Holden's Dollar Magazine
Holdens Dollar Magazine on APS 1848-1850 (editor CF Briggs?)
Jan 1848: Introductory is flowery; have article on The Ideal transl fr German. Editor’s Topics of the month notes that ed Colton of Am Rev and Whig Journal died, has been assisted by Whelpley and remains managing editor assisted by Peck, who was one of the editors of the C&E; polit editor is DD Barnard of Albany but also written by Greeley and JP Kennedy. Dem Rev sold to H Wikoff, who estab the Republic, with Duff Green, short lived; new proprietor of Dem Rev reduced price and gave it to financial writer Kettell who wrote for the Herald. Columbian still prospering under John Inman tho Israel Post withdrew to do Union Mag with Mrs Kirkland (Mary Clavers) and TH Matteson. $3 tribe of mags value themselves on their pics, but we appeal to mind not eye. day of pictorial mags numbered, taste for gd pics increasing, demand higher oder of art, not a few indiff engraving, thanks to Am AU. Astor Place opera hse trying to enforce white gloves. EQ Judson or Ned Buntline, navy officer, western paper, mysteries and miseries of NY. HP Grattan now living here, publishing the Age, involved in original getting up of Punch, an actor and editor, acting at Park theater too. Like Thackeray and D Jerrold too. In art, Page’s Ruth looking for a room, Greek Slave of Powers going to Boston, Banvard exhib, Mres Pelby’s scriptural wax figs still exhib. Henry C Watson editing Am Musical Times. says friends with ed of Knick.
Feb: Editors excerpt fr Mirror on opera house, people go to listen to the people not the singers, who make lots of errors, compares it to an amateur expatiating on a steamboat portrait as a speaking likeness quite equal to Reynolds or Claude Melnotte. Page first of Am ptrs, best head of Bryant yet, port of son of Taggart surpasses loveliness anything we’ve seen, harmonious richness of coloring and composition, blue velvet tunic and scarlet flowers of exotic plant. Ny full of artists, a large community, ought to band themselves together for mutual assistance and profit but divided into cliques and clubs, or alone wrapped in pride and importance. NAD with greatest pretensions and least talen have club in Broadway called the Century, small artists with great pretensions and small authors with great reputations. young artists with more genius have formed themselves into sketch clubs, one is the Art Re Union meets weekly , Matteson, Duggan, Dunnell; NY Sketch Club Richards, Cafferty, Cummings and Panica?, Fanshawe, Church, Wotherspoon, Greatorex, TH Smith, EH May, Stearns Hagan and Miss LA Sprague, high talent and elevated imag, but think shld pick definite subj rather than word like Past or Hope. another sketch club of amateurs authors and artists older members, Bryant, leupp, Edmonds, Durand, Chapman, Cole, Gray, Cozzens and Verplanck. New Athenaeum hotel at Leonard st and Broadway, Metropolitan Club, Major Noah pres, Adam Stoddart treasurer, secty is James F Otis of the Express aka Gemotice. Clubs on Broadway inclu Union of old Knickerbockers, NY Club of fah young gents, Rackett club of parvenus next to Niblos.
Lit World has series of articles on Fine Arts addresssed to the Smithsonian, agree with them. Banvard no great merit as a pic, but a grand lscape ptg, sublime views of actual voyage, ought to do Broadway
Washington Monument: grand scheme, when finished all the world will be Fourrierites and Broadway will be swept clean. Managers indefatigable, once a mo pub new litho design alwa a Gothic church tower and alw by Pollard, who perseveres in making designs that are never accepted and trustees appeals never responded to.
penny a liners retailing scandal abt Dickens and Eugene Sue. Charge agst latter was that he refused to sit to a young Am artist commissioned by Albert Brisbane, Thos Hicks on his way to Rome, why shouldn’t he decline sitting to an unknown artist who might caricature him. Webster frequently refuses. Elliot commission to paint Webster for gman of this city and can’t get sitting. Z Taylor bust by Garbeille, portraits of Brown and dag give an idea of him, highly praise. Forrest building a mansion. Sorry Park ftn to be fenced in.
Dow Jr is witty; loves Lowell. don’t like Jane Eyre. likes Ruskin in No Am Rev.
