Drawn from life by Ferdinand Richardt, a Danish artist who visited the United States from 1855 to 1859, and who traveled extensively to America's new tourist destinations, from here to Niagara Falls and the upper Mississippi River. Signed and dated, June 6, 1857. The daily passenger coach has just arrived from the railroad some miles away. Tourists came to visit the underground caverns under the direction of skilled guides, all of whom at that time were enslaved African-Americans. Mammoth Cave was still privately owned. Today, the early guides' knowledge has been recognized and documented. See the book: "They Left Their Mark", by Joy Lyons.
This original drawing was given by the artist's descendants to Mammoth Cave National Park (NPS) where it remains in the Cultural Resource Collection.
This hotel is long since demolished. Modern overnight facilities now exist at the Park.
Since 1991, I have researched the life and works of this under-appreciated artist. Two of his pictures hang in America's WHITE HOUSE.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Richardt
This copy image courtesy of the National Park Service.
Tags: hotel kentucky mammothcave tourism caverns richardt ferdinandrichardt melystu melindastuart drawing pencil stagecoach coach transportation horses african-american
Yours truly outside the Danish National Museum where we visted the major exhibit, "Herregården", tracing the art and culture of "The Danish Manor House", and featuring in part the drawings of artist Ferdinand Richardt whose work I have studied and written about.
Tags: Herregaarden street urban Nationalmuseet Danish National Museum Copenhagen Denmark Danmark melystu 2004 Herregården bicycle paving manor house
An exhibition I organized in upstate New York in 2007 at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Museum. In the introductory panel view (large) tourists are enjoying the beautiful Fort William Henry Hotel at Lake George, NY, just on the eve of the Civil War.
www.mwpai.org/museum-of-art/museum-of-art-calendar/ferdin...
Catalog:
www.amazon.com/Ferdinand-Richardt-Drawings-America-1855-1...
I have been researching, exhibiting, and writing about this little-known Danish-American artist since 1992.
Tags: Richardt ferdinandrichardt drawings america nineteenthcentury 19thcentury travel documentary master denmark danmark 2007 exhibit exhibition mystuart melindastuart utica newyork ny history art earlyamerica lakegeorge tourism munsonwilliamsproctor americanart fortwilliamhenry 1858 hotel
As experienced nine years ago on the campus of the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute and Pratt Art School; these were outbuildings of the Proctor family home--now used by the school. A modern sculpture in the foreground. Wind drove "Lake Effect" snow almost continuously.
I spent a very snowy three days in Utica on this trip. Despite, and partly because of it, it was a grand working trip. I was helping install an exhibit I curated featuring the American drawings of Danish-American artist Ferdinand Richardt. The museum did a grand job of showing it off! Happy memories.
(Not today's weather.)
Tags: MunsonWilliamsProctor museum school pratt Utica NY snowstorm carriagehouses grounds sculpture 2007 February historical architecture
at the de Young Museum (aka Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) in Golden Gate Park. This is Richardt's view of Mt. Vernon, the house of and "shrine" to George Washington, as it was called back in the days when the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association of the Union purchased it for preservation. This was long before the country had any monuments to presidents and before museums of American history existed. At the time of Richardt's visit in 1857, the house was in relatively poor physical condition, one of the original porch pillars having rotted away and been replaced, temporarily, by a peeled tree trunk! Children play on the lawn that sweeps down to the Potomac River.
If you ENLARGE the image, you can see the tree trunk and read the museum's interpretive label.
Tags: Richardt FerdinandRichardt FerdRichardt MtVernon MountVernon painting oiloncanvas deYoung Museum history slavery shrine MVLAU VA historical president GeorgeWashington display collection fineart precivilwar arthistory MelindaStuart plantation porch columns Victorian Potomac architecture