American People's Journal
November 1848 American People's Journal, Brittan, NYHS bound volume
The Salutatory p.1 emphasizes young people shall be cornerstones of our nation's liberty, and has a landscape to accompany it.
Rosa Meta has lessons in Botany, JW Redfield on physiognomy in dialog form, Prof Whipple, Rev Ambler, FHG (Fannie Green), p. 15 Sarah Le Morne has bio of Banvard, Fanny Green on Niagara which sings the song of Freedom thru the centuries, liberty written in all its light, thy mission is to preach majestic Flood, Before a slavish and enslaving world, Glad tidings of a Higher Liberty--God did not create chains), Brittan, Letters fr a Hollow Tree. C Chauncey Burr. Prof Oldborough on origin of Art, sylvan age
December 1848 JWC on chemistry, a naturalist's portfolio on human behavior in animals, Brittan oration on Who are the Great, those who labor to extinguish war, sunder slavery, end famine, brave pestilence, only the good are great. Stuart on the French Revolution of 1848, it was destined to come. p. 57 Metropolitan sketches, visits American Museum, half a million specimens p. 59 pastoral age. FHG promotes Strong's valentines.
January p65 1849: henry sanford bio of Fulton. Stuart on 1848, natural sequence of ideas and aspirations of France and the world, republicanism, the spirit of the age p87 J Hagen poem, the Culprit, he says a true story, ought to reclaim the fallen not crush them. Brittan: no use developing new territories if aren't also developing are virtue, see Rome. the Ag age. Comstock. needle work. The Irish may have been German Goths not Celts. Brittan: Monuments of the present age are living ones, charity and benevolence.
Feb ends p112 March 1849
- 123 the architectural age. p. 126 The Court of Death, long description of Remb Peale p128 Stuart on Lichfield catheral, Norman gothic, can see where people have been burned for witchcraft and heresy. F Green profile of Mary Tingley. p. 153-4 Cole's voyage of life by HJ Horn, just describes it p. 155 Stuart still on Lichfield, Chantrey's sleeping children, exquisite dream. p159 FHG describes a snow scene by J hagen
April 1849 starts p 161. the Iron Age. May starts p193, millenium will come when nature will be an open book. Fannie Green poem on Dream of Columbus, various scenes of a New World, an inferno, slavery, finally freedom. Allegory by Green p217-18 oak scornful of the storm, pride levelled in the dust, shrinking willow survived. More Iron Age. p. 240 Stuart letters fr Europe, Edinburgh p. 245 Sarah H Whitman poem, Fanny Green on moral influence of Forest scenes p251 article on medallurgy illus with one of Zachary Taylor, article by Green, CC Wright the artist, genius, on reverse is battle of Buena Vista and dates; Scott's medal has 7 battle scenes. Also has small medal of Wm Page, manly and classic features, for Am Art Union and city of NY Wright is doing Trumbull for Art Union.
July starts p 257. Green definitely abolitionist. Stuart letters fr Euro 269, England pays hi taxes, system is biased against the poor; three quarters of people there understand the unfairness p276 Anna Mary Freeman poem
Aug starts p289. praise Father Mathew. p305 Stuart letters fr Euro, enjoyed representation of statuary, had misgivings, but it is impure heart that corrupts--model artists, but he saw the ideals they represented. p314 monumental architecture in US, mounds of Missouri p316 Stuart on St Paul's, more crit of taxes, fine statuary but moral lesson of monuments to generals hallows the sword.
Sept starts p321, p. 322 Stuart letters fr Euro, Vauxhall. Brittan on need for us to remember our social obligations, as in human frame's interdependence p. 350 profile of Anna M Freeman, in Wahington ptg miniatures, inclu President and his daughter Mrs Bliss, rep of being first female artist in the country, love of Beauty and Truth in equilibrium, embellishes fact without lessening its force, true and best character, compositions not mere portraits. Has genius in poetry too, profile by Green, poem Anna wrote to her. p352 Stuart on London churches. p353 Green on october, Oak imperial monarch of the Wood, maple in coat of manny hues, fir and pien hemlock and cedar relieve the eye, birch gallant courtier. p376 Stuart letters fr Europe, Moses and Son clothing estab, Jews widely defamed, a marble palace, success based on modern advertising system. People don't go to church much, despite being so many of them.