Mar 1848: Wm Gilmore Simms on Chev Bayard wretched. Editorial: Mrs Gaines used to lecture on horrors of war with her husband, the General a laughable plan of defense. Dad a speculator in N Orleans, questions of the legitimacy of her birth and inheritance of his money. Granite bldg to be turned into hotel by Howards, across fr Steart’s store. Geo E Watriss of Astor hse now running St Charles. Tremont hse and Croton hotel both temperance. Genl Quitman a Demo, former lawyer and clergyman, sister is Quackenboss. Lewis’ Indian Portrait Gallery ptd in Wash exhib Broadway, spent time in west before Catlin, sketches fr originals, no great claims as works of art, but authentic, public favourite is reminiscences of Indian warfare and revolution. Like Leigh Hunt. Officers of Colored Orphan Asylum, Anna Shotwell, Eliz Bowne, Meta Brevoort, Mary Day, Mary Howland, Marg Roosevelt, MA Varick and others. Collyer’s Model Artists hosts of imitators, indecent rascality under name of classicality, refined immorality like licentious Paris, idle and dissolute frequenters. Christy’s negro minstrelsy free fr slightest indecorum. Quotes Bishop Doane at some length on what a gman is, a man first.
The Fine Arts: NAD will be good, Page finest ports and grand hist ptg Ruth, Elliott many fine, Boyle not yet had just reward, full length of Bishop Hughes in sacerdotal robes. Mentions favorably a colossal head of Christ by Greenough, Mozier’s Pocahontas. Cites Comm Advert and Eve Mirror on Boydell’s shakespeare gall, West pics formerly in old Acad of FA, now plates owned by Dr Spooner. Mirror compares Boydell’s efforts to pay artists to produce great works, which failed, to Congress bribing our ptrs for Rotunda. Art U J splendid illus period, highest lit and artistic ability, reliable on Old World, immense value, edited by SC Hall whose accomplished lady a reg contributor. (both publish a lot in Dollar and Bro Jon, I think).
Cooper Bee Hunter. TB Thorpe, author of the Bee Hunter, doing Life of Genl Taylor, a personal friend. Praises Banvard.
Thom Cole greatest of Am lscape ptrs, American in every respect but birth, wilderness his best subj. Pics lack depth of color and atmosphere, skies often flat and hard, pics lack tone, but all in all no ptr who can do so well.
April 1848: portrait of WC Bryant, compare to Shakespeare; series on familiar faces and places abt Gotham on J Evans’ Shades, houses of entertainment, comfortable taverns, several with name Shades, this is the one in Reade st, engravingsoften of England and the Queen, a spaniel, Wellington. Original account of the discovery of the Mississippi, gold seeker, inhumane to Indians, second only to Columbus in greatness. Theo Parker’s letter on slavery: manly and intelligent, matter of statistics, mangles foul thing, we needed no info and have found nothing new, but know great majority of our people have previously shut their eyes agst the light, hope it will find its way into every hse in Union. Fanny Forrester sprang into lit existence thanks to friendship of disting member of the press, pet among Mags.
Editorial: death of JQAdams, many ports in circ, one of best fr fine dag by Anthony; Wm Page in Faneuil Hall finest. Broadway theater reduced admission fr $1 to fifty cents, made a hit with Boucicault’s comedies London Assurance and Old Heads and Young Hearts, frivolous, repartee absurdities, but good audiences with a low standard of taste. Chanfrau taken over the Chatham (he was formerly at Olympic), has been doing higher class pieces, audience mostly apprentice boys, relig teachers shld let them go.
Model artists: pop in Euro, degenerated here, but ought to allow people to regulate their own amusements, shouldn’t indict them. Wash monument: lots of models published, stupendous proportions impracticable, take centuries to complete. One idea of an immense globe prob fr plan of Wm Wallace recently published, Eve Mirror says of it it is poetry fr bottom to top, statue of Wash at apex. Holdens thinks it’s ridiculous, age of monuments past, mends deeds preserved in books, cant add to his name, nation already spent thous for effigy of a naked giant, folly enough, age is utilitarian. Glad Wash Irv is writing life of Wash, sorry to be illus by Chapman, not their equal. Mocks Cornelius Mathews a little.
Exhib NAD opened, best among pics by Page. Likes Sci Am. Italian opera singer at Palmo’s has run off with a son of Col Thorn, palatial hse on 5th ave. Garbeille who did capital busts and statuettes of Genl Taylor, now in NY, making burlesques in plaster. Fren man of genius, studient of Thorwaldsen, came to NO 3 years ago. Dealer had dishonesty to copy his bust of Taylor and hawked them like Wash and Jackson on streets, didn’t know he needed a copyright.
Praise Home J, and Fuller of Eve Mirror, whose theater critic is esp good. Genin hats.
May 1848: Series on lit greats continues with Longfellow. Prefer to imitate foreigners not help natives. Story of The Artist’s First Work. OS Fowler’s new archiectural work, novel and excellent. Wuthering Heights not as good as Jane Eyre.
Editorial: all anyone talks of is French revolution, gives a letter fr a lady in Paris, people are a dirty tribe who march to Marseillais and Girondins, boulevards look like the Bowery, balls not well attended. Love Lowell in Anti Slavery Standard. In NY Comte d’Orsay’s equest port of Vic, with bust of Blessington and statue of Daniel O Connell, remarkable for an amateur, not a mere danddy, uncommon merit as a ptg of queen, lscape v beaut with Windsor in distance.
