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Source Description
Text added 2/8/22 by Ehoobler in the context of land Acknowledgment rollout: Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "The tourist who jouneys to Europe in search of a new sensation, bust by this time find that his vocation is nearly gone. Italy and its wonders have been described so often that they begin to pale. Egypt, the River Nile, Cairo, and the pyramids have been 'done' to death. Greece and her antiquities are as familiar as huosehold words. What will the enterprising traveller do under these untoward circumstances? Well, here is a new field for him. These mountain Lakes have been waiting for him thousands of years, and could afford to wait thousands of years longer, for they are now as fresh and beautiful as if just from the hands of the Creator. In all probability, when we saw them not 20 white men had ever stood on their borders, A single Lake and Mont Blanc are the wonders of Europe, but here are mountains and lakes reaching from Tehuantepec to the Frozen Ocean in the North, or upwards of 50 degrees - nearly one seventh part of the globe - ample room and verge enough, one would think, for a legion of tourists." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
20036
label
Lake Scene (Wind River Mountain)
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
20036
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Lake Scene (Wind River Mountain)
description
Text added 2/8/22 by Ehoobler in the context of land Acknowledgment rollout: Extracts from Alfred Jacob Miller’s original text, which accompanied his images of Native Americans, are included below for reference. "The tourist who jouneys to Europe in search of a new sensation, bust by this time find that his vocation is nearly gone. Italy and its wonders have been described so often that they begin to pale. Egypt, the River Nile, Cairo, and the pyramids have been 'done' to death. Greece and her antiquities are as familiar as huosehold words. What will the enterprising traveller do under these untoward circumstances? Well, here is a new field for him. These mountain Lakes have been waiting for him thousands of years, and could afford to wait thousands of years longer, for they are now as fresh and beautiful as if just from the hands of the Creator. In all probability, when we saw them not 20 white men had ever stood on their borders, A single Lake and Mont Blanc are the wonders of Europe, but here are mountains and lakes reaching from Tehuantepec to the Frozen Ocean in the North, or upwards of 50 degrees - nearly one seventh part of the globe - ample room and verge enough, one would think, for a legion of tourists." A.J. Miller, extracted from "The West of Alfred Jacob Miller" (1837).In July 1858 William T. Walters commissioned 200 watercolors at twelve dollars apiece from Baltimore born artist Alfred Jacob Miller. These paintings were each accompanied by a descriptive text, and were delivered in installments over the next twenty-one months and ultimately were bound in three albums. Transcriptions of field-sketches drawn during the 1837 expedition that Miller had undertaken to the annual fur-trader's rendezvous in the Green River Valley (in what is now western Wyoming), these watercolors are a unique record of the closing years of the western fur trade.
provenance
Commissioned by William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1858-1860; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
date
1858-1860
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
watercolors (paintings)
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
23.8
height
31
dimensionsRaw
H: 9 3/8 x W: 12 3/16 in. (23.8 x 31 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
[Signature] Lower center: A. Miller Pt.; [Number] Right: 39
med
watercolor on paper
creator_ids
4486
collection_ids
EAN
exhibition_ids
none
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
ab214a6cac00c196