1888 Roethe / Elliott Bird's Eye View of 'Hangtown' Placerville, California

Rehabilitating Hangtown.

A scarce 1888 Louis Henry Roethe bird's-eye view of Placerville, California, popularly known as 'Hangtown' for its raucous and violent history during the Gold Rush. Presenting a more urbane image of the town several decades after the Gold Rush, the view nonetheless references Placerville's tumultuous past.

A Closer Look

Oriented towards the north-northeast, this view covers the town of Placerville, with reference to the nearby towns of Georgetown, Greenwood, and Coloma (famous as the site of Sutter's Mill, where gold was first discovered in California), along with the Sierras in the background. Lake Tahoe lies not too far beyond the hills in the right background. This view is unusual and fascinating because it depicts one of the archetypal Gold Rush towns decades after the Gold Rush, offering an early example of local romanticization of the era.

Presenting remarkable detail, down to individual buildings, the view labels streets and waterways throughout and numbers 30 locations keyed to an index at the bottom. These include churches, hotels, schools, a courthouse, an opera house, the post office, a brewery, and more. The railroad enters on the left, crosses a high bridge, and reaches the depot beside Canal Street. The bridge receives a separate illustration in the right-hand border, emphasizing an engineering achievement important enough to stand beside the town's principal buildings. The 1888 completion of the extension from Shingle Springs ended a more than twenty-year wait for the line to reach Placerville. The train and depot therefore represent newly available transportation. Several are illustrated in a border around the view, along with depictions of prominent residents' homes, local businesses, and the office of the Weekly Observer, which published the view (some still stand). A small inset view above the title presents the town in 1851 when it was still known as Hangtown (see below). At the bottom, text expounds on the history of El Dorado County while promoting its climate and economic (mostly agricultural) potential.

Rehabilitating Hangtown

Placerville's early history offers one of the clearest examples of the heady, chaotic, and often violent environment of the California Gold Rush. Soon after James W. Marshall discovered gold at nearby Sutter's Mill, thousands of prospectors poured into the region and pitched tent cities that quickly became frontier towns. Initially known as 'Dry Diggins,' the town seen here quickly became known as 'Hangtown' for the frontier justice meted out there. Lacking a police force, mob violence and lynchings were the typical ways of handling murders and other crimes, which usually resulted from barroom brawls and robberies. Historians debate whether Hangtown was more prone to frontier justice than other gold-rush boomtowns, and locals have long debated the moniker. Some embrace it as a sign of frontier hardiness (the city's official seal included a noose until 2021), while others reject it as a shameful chapter in the city's history. In any event, a group of respectable citizens successfully lobbied to have the town incorporated under Placerville rather than Hangtown in 1854. (Although the waterway running through town is still called Hangtown Creek.)

More than just a group of diggings, Placerville developed as a logistics and financial hub for gold mining, which gave it greater longevity than other boom towns when the gold rush died down in the late 1850s. Though the population declined in the late 19th century, the presence of the railroad (the Southern Pacific) and surrounding farmland helped maintain economic activity, as seen here. The text at the bottom, particularly the portion on Placerville at the bottom-right, admirably tries to present a more genteel, even quaint, view of the city, considerably exaggerating the town's population, if nothing else. Since the mid-20th century, Placerville has benefited from being a convenient stop between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, as the latter became a popular tourist destination.

American City Views

City views were being produced in the United States as early as the 1830s, but the genre exploded after the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). Bridging the gap between maps and pictures, most 19th-century American bird's-eye views presented cities to the public from high points: some imagined, but others drawn from hot-air balloons or nearby hills. The presentation, combining high elevation, commercial interest, and new printing technology, created a uniquely American art form, as described by historian Donald Karshan:

Some print connoisseurs believe that it was only with the advent of the full-blown city-view lithograph that American printmaking reached its first plateau of originality, making a historical contribution to the graphic arts. They cite the differences between the European city-view prints and the expansive American version that reflects a new land and a new attitude toward the land.