NAD rich in gd pics, Page Elliot Kensett Gignoux Durand Bingham Mount and Huntington most striking. Bingham finest piece of pictorial char, Western Stump orator, purely American, tho inferior to some of Mount’s best, quite equal to his finest compositions. Genuine Yankees of the West, at about equal removes fr nature, figs look enough alike to belong to one family, but variety of expression shows effect of words on their minds. Mount’s two peculiar pics are much inferior to his usual. Page’s Orpah Naomiand Ruth finest ever exec by Am, infiintely superior to any other in exhib, portraits also remarkable, unsurpassable excellence. Capital port of old man by Elliot, excellent one of Halleck the poet and Mrs Steele the poetess, a TX ranger truth of char, ex Gov Wright by Whitehouse for Gov rm of city not good, no great value. Reduced price paid fr usual for Wright and Mayor Havemeyer, so poorest rather than best artists doing them. Durand illus of Bryant’s Ftn great beauty, but he sees Nature thru a yellow medium, like Claude’s JT Peele’s Ftn full of rustic innocence sweetness purity simplicity grandeur, destined to first rank, Rustic Toilet, polished manner. Kensett Subiaco. FE Church marvellous beauty. EH May port lady great merit. Credits higher standard amg pic buyers, if people want trash, they will get it.
Astor ought to have given Halleck a bigger annuity. Notices Dietz & Bros and Fowler and Wells; Island City pub 75 Chatham st, Smith and Adams
June 1848: profile of Halleck, Red Jacket. Legare’s poetry chaste and correct, no genius or originality. Editorial: in July will start 6-12 woodcuts. Admire Thackeray as a satirist. Drama turned to local interest pieces, Brougham’s Romance and Reality not v gd but one char of lady impatient of conventional restraint good, like Geo Sand, wrote for the reviews and smoked cigars, wore pantaloons. Olympic and Chatham facsimiles of lower strata in Catharine Market, Bowery, peculiar indig pop. better class of people go to the Luceum not the theater. Bowery doing Corn Mathews new tragedy. Astor opera hse collapsed, tried principle of protection in matter which needs laissez faire, but African Opera, lowest circle of musical art, v successful, true at NAD too where worst performances attract most attn, mediocre receive more patronage than highest order. Like likes like. Page’s Ruth pure lofty simple natural faultless grand, been pronounced by many self styled writers ignorant of the subj as destitute of merit, and lavish praise on poorest ptgs. Tastes don't differ, cultivated tastes alw agree, want of taste causes strange judgments
July 1848: profile of Richd Henry Dana, poem to a Lady’s miniature, ‘Motley Manners’ profiles Geo Lippard, sophomoric, but glimpses of true and noble, grieve obscured by dirt. perverted taste of reader. Dedicates a book to Henry Clay. Profile of Lamartine.
Editorial has some woodcuts, a dapper but melancholy man abt town, a flashy man smoking a giant cigar while an urchin picks his pocket. Lit and art wedded; Putnam doing Wash Irving with Darley. Like Genin’s history of the hat, illustrates it. Time not far when won’t think of importing pics fr abroad any more than coarse cottons or corn. Illus mound builder artifacts.
Chatham and Olympic showing common sights and sounds of streets of NY, almost driven off the staple Cockneyisms. Art of puffing now consists in abusive epithets, denounce into notoriety; publishers who write book notices even start out cant recommend book due to its immorality. Artist does series of fancy portraits of French legislators, puns on their names mostly. Orr and Richardson doing their engravings.
Goupil’s new Pic Gall, finest of mod Fr school o art Scheffer and de la Roche, Mount’s Power of Music. Am AU gallery attractive, finest productions by late Cole, purchased Course of Empire
Aug: engr and desc of Blenheim. Profile of CF Hoffman. doing a series of Pulpit portraits. Quackery of homeopathy et al. Parke Godwin gd transl of Goethe. Editorial: Day Book pub by Dr Bacon is v lively but sometimes rather stinging. Mocks the incorrectness of a pano of NYC by Fenton of London. Wm Wallace poem to NYU. Holden is CW Holden.
Sept 1848: has engr on cover. Sigma pulpit portrait of HW Beecher: 2 gd things in this world, a gd speech and a gd ptg, both represent ideas, must have meaning, result of mental workings, colors according to ideal image, not servile copyist but sketcher of own vivid conceptions, orator the same,bring out inner thoughts in bold relief and beaut harmony, must have skill with paint and language, amd both must be ture to nature, study human; must be good men. Healy in Paris says no gd artist without being a Xtian; Cole man can’t be true artist without being a relig man. Beecher a good word painter, antithesis, contrasts, painful distinctness, strong light and shade, vivid. Critical of H Martineau. Likes Chas Edw Lester, supports intl copyright. New weekly? Western Continent adapted to tastes of the south, tho lit is national, ably eddited, Garland and Donaldson, excellent crit on Headly.