Fowler and Wells act for Brittan when he's absent.
American People's Journal of Science, Lit and Art. SB Brittan, E Hoyt printer, vol 1 Jan 1850
frontispiece has temple of the arts, with in base a view of capitol and niagara. editors are Brittan, Rev TL Harris, Fanny Green CD Stuart. 48 pages, $2 year, 18 3/4 cents per issue. Won't be partisan, but Christian ethics. 129 Nassau st, Clinton Hall
p.1, Let there be light, includes a fallen crown, with liberty cap and pole towering over it, sword on ground too, engraved by Strong. Men beginning to think freely and rationally, bringing an end to tyranny in Hungary etc, bold sprit abroad, progress. by SBB
SBB on Psych, there are sirits all around us like sunbeams, we have separate souls tho can't see them. Gives Redfield's lectures on physiognomy, which are sort of like phrenology, where nose is related to Combativeness. thomas L Harris (from Knickerbocker on American art?) writes on the Authority of the Ideal; present age is material, but ideas marshal armies. Behind factory, counting rooms, court, university , press etc are thoughts and ideas, an idea led Columbus and Luther to their discoveries. Despots tremble today because of ideas in Universal Reason, Universal Heart, that the Ideal can mold the Actual. Fanny Green writes poem and story. Brittan writes a bio of CD Stuart, a portrait was to accompany it, but was lost. He worked for Bqrnum, took over as ed of Sun fr Noah. also wrote for 19th c, Knick, Trib, for the New Yorker under Greeley. Harris has a poem on the Transition Age, humanity shall rise. p. 34 Stuart on the Phase of the Age, we are chameleon, not progressive, nor suggestive or inventive or diffusive but transition, a secret what we will be. Law logi philos and relig shifting with domestic utensils. on our broad repub soil we are all kings, invested alike. The news is our pivot, determining our next step. Romanticizes chaste past, only merit now is to throw our ball harder and surer than any other man. Great injustice of castes swept into oblivion, books read by all. No longer any common men, great is the joy of the new breathing millions, air yields to our tread. Our feet are iron, our hands are steel, our breath is steam and our brain lighting. Nor is labor cheap as in the pyramid days. What climax when mtns thrown down and waste places lifted up, but law of kindness to link nation to nation until the Eden of Nature is restored, a true millenium.
p37 Stuart's letters fr Europe, in England, noble oak that sheltered Shakespeare still quivers, but there are vandals who break noses and fingers fr statues and for these the decaying Oak is guarded by iron barriers. Cathedrals gray and univiting as the creeds and charities they dispense, and light cheerful temples of modern times, whose spires re as much more graceful than the Norman Gothic, as our spirits of the Age are kinder and more beaut than theirs
- 39 Prof Oldborough writes on Origin Progress and Influence of Art, seems to be a fable. p42 JK Ingalls on Photog, Thom Gray on Primeval Architecture, Nimrod. Rev Ralph Hoyt contributes poetry and his Sketches of Life fr GP Putnam are reviewed by FHG positively
Feb 1850
more FHG, Prof Whipple, Brittan believes in mental magnetism. Fanny Green's mythic stories cont. p74 Stuart's letters fr Europe, London has troublingly strong contrasts betw the rich and the poor. Illus News of London pub by most unaffable man I know, pillseller fell out with the Weekly Dispatch. harris poem to Shelley. Mrs EA Comstock (wife of JED?) poem. Thom Gray on archit of Egypt
from American Periodicals Series
American People’s Journal-2 issues of 1850
American People’s Journal of Science, Literature and Art, Jan 1850. Cover shows a temple (domed, corinthian columns) with light pouring from an oculus onto allegorical figures of the arts and sciences.
