1887 Shober and Carqueville Chromolithograph View of the Storming of the St. Paul Ice Palace

The St. Paul Winter Carnival - proving Minnesota can be fun in the winter!

This is a rare 1887 Shober and Carqueville chromolithograph view of the storming of the Ice Palace at the St. Paul Winter Carnival in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Ice Palace dominates the view, with the fireworks used to 'Storm the Palace' illuminating the sky. The roman candles carried by the forces of the Fire King stream toward the Palace, and the Fire King's army attacks from all sides.

The St. Paul Winter Carnival

The St. Paul Winter Carnival began in 1886 as a response to an article written by a New York reporter the year before. That 1885 story stated that during the winter, St. Paul was 'another Siberia, unfit for human habitation.' At the time, St. Paul was rising in national prominence, and this sort of comment greatly angered many, including its business leaders. Their solution was the St. Paul Winter Carnival, which was modeled after the Montreal Winter Carnivals of the previous years. The festival hosted numerous winter activities and be presided over by King Borealis, the Ice King, and his Ice Palace. The Fire King was the Ice King's foe who stormed the palace at the end of the Carnival, symbolically sending the Ice King back north and ushering in warmer weather. The 1886 festival opened on February 4, 1886, and ran for at least a week. It featured an Ice Palace '180 feet in length by 160 feet in width, with a grand massive, central tower attaining an altitude of 106 feet.' Carnivals took place in 1887, 1888, and 1896, but then took a hiatus until the next carnival was held in 1916 and again in 1917. The Carnival then took another hiatus and resumed in 1937, and continued until 1942, when it was suspended due to World War II (1939 - 1945). The Carnival then began again in 1946 and remains an annual event to this day.

The 1887 Winter Carnival and Ice Palace

The 1887 Winter Carnival and Ice Palace learned lessons from the inaugural 1886 event and created a 'winter spectacle'. A description of the 1887 Ice Palace from Volume 52, Number 4 of the journal Ramsey County History follows:

In plan, the palace footprint was in the shape of a Roman cross, 194 feet by 217 feet. The main entrance to the palace was on the south side, through a semicircular archway over 15 feet high, atop which sat a sculpture of the Ice King, Borealis, flanked by polar bears. Through this entrance, the visitor arrived in the central courtyard surrounded by buttressed walls nearly 25 feet tall, which also included a large sculpture of a bull. As visitors moved either to the left or right of the courtyard, they were lead [sic] to the other chambers and towers on the east, west, and north side of the structure. The west entrance had both square- and flat-topped round towers of outworks, and the east entrance sported a steepled entrance gate. A central octagonal tower with a diameter of about 50 feet dominated the palace…including the main 140-foot tall flag tower.

The Storming of the Ice Palace on January 20, 1887

This account of the storming of the St. Paul Ice Palace is from Page 3 of the January 28, 1887, edition of the Brainerd Dispatch.

The approach of the Fire King's forces made a splendid showing. There were thousands of torches borne by the gaudily attired soldiers, who cheered lustily as they charged up the hill. […] The line numbered over 2,500 men. On the parapets, frozen to the walls, bombettes and fire fountains had been placed, and on the outer walls mounted bombs, shells, and batteries of great force and power were in readiness for the touch of the match.

Twenty thousand Roman candles had been distributed among the two armies. So perfectly had all arrangements been made, and so efficient was the drill of the companies that there was no confusion or delay in disposing of the forces in their proper positions. When all was ready, the signal was given, and a mortar within the castle discharged a bomb high in the air with tremendous force and with a loud explosion. In an instant, the air was filled with ten thousand globes of fire of all sizes and colors. Bomb after bomb was discharged, the explosions sounding like the rattle of musketry, so rapidly did they occur. The sky was lurid with the reflection of the beautiful fiery missiles, and in a few moments, a dense smoke almost completely hid the warring armies from sight. For fifteen minutes, this warfare was continued. The sight was a grand one. The fire fountains vomiting flame, the golden shower of sparks from the bombs, and the many colored lights from the Roman candles, fire puffs, and other pieces made the scene impressive and beautiful beyond description. The sides of the tower belched forth flame and fiery stars and balls, and colored lights burned on the battlements with fierce luridness. Entrancing to the eye and deafening to the ear the scene was one that none of the 75,000 people that witnessed it will ever forget. The ammunition of the invading army was exhausted long before the gallant defenders inside the palace walls were willing to end the fray, and as the foe retreated from their positions the last bomb exploded with a defiant crash, showering sparks down on the heads of the vanquished army.

After the defeat of the Fire King's army, an armistice for one week was declared. […] The Palace will be stormed again on Thursday night 27th inst., and the arrangement is for a surrender of King Polaris to the Fire King.