Oct 1848: Editorial: Frederick Gaillardet left Paris in difficulty, N Orleans in debt, became ed and proprietor of struggling Courrier des Etats Unis, last winter sold out for $50,000 and returns to Paris as a lion. Praise native artist S Ellis a cameo cutter, medalion portraits in plaster, Alston and Stuart for Am AU, also Page the artist Clay and Taylor; Broadway and Murray st among ptrs architects sculptors dags tailors and other laborers in fine art who live there. If had a foreign name, would be acclaimed by our virtuosi
Nov: likes Orville Dewey (writes for Xtian Inquirer?). Praises Fable for the Critics pub by Putnam. Moderate praise for Mrs Ellet. HW Herbert grandson of an earl. Crit of gimcracks of Am Inst fair, shouldn’t exhibit comforters and patch work quilts hung around the galleries as tho they were the most edifying works of art, no propriety in exhib such specimens of domestic manufactures, nor crayon drwgs of school children. Fair doesn’t encourage industry or ingenuity.
December: profile of Willis. charitable abt Fourier. CB Burckhardt’s transl of Fairy tales, illus by W Walcutt and JH Cafferty. Crit says designs are indiff exec, add little to its value, but at least are orig, something encourages art more than academies and art unions, lets men make money out of it. Editorial: next year will start series of engr of Am scenery by most eminent Am lscape ptrs, first fr Cole. CF Hoffman no longer ed of Lit World, will write more romances. Likes Howard’s Irving House. Like Mathews’ Yankee Blade. Poem to Westmacott’s Psyche
1849
Jan: CW Holden’s Hour on Broadway, various types. Park Benjamin’s True Love, Wm Wallace’s song. Satire by Motley Manners, with Darley illus, of other poets
. Cole’s View on Genesee. WHC Hosmer on Keats. Nice full length portrait of Greeley, with a bust behind him, and profile by Holden; excerpts Greeley’s Tendencies of Modern Civ. Holden also has a poem. As does Duganne, and Wm Hubbard. Likes Knox’s races of men. Sigourney popular. Mixed review of RH Stoddard. JH Richardson now a separate establishment from Orr & Richardson, 90 Fulton st. Chas W Holden bookseller ad. Ad for mag cites Greeley’s Tribune, notes editors who publish the prospectus and notice the mag will get a bound volume and Darley’s portrait of Greeley. Editorial: Chas King now commercial editor of C&E, formerly of NY American. Like Mrs Kirland. Sun circ abt 35,000 daily, Moses Beach for some years the responsible editor, we grew up with his partner, Alfred E Beach, warmest hearted friends. Rash of publications promising NY as it is, better titled NY as it aint, exaggerated vilest haunts of vilest people, no good purpose. Morand’s dags. Cites Spirit of the Times.
Feb 1849 cover: still lists Holden as editor, 109 Nassau st. Fancy frontispiece, lion and eagle, alleg fig of liberty, as pediment above classical temple with inset scene of natives watching approaching western ships on promontory. JW Orr also advertising, with bro N Orr, 75 Nassau. Weekly Evening Mirror advertises, addresses Readers of Refined Taste Exclusively, Scientific American also advertises, and Yankee Blade (Mathews, Stevens & Co in Boston). Holden is selling the port of Greeley. JH Richardson’s engr of Oregon city.Profile of Cooper. Orr portrait of Emerson. Rev EH Chapin, faulty manner, but earnest and good. Anne Lynch good but not great, Darley Durand Huntington and Rothermel voluntarily presented designs for her book, devoted to humanitarian reform. Epes Sargent amiable. Merry Mount by Park benj bro. GPR James useless. Holden is going to Calif to check it out. new weekly Nation by TD’Arcy Meagher, Irish patriot, funny on Greeley. Likes Fanny Osgood’s poem abt lions of NY by Putnam.
Mar 1849 engr Niagara with viewers. Mrs SC Hall story. Robt F Greeley writes for them, also Augustine JH Duganne. Editorial: Like Emerson. Peck, was once assoc with C&E, wrote abt Calif as Cantel A Bigly. Don’t underrate the intelligence of your subscribers wld be a most becoming inscription for the managerial rm of the Art-Union, other people have eyes and understandings as well. Lit World now in hands of Duyckincks greatly improved.
