interiors, Portraits, Group Portraits, and Be¬ yond Capitol Hill. The images in each chapter are ordered chronologically with the exception of the portraits, which run alphabetically. Historic photographs of the Capitol interior and exterior are listed at the end of their respective chapters, to differentiate them from other media. Each entry contains the illustration, title [in boldface], maker(s), publication or publisher, date of p ublication, printing technique, dimensions, and object number. Title. Lists the full and complete caption assigned to the image by the publisher. Maker. Lists engravers first, followed by the original artist. During the height of the illustrated newspapers, in the last third of the nineteenth century, teams of en¬ gravers often worked together to produce a single image that was ascribed only to the original artist. Such images begin with the attribution "After." "Unidenti¬ fied" is used when neither the engraver nor the artist is known. Publication. Notes the newspaper, book, or publisher of the image. Date. Provides the date of issue when known. When the exact date is not known, a circa date is used. Technique. Describes how the image was made. Dimensions. Indicates the image size in centimeters and inches, height before width. Includes any engraved border, but excludes any writing or inscription outside the border. Object number. Records the Senate's identification number for the image. OBTAINING PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS OF CHECKLIST IMAGES Black and white photographs of any image in the checklist may be purchased by contacting the Office of Senate Curator, Suite S-411, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. 20510. Please refer to the page and object number to identify the image requested.
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