The vogue for bird's-eye city views lasted from about 1845 to 1920, during which period some 2,400 cities were thus portrayed, some multiple times. Although views were produced in many urban centers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the nexus of view production in the United States. Major American viewmakers included Stoner, Wellge, Bailey, Fowler, Hill Ruger, Koch, Burleigh, Norris, and Morse, among others.

Publication History and Census

This view was sketched by Louis Henry Roethe and printed by Wallace William Elliott for the Weekly Observer, one of three local newspapers in Placerville. It is quite scarce and appears on the market only occasionally. Unfortunately, the OCLC combines records for originals and reproductions (perhaps further complicated because of the inset above the title that is 'reproduced from [an] earlier sketch' of 1851), but the University of California Los Angeles, the University of California Berkeley, Stanford University, the University of California Davis, and the California State Library likely hold originals. Reps notes examples at the Huntington Library, the California Historical Society, and the Society of California Pioneers.

Cartographers

Louis Henry Roethe (1860 - September 4, 1928) was an American painter and bird's-eye view artist based in San Francisco during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Shasta, California, he was the son of a druggist who arrived in California during the 1849 Gold Rush. As a child, Roethe accompanied his family to Germany for three years before returning to California and growing up in San Francisco. He entered the city's newly established School of Design at fourteen and studied under Virgil Macey Williams (1830 - 1886), Raymond Dabb Yelland (1848 - 1900), and Oscar Kunath (1830 - 1909). From 1880 - 1885 he pursued further artistic training in Munich, supplementing his studies with sketches of domestic and ecclesiastical interiors in Rothenburg, Bavaria, and South Tyrol. Returning to San Francisco in 1885, he established a studio and exhibited locally. His contribution to panoramic cartography includes the sketches for Bird's Eye View Placerville, Cal. (1888), published by the Weekly Observer and lithographed by W. W. Elliott. The view combines a perspective rendering of the town with an index to important sites, marginal architectural vignettes, and a retrospective view of Placerville in 1851. Alongside this work, Roethe painted portraits, figure studies, domestic interiors, and landscapes. The 1890 San Francisco directory lists his studio at 330 Sutter Street, room 7, and he continued to be identified as an artist in the city's 1917 directory. He died in San Francisco on September 4, 1928.   Further Details...

Wallace William Elliott (1842 - c.1900) was an American lithographic artist, printer, and publisher based in Oakland and San Francisco, California, whose city-view production began around 1879 and peaked in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Born in New York, he was registered to vote in Alameda County by 1876 and resided in Oakland's first ward in 1884. His business used numerous imprints, including W. W. Elliott and Co., Elliott Publishing Co., Elliott Litho. Co., and Elliott Litho. and Pub. Co.; both Oakland and San Francisco appeared as business locations, with San Francisco predominating after 1887. Elliott's principal contribution to cartography was producing detailed bird's-eye views of western towns and cities. John William Reps documented his involvement as artist, printer, or publisher in 48 city views, including 38 dated 1887 - 1891. Most depicted California communities, with additional subjects in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Initially credited chiefly as a printer or lithographer, Elliott also drew views of Pomona in 1886, Wildomar in 1887, and Fresno, Modesto, and San Jose in 1888. He printed and published work by other artists, including Bruce Wellington Pierce (1859 - 1947). His large-format views typically combined a central panorama with numerous architectural vignettes and descriptive text promoting the community's resources and prospects. Local newspapers published at least 12 views printed by Elliott, apparently distributing them as subscription premiums, while boards of trade sponsored others. Most were printed in black and white, although his establishment also produced color lithographs, notably Pierce's Portland view in 1890 and a Los Angeles view in 1891. Beyond separately issued city views, the firm published illustrated regional histories, including Humboldt County (1881), Fresno County (1882), and Idaho Territory (1884). Elliott's surviving output documents the development of California's former Gold Rush settlements and the expansion of newer railroad towns and Pacific Coast cities during the late 19th century.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Light wear along centerfold.

References

OCLC 5483065 (co-mingles originals and reproductions). Reps, John, Views and Viewmakers of Urban America, (Columbia, University of Missouri) 1984, (1984), #243. Library of Congress, G4364.P74A3 1888 .R6 MLC.