has a bio of Carlos D Stuart by SB Brittan, a self made man, a poet, but less known as a thinker, letters fr Europe and elsewhere on questions of the day as principal editor of NY Sun for last 3 years, have contrib to rep of newspapers, invective agst tyranny. 28 years, b in Vermont, include a portrait engraving. Vermont also produced Saxe and Wilcox, verse that will live without the aid of cage of Griswold’s Poets. Early had a friend who was a member of the NY Legislature and then Congress, knew Greeley editing New Yorker to which Stuart had contributed, tried to get Stuart a job there. found a patron in a fellow Vermonter on Wall st, Duncan C Pell. Joined a literary club that Greeley was in too. Universalist. Hired by Barnum, sent around the world, corresponded with Sun, Trib, a relig and a sci journal of New York. Major Noah had been editing the NY Sun, but was invited to replace him. Also writes for Quarterly and Monthly Mags, the Nineteenth Century and the Knickerbocker, and poems for Trib. Has a lucrative govt post thanks to his political labors. Delights in works of art. Not married. Gives his Song of the Captive as example of his noble thoughts, seeks liberty and tyrants will fly aghast. His Essays on Art now publishing in this journal. Portrait is by Wm Walcott, also a fine poet as well as disting artist.
Stuart’s article in this issue is The Phase of the Age, Rabelais’ peasants turned kings are no longer nightmare of the pleasantest kind, nor idle day dreams. On our braod repub soil we are all kings, the great injustice of castes swept into oblivion, the mountain peril that stalked up, grim and dark, has dwindled to a sand hill. great is the joy of the freed, we have the elements now at our will, our feet are iron, our hands are steel, our breath is steam and our brain lightning. mountains cast down, and waste places lifted up, Eden restored. Also have his letters from Europe (England), describes the noble Oak that sheltered and shadowed Shakespeare, still quivers its leaves, few would vandalize it, and so it is guarded by iron barriers.
Thomas L Harris, Polite Literature: The Authority of the Ideal, all outward action is the result of inward life, an invisible and organizing force. present Age is material, temper undervalues. whatever is abstract or ideal, political economists as well as the unlettered multitude, forget that ideas rule the world, what seemed like harmless speculations to aristocrats caused the French revolution when they fell into the magazine of popular discontent. Mighty factory is just filaments of a dreamer’s brain (Watt and Arkwright), but New Industrial Order has throned itself on the feudalism of the Past. It is to the gratification of ideal, abstract emotion that the lscape, the heavens, the poem, the statue, etc minister. It is for their power to quicken the ideal life within that the creations of art are honored. It was a pale and bodiless Idea that bore Columbus, caused Luther’s defiance and today makes the Despots of Europe tremble in their palaces, cower in the charnel house that they have made
JK Ingalls has explanation of photography. FHG reviews Hoyt’s poetry book from Putnam’s, likes it. Fanny Green seems the only female writer.
Feb 1850: CDS’s Letters fr Europe, no pic or statuary equal to real life. In London struck by contrast betw palace and hovel, is it fate? can’t be, all born the same, nor free will. a conventional arrangement betw Weakness and Strength, which Strength wrote. God made the cartoon, we have colord the fresco. The sunshine and fortune that shld be in the foregrd are cast clear back, out of common reach, while the clouds and tempests, the mtns and desert, stalk in the very front, blighted potatoe fields of Ireland not amiss in the scene. We should be grateful to be middling comfortable, middling well off, middling good, middlinghappy—so many are not.
Thomas Gray doing a series on architecture, primeval and historical. Mrs EA Comstock writing, and a review of a pamphlet by JED Comstock, moral lessons. Says Forest Pictures by J Barker is a lovely piece of woodland ptg.
Prospectus promises Four Allegorical Pictures representing the seasons will be given during the year. Thom L Harris and CDS associate editors. no party or sect, but Christian. Pub 129 Nassau st, Clinton Hall, SB Brittan. Quotes good reviews fr Noneteenth Century, Francis H Green (Fanny Greenb?) the editor with Brittan. The Golden Rule, Hunt’s Merchant mag, the Charter Oak praises Mrs Green too.