April 1849: Tale of a Swedenborgian. NY in Slices: GG Foster, originator of peculiar style of journalism called City Items, jocose pleasant writer, colored by own fancy, views all things in a l’allegro light, slice on press of NY is one of his best. Editorial: we do nothing for art beyond a few pics for rotunda at Wash and marble statue of Wash, whereas Nat Assembly votes aid to artists of Paris, more for commissions for public edifices, embellishing Louvre, and they are a Democracy. revolutionists of Feb 1848 cut up all the modern historical artworks that had to do with Louis Philippe, Vernet artist most injured, Robert too, and some of Gericault and Prudhon. hard to figure out their position on women’s rights.
May 1849 Layard’s Nineveh, accompanied by Miner Kellogg, pub by Putnam, better than Stephens and Melville, K showed us his drawings. Don’t symp with Robt Dale Owen’s admiration of the Gothic, expression of earnest but rude nature, but today a sham and deceit, costly and solemn frippery, without sincerity or devotion. Editorial: Dr Bacon of Day book defending the Puritans. NAD suffering fr AU compet, Chas Deas has a strange and startling ptg, his Long Jake attracted attn some years since, has been in insane asylum, painted this vision of Hell, chills blood, finished in style he never approached before, extreme nicety, naked youth falling into a pit, Ingham’s port Mrs Little wife of famous broker, lovely. Wm Page’s Dr Chilton the chemist never excelled, dignity.
Am AU happy instance of benefit of combination to promote interests, no princes in Am, AU supplied their place, democratic, engravings are worth subscription price, ones for 1848 best yet, Huntington’s Queen Mary and Darley; journal v gd. JW Orr brought together band of artists for pano of Hudson, will be magnif, West Point splendid
Jun 1849 cover engr is view of Lake George, Lake House owned by JF Sherrill of state leg. Charlotte Corday. Enna thoughts on Broadway. Curren France. Melville’s Mardi, he is a poet. Editorial: engr shows writer in attic, candle. Editor met Hoffman in company with Schoolcraft in Washington, another prizewinner in Whig lottery office is Chas Lanman as librarian of War Dept, also placed is EG Squier
Jul 1849: Marat. Thaddeus W Meighan. JT Headley Life in Woods, popular, destitute of novelty, hacknied, orig pub in Tribune, now with drwgs by Ingham Gignoux Hill and Durand. Renwick designs for hideous ftn in Bowling Green, merit as architect is pictque designs, fitness use dignity economy and simplicity ignored altogether, all his designs bizarre, belfries with no bells, reprehensible disgraceful design for Smithsonian, national bad taste, supports by Robt Dale Owen, approved by Edw Everett, Gov Kemble and Judge Kane. View of Falls of Genessee in January by Cole is owned by Prosper M Wetmore of this city. lots on poet Campbell. women care for flounces not mind. Like Thoreau.
Aug 1849
Editorial: excerpts fr Lowell in No Am Review on nationalism in lit debarring us of share in the past and ideal, a principle that operates as a prohibitory tariff of ideas, nationality only a form of provincialism, deals in jokes, anecdotes and allusions of purely local character, shuts out a majority fr understanding them. Praises Elliot’s port of Lewis Gaylord and Willis Clark in Knick, engr by Cheney. Likes Kossuth
Sept: editor subbing for Holden quarrels with Duganne. Oct: praise Trib, employs high order of talent, differ fr its general principles of extreme liberalism. Chas A Dana writes on Euro politics, lit editor Geo Ripley enviable for his belles lettres crit, but both believe in Fourier
Nov: CW Holden dies in Calif Jun 30, age 23; from Massachusetts, connected with the Evening Mirror. EPC a reviewer. Likes F Bremer, Metropolis, Christian Inquirer. Israel Post also died in California, did Columbian and the Union and American Metropolitan, all lost money, but Holdens liked him. Doings of our Artists: Art Unions immense amt of good, Goupil starts new one, a feud and newspaper war, but their competition will be good, full value in engraving. American Inst doing same thing for Mechanic Arts. Pics not luxuries for the rich, but educate and refine, fine and useful art are allied, wealth derives fr cultivation of the mind, as in merchandise we import from France. England is founding free academies and public galleries to cultivatelaboring people. Indiv enterprise does it here, thru pop illustrated works as well as AU.
Dec: profile of Geo Morris. Death of Poe, an intellectual machine without a balance wheel, not a good critic, maligned friends
1850
Jan: new cover, cherubs support the dollar, no more temple, Charles F Briggs as editor. (may have taken over earlier when Holden went to Calif?). Mulchinock new fave poet. H Fowler trib to Holden: met him 17 mo ago, had ltd educ, came to NY in 1844 and Alfred Beach helped him out, worked in Sun, then Mirror, then interest in Island City. While working at Mirror praised Genl Morris as kindly. Among his writings for the mag were Mynheer Johannes Schmidt, Border Bullets, poetical contrib A Felloe. Melville interesting but faulty. author of Jane Eyre half woman half monster. Darley without a rival.