The Storming of the Ice Palace on January 27, 1887

This account of the storming of the St. Paul Ice Palace is from Page 1 of the January 28, 1887, edition of the Saint Paul Globe

Then followed a most brilliant spectacle. Instantly the opposing forces began shooting missiles that cut curves of light across the sky and ended in a glowing spark. When the signal was given the entire line of the assault was ready and the attack was made from all around the structure almost at the same instant. The display from the party making the onslaught was magnificent, and for a few moments the fire was not returned. Then the Ice King's forces began to reply. […] The display from the castle was more grand than at the last storming. On the outer walls and buttresses of the palace had been placed bombetes which spouted up great bouquets of fire, in green and bluish colors that looked like sprays of illuminated moss as they rose and fell in graceful fiery curves. The great mortars that sent bombs that went hundreds of feet into the air and then burst in clouds of rainbow-colored sparks, were at the several corners, and at intervals bespangled the sky with sparks. Nests of dragons were fired from other mortars. They darted upward like serpents of fire, rushing hither and thither with a hissing motion, and then went out with a crack like a pistol shot. These and the bouquets were new features and both were as beautiful as they were novel. Over the entrances to the palace was the word 'Borealis' that burned with a brilliant light in letters three feet high during the bombardment and went out only when the monarch acknowledged defeat. The smoke from the fires poured from the towers and the incessant firing from without made such a smudge that the great structure was almost concealed, while all about the sky was bright with rainbows. The last act was the most novel and most beautiful. When the ammunition of the attacking force was dying out sparks were seen to glow against the walls of the main tower and run upward in zigzag courses toward the top. No sooner was the summit reached than lines of fire darted across the top of the whole main turret. Large pieces of fireworks had been placed there, containing 250 pounds of powder each. These burned most brilliantly, sending up clouds of fire and sparks that fell like a cascade of flame around the eight sides of the turret and almost concealed the structure. The palace had the appearance of burning, as if Borealis, conscious that his castle must go, had applied the match that its walls might welcome the fiery monarch with the element of the realm from which he came.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired product. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery.

Publication History and Census

This view was created and published by the Shober and Carqueville Lithographing Company in 1887. This is the only known cataloged example.

Cartographers

Charles Shober (February 1831 - c. 1900) was a German-American lithographer and painter. Shober was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1854. He established himself in Philadelphia, at 17 Minor Street, where fellow lithographers and map engravers George Worley and Benjamin Mathias, also worked. His first lithograph in America appeared in an 1855 issue of The Horticulturist. In 1857, he partnered with Charles Reen to establish 'Reen and Shober' at 5 South Sixth Street, Philadelphia. The partners relocated their business to Chicago (106 Lake Street) in 1859. Reen left the firm in 1859 and Charles took a new partner, August Roth, printing under the imprint of 'Charles Shober'. They met with considerable success, until 1871, when like many Chicago businesses, the Great Fire laid them low. After the fire, he took over management and partial ownership of the Chicago Lithographic Company, which had been founded some years earlier by Louis Kurtz and Edward Carqueville. Kurtz's interest in the firm was acquired by Shober and it was renamed 'Charles Shober and Company'. Sometime after 1876, the firm's name changed to 'Shober Lithograph Company', and then in 1877, to 'Shober and Carqueville Lithograph Company'. Despite infighting, the firm prospered, printing views, posters, maps, trade cards, and sheet music. In 1887, after a prolonged dispute with Carqueville, Shober left the firm. He traveled briefly then took a position as president of the Chicago Bank Note Company. Shober's son died in a tragic suicide in 1896, after which, Shober seems to have vanished from professional life. He appears in the Chicago directory as late as 1900.   Further Details...

Edward Carqueville (September 23, 1841 - March 21, 1898) was a German-American lithographer and printer, and reportedly was a direct descendant of Martin Luther. Born in Posen, Poland (then part of Germany), and arrived in the United States in 1856 with his French-German parents. He began learning the lithographic trade sometime after arriving in the U.S., likely from Charles Shober (1820 - 1906), another German immigrant. By 1863 Carqueville was working with the Chicago Lithographing Company operated by Louis Kurz. Carqueville remained with the firm after Kurz left following the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and Charles Shober replaced him. In 1877 the firm's name changed to Shober and Carqueville Lithographing Company. Shober and Carqueville became known for trade cards and advertising posters and after 1880 they became a major supplier of circus and theatrical posters. Shober left the firm in the mid-1880s but Carqueville remained and changed the firm's name to the Carqueville Lithographing Company in 1896. After Carqueville's death in 1898, his four sons ran the firm until they sold it to the Theodore A. Schmidt Lighographing Company around 1915. Over the course of his career as a lithographer, Carqueville's business burned to the ground three times, including the 1871 fire. Nonetheless, every time he rebuilt and became one of the most prominent lithographers in Chicago. He was married when he died and had eight children, seven sons and one daughter.   Further Details...

Condition

Good. Mounted on archival tissue for stability. Creasing. Foxing.