[Rideing, William H.]: [Woodward, John Douglas, illustrator]:

$650 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

SCENERY OF THE PACIFIC RAILWAYS AND COLORADO. An effusively and beautifully illustrated work, published by the D. Appleton Company in New York as a supplement to their extremely successful PICTURESQUE AMERICA series. The piece is ultimately a highly detailed and thorough tour in images and text of the Union Pacific Railroad route from Omaha to the Pacific Ocean, describing the sights both manmade and natural along the way in florid prose, and occasionally with a frank bluntness. For example, describing the first view of the Rockies, the author writes: "A thrill of vivid pleasure passes through us as we gaze for the first time upon these famous mountains, but the inexpressibly arid blank of the plains mitigates our transports, and leaves an impression of disappointment which is not soon or easily overcome." The tour concludes with a list of railway connections from various stops, and "A few hints to overland travelers."The many attractive engravings are after original paintings by renowned American landscape painter J.D. Woodward, who travelled the world in the 1870s and '80s producing illustrations for Appleton's many popular publications. Some of the illustrations in this work include Monument Park in Colorado, several views of the Platte River, a panoramic view of Salt Lake City including the Tabernacle, a Native American camp in the Sierra Nevada, and the Chinese Quarters of Sacramento and Chinatown. The front and back matter is comprised of mostly illustrated advertisemen

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