Feb 1850 engr of Starrucca viaduct on NY and Erie rrd, also a Rocky mtn scene fr Fremont. profile of Tom Corwin. Dietz poem
March: engr of Katerskill falls, sketched for the mag, doesn’t say by who. describes. Ellet excerpt. The Storm King by Longcliffe. JJ Bailey and Wm Wallace the poet editing new paper The Two Worlds. poet Saxe got start in Knick. April: likes Henry James. JT Headley and Griswold enemies.
May: Alice Cary, Rk Stoddard. more on Gertrude of Wyoming in earlier issues. Yankee Nation, Hotchkiss &Co advertises. like Melville White Jacket and Hawthorne.
June like Bayard Taylor. To our readers and correspondents: after uninterupted 2 ½ years as editor, began with beginning of work, relinquish his post; has also been pursuing other work. The Muse is a young lady of Ohio. New literary editor not a stranger, regular contributor, and proprietor Dietz done more in selection and judgment of articles; the editor mostly done reviews and brief communications with readers. New ed is Henry Fowler. will have more crits on fine arts.
July is silver cascade of white mtns, fr Doughty, with word-ptg by Willis. Story by Mrs. N. Orr. N Orr has weird classical Minerva unveiling vice, after Thorvaldsen, noble conception, highest purposes, appeals to moral sentiments of our nature. Bad satire on transcendentalists. like Jenny Lind, GG Foster has bio. Briggs is back in charge of lit dept of Mirror under Fuller, on art architecture and local sketches in Tom Peppery style, Home J say he is unsurpassed.
Aug 1850: long appreciation of Wordsworth, age doesn’t understand him, Miniature Art-Union successful. magnif port of Col Fremont for Gallery of Illus Americans, sketch of him by Lester brilliant effort.
Sept: long praise of Landseer (the challenge, noble stag, the combat, result), truthfulness, air of vitality, force of expression, artist produces appearance of reality more vivid and deeper interest than reality itself. A beaut lscape a more rapturous gaze than the lscape itself. Gen Taylor v great, v sad he’s gone. Admire Marg Fuller, copy obit fr Tribune, where she was a critic fr autumn 1844-1846, crit on current lit, art music etc, inclu Longfellow, Poe.
Oct Bayard Taylor v pop withf ellows. Putnam’s Gall of Illus Ams has Audubon and Prescott.
Nov: like Chas B Sedgwick. wants contribs to let them know if male or female. like jenny lind. notices Am Inst
Dec 1850: port of Daniel O’Connell, glowing bio of him by Rev giles. JW Orr will engr a view of Hudson for frontispiece of Jan.
Dollar Magazine 1851 Feb-Dec APS
Feb: on Humboldt. Like Alton Locke. JT Headley story coming.
Mar: have engravings, city view of SF, engr is Richardson, Bulwer portrait engr Avery. like Whittier, Sedgwick, but Wide Wide World is bad tho moral good. Recommends John Timon’s Lorgnette, Poe’s Literati, and Ike Marvel’s Reveries of a Bachelor, satire on real life, brilliant if erratic genius’s crit, personal malice but correct judgment. Our connection as Editors and Proprietors of magazine close with present number, Dietz’s mercantile business grown, no time for Holden’s, he had joined it to assist his friend Holden who died. Fowler was editor after Holden. Passing it on to brothers Duyckinck. they say in their prospectus, pleasure and novelty, unsectional, original material.
April: replacing Holden’s Dollar mag, no fashion plate, a five dollar mag for a cheap price, don’t believe it’s only humbug that is popular, will have Am authors. Familiar talk: Jerome Thompson good sized ptg festivity of dinner in old homestead somewhere in Mass a couple hundred years ago, turkey fine lady beau country girl rustic etc. tupper.
May has Hawthorne story, Prescott portrait by Chas Martin, Daniel Huntington pictures of ptrs, on Leo and Michael angelo. Familiar talk with our readers says they only started the New Dollar a month ago. Emily Hermann The brother’s miniature.
Jun: mentions Copway, Willis, and an artist in lscape and published poet, writes Flit Corresp in his brother’s excellent Southern Lit Gazette, confirms gifts of a friend, T Addison Richards. Annual festival of Artists’ Sketch Club, Hagan, Cafferty, Walcutt. Bayard Taylor, Alice Cary, Catharine Beecher. Praise John Bigelow’s Jamaica by Putnam, Willis, EB Browning. HF is author of Editor’s table? Praises Putnam’s demo symp and caustic satire in Beranger’s poems, Cooper, Huntington’s intro to Putnam book on art erudite and poetical, female author. Like Jenny Lind, Richard S Willis
Jul: Like Tupper, Copway, Corn Mathews writes for them. defends Amer dags at Cryst Pal; Brady better than any in England.
