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1876 O. H. Bailey View of Norwich, Connecticut
Norwich-bailey-1876$2,800.00
Title
City of Norwich Conn. 1876.
1876 (dated) 22.5 x 35 in (57.15 x 88.9 cm)
1876 (dated) 22.5 x 35 in (57.15 x 88.9 cm)
Description
This is a rare 1876 bird's-eye view of Norwich, Connecticut, by Oakley Hoopes Bailey. Centered on the conjunctions of the Yantic, Shetucket, and Thames Rivers, the view looks northwards towards Norwich from a fictive high point just to the south. It illustrates Norwich early in the industrial revolution, with paddlewheel steamships competing for space on the river with sailing ships. Holly Hock Island is here a place of industry, with large factories billowing black smoke. Forested bucolic hills fade off into the horizon.
Illustrations
Along the bottom of the view are illustrations of Norwich Lock Manufacturing Co., the Court House, Hislop, Porteus and Mitchell Dry Goods, the First National Bank, and the Norwich Bleaching and Calendering Co. Just below the title there is an index to points of interest, and local government officials for 1876 and 1784.Publication History
This view was drawn and published by Oakley Hoopes Bailey. It was engraved in lithographic stone by Charles H. Vogt and printed by Jacob Knauber. This view is quite rare with the OCLC identifying only 4 examples in institutional collections. Further examples are located in the Boston Public Library and at least one other example is in private hands.CartographerS
Oakley Hoopes Bailey (June 14, 1843 - August 13, 1947) was a prolific American viewmaker, artist, and lithographer active in late 19th and early 20th century. Bailey was born in Beloit, Mahoning County, Ohio. He matriculated in 1861 at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio. At the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) he briefly abandoned his studies for 2 years, wherein he saw combat as a Union solider. After the war, in 1866, he returned to Mount Union to complete his degree. Bailey was the younger brother of another view artist, Howard Heston Bailey (1836 - 1878) and followed his brother into the print business, producing his first city views, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1871. Active from 1871 to 1926, Bailey is known for more than 375 recorded city views, covering more than 13 states 2 Canadian provinces, making him one of the most active viewmakers in American history. In 1875, he settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts and most of his subsequent work focused on Massachusetts and Connecticut. Bailey worked with many other American viewmakers of the period, including his brother, Howard Heston Bailey, Thaddeus M. Flower, and J. C. Hazen, among others. Around 1904, by this time in his 60s, Bailey entered into a publishing partnership with Thomas S. Hughes, publishing their 'aero-views' as 'Hughes and Bailey'. Together, Hughes and Bailey revisited the sites of many of Bailey's early views, remaking them sometimes 20 - 40 years later, the idea being to set them beside the earlier views to show how much the respective towns had changed. The partnership lasted until about 1926. Bailey died in his hometown of Alliance at the ripe old age of 103. Learn More...
Charles H. Vogt (1823 - 1895) was a Prussian-American lithographer active in Cleveland, Ohio from about 1870 to 1889. Vogt was born Prussia and immigrated to the United States in c. 1860, settling in Iowa. He was established as a lithographer of American city views Davenport, Iowa during the 1860s, then in Milwaukee from 1870 to 1879, then in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1879 to 1889. Vogt worked with his son, Gustav. H. Vogt (c. 1858 - July 12, 1936). Learn More...
Jacob Knauber (1846 – 1905) was a German-American lithographer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Knauber was born in Heidelberg, Germany and emigrated to America as a young man. He apprenticed as a lithographer in St. Louis from 1861. In 1867 he foundered J. Knauber Lithographing Company, which he would eventually run with his three sons, Arthur, Walter, and Richard. The firm specialized in American city views, billheads, letterheads, receipts, and checks. Knauber managed the firm it until his death in 1905. Afterwards it was run by his children until 1946 when it was acquired by Columbia Art Works. Learn More...
Condition
Very good. Slight soiling. Minor water stain upper left quadrant.
References
Reps, John, Views and Viewmakers of Urban America (University of Missouri, Columbia, 1984), #600. OCLC 5447437. Library of Congress, Map Division, G3784.N8A3 1876 .B3. Library of Congress, Panoramic maps (2nd ed.), 91.