Aug: defends Am manuf fr England, they are the coarse ones, we are more French. Catharine Hayes. Familiar talk with our readers: an artist friend visits the Catskills, Cropsey’s studio, describes Peace and War, promises more on them next spring; Illustrated News neighbor of Sun, ed Chas D Stuart and publishes his poetry, senior ed there is Fairman, they like Stuart; Wm Walcutt artist-poet publishing in July Republic, ed by Col Whitney, excellent pub.
Sept: Halleck poem. EAD doing excursion narratives. Editorial: letter fr Erastus Brooks in Portland, fond of nature, trees as monarchs. Likes Mrs Ellet.
Oct: A Oakey Hall, Chas Lanman, excerpt Francis Parkman. Editors: Am Art Union opens, pleasant Olla Podrida reception, Cozzens.
Nov: Leutze, loves it; Healy more mixed, tasteful rather than forceful, anachronisms like introducing Couture, Longfellow, Hone. CD Stuart pub. Editorial excerpts new weekly NY Reveille, mocks Home J, like Haas dags, HW Herbert, Bay Taylor, Stoddard
Dec: Diary of John Adams. Jerome Mabey poem on Art. Washington Irving. Schoolcraft’s memoirs. Moby Dick. CA Bristed. Kossuth and the Artists of NY, letter to Mayor of NY Kingsland, offering free services for designs or decorative works for reception of Kossuth. Leutze says he and others will decorate hall with tableau alleg and typical or other such way, don’t want to explain the design or destroy effect, but artists involved are Vincent Colyer, Kensett, Lang, TA Richards, Walcutt, Kyle, Blauvelt, Thos Hicks, TP Rossiter, CP Cranch,Gifford, RW Hubbard, Cafferty, Rayner
North American Miscellany and Dollar Magazine, Sept 1851 (new series, no 1)-Jun 1852 on APS
Sept 1851: Eliza Cook. mostly reprints, have a Chronicle of Passing Events. Willis and Martin the artist etc are at New Bedford and Newport. Thackeray brilliant. Industrial exhibition, exquis English carving by Rogers a superb buffet; Milanese sculpture has exquis finish, amazons and nests of cupids, magical veils. Putnam’s Home Book and Home Beauty bid to eclipse all. Also Kennedy’s Swallow Barn.
Oct: powers’ Eve recovered. Disapprove of Lopez in Cuba. Notice death of demo Levi Woodbury of NH. Am AU distrib postponed. Alfred Street book on Am scenery. Greenough’s statue of type of triumph over barbarism for capitol highly spoken of. Praise Putnam books again with Irving, Cooper Bryant and Charles Martin illus. Like Bayard Taylor, mention Greeley. Page Gray Huntingdon and Duggan in Euro, Mooney may go to Dusseldorf, Leutze back
Nov article with illus of Cryst Pal. Approves Am Inst, tribute to Cooper, Catharine Hayes great, a little critical of Father Mathew’s debts. Banvard. Kossuth eloquent in Eve post. Richd S Greenough, Crawford’s Patrick Henry. Queen Vic has port of Martha Wash. T B Read in London for illu ed of his poems. Mrs Ellet, HW Herbert
Dec: Kossuth, Leigh Hunt on arts of Italy, Alice Cary, Wm R Wallace, 251,323 immig arrived at port of NY during first nine months of 1851. Supports Cryst Pal in NY. NY has 15 daily papers, pop of 700,000. Aztec children, believe in them. Like Ik Marvel. Praise Eve Post. Lit World anecdotes of Cooper fr friend Dr Francis, circle inclu Halleck, Chancellor Kent, Verplanck, Wiley, Jack Downing or CA Davis, Chas King pres of Columbia, JW Jarvis the ptr, the Duers. Like Hildreth, Bayard Taylor, Putnam. Cites Boston Athenaeum on Moby Dick as absurd. GP Morris Woodman spare that tree. Walter Savage Landor. Polit farce of reeclection of Louis Napoleon, really imperial despotism. Turner’s death, big fortune, ptgs range up to $7000. Duggan has brought casts of Elgin marbles to NY free academy, paid for by Chas Leupp and board of ed. Typog society dinner Chas King of Columbia, Irving, Dr Francis presided, Simeon Draper etc. Bancroft’s history.
long description of Society of the Iron Man, a mutual benefit society that includes annual steel engraving, journal, 8 cents per week, Augustus Duganne, wants to found libraries and a university; Iron man in iron of masses of mankind asserting right of humanity to Life lib and happiness, masses are the ore of the body politic, education will shape and elevate it into more glorious than gold.
1852
Jan: excerpt fr Trib. Series on Am scenery? Squier’s Niagara good. Editorial: appeals to friends of Holden and the Dollar, which unified with the No Am Misc., hope will renew. From Trib account of artists in Europe: Crawford, has done Pat Henry, working on Jefferson, admired by all the foreign artists, Jefferson severe stately thoughtful foot upon broken chain. Mozier, R Greenough, Bartholomew, Rogers Ruth and Cupid, Powell nearly done with De Soto. Geo W Curtis Howadji on Syria. Life of Marg Fuller. Sattler’s cosmorama.
Feb: Geo bancroft on Prescott. Thorvaldsen story, Allston story. Notices Eng and Am artists doing private theatricals in Rome, WW Story and Lowell there. John Frazee died. Marochetti’s wash coming here. Chapman small pieces in Rome, Freeman’s great Three Marys, universal admiration, Terry’s Jacob’s Dream, highly educated artist, GL Brown pics for Crawford the sculptor, his ptgs worth more than all the rest of the lscapes in the exhib. Inness wildest enthus, excel those of any other, place among Claudes Poussins and Vernets. Hall sent to AU head of Ital shepherd boy and Roman wine cart, former v gd and latter will please. Saunders, Freeland and Von Patten.
March: more on fuller, excerpts NY Times on Frazee, died working on his bust of Gen Jackson. Takes fr Nat Intelligencer essay on Florence, Powers modeling without clay but plaster, wish Congress would order his colossal America and replace ten pin player on eastern portico. Editorial: annual exhib of Modern artists open at Palais Royal, more than 1200 ptgs and almost 300 wculptures, 1300 rejected by jury, most celeb artists Scheffer Ingres and de la Roche not in it. Vernet’s Siege of Rome is foremost pic. Dela Roche’s Napoleon at Stuyvesant attracts attn, most painful, strong man cast down, heart is made sad in looking at this noble conception of greatness in the dust; Brackett’s Shipwrecked Mom in there too, perfect representation but real body not present, arms unnaturally twisted flaccid in death, limbs swollen as with drowned, strong will but exhausted frame
April: Amer Scenery, views in White mtns, describes Chocorua legend, Willis on Silver cascade. Editorial: excerpts Home J. on female water colorists in London, and Nat Inst of Fine Arts exhib in London no pics of great char except one by Am Glass, Maclise’s Alfred is v fine, Hunt’s Hireland Shepherd promising. HK Brown’s equestrian statue of Wash exciting interest. Lists works NY Cryst Pal will have, statues of Wash and Webster by Carew, Monti etc. Royal Acad has no Landseer, Stanfield highly praised as is Creswick and Roberts, sculp is poor except Westmacott.
Authors prosperous, buying houses, Headley, Bancroft, Melville, Irving and Paulding. Prescott, Morse, Anthon, Stephns, Marvel, Headley Beecher Stowe tens of thousands. New playof Cellini, comedian makes plaster statuette, sold after the performance.
like E Oakes Smith, preaches tolerance.
May 1852: Am Scenery, Kaatskill falls, Hudson R rd, editorial news gives prices of Soult sale, inclu 52,000 francs for a two foot high Titian. excerpts NY Times. gives bio of pres candidates, one for Scott is a lot longer. Critical of anti-Chinese sentiments in California, Chinese equal to any white people, desirable immigrants. Gives prices of auction of ptgs owned by D Huntington, by Leeds, sm lscape Durand 325, Trib Money by Hunting 340, Cross in Wilderness Cole 310, Huntington’s White Plume and Velvet Hat 155, others, spirited. Support intl copyright. Copy of Greek Slave in Indianapolis sold. Landseer sold ptgs, gives prices. Like Howadji.
Praise Home J. Excerpt Stowe, southerners may find it hard to believe. Like Frank Bellew’s illus.
June 1852: Editorial: Hoe company has a school for its apprentices. Clay the peerless died. Excerpts Am Whig Rev. Pradier’s death. After Turner’s death, prices rise, lots of fakes. invention of stereoscope
Holdens Dollar Magazine, Feb 1848 (Duyckinck as editor?), vol 1, issue 2 Topics of the Month, p. 122
-praises Page as greatest of living American painters, portrait of Bryant and lawyer Taggart
-says NAD members with greatest pretensions and least talent have a club called the Century; dissatisifed small authors with great reputation are in Century too
-younger artists with more genius have Sketch Clubs, inclu “Art Re-Union,” Ny Sketch Club (with Richards, Cafferty, Cummings as officers, members include Church), and another club of amateurs, authors and artists, including Bryant, Edmonds, Durand, Chapman, Cole, Cozzens and G. Verplanck.
-Club the “Metropolitan” includes actors and gmen of the press, Noah as president
Holdens Dec 1848 “Fairy Tales and Legends” review of a book illust by Cafferty and Walcutt
-designs are but indifferently executed but likes that they’re original, encourages art because makes it a “merchantable commodity—a t hing to trade in and make money out of” in days when personal private patronage are gone
T Addison Richards edited an Illustrated Handbook of American Travel that included Cafferty, Church, McEntee