Category Archives: Illustrated books

illustrated books

An Outline of Society in Our Own Times


When asked recently whether George Cruikshank’s print “An Outline of Society in Our Own Times,” from his rare four volume Our Own Times (1846), was an etching or a glyphograph, we pulled both of the sets in Graphic Arts, as well as a scrapbook of Cruikshank illustrations. The plate is a glyphograph, one of 34 in the whole book, with a single etching in each volume and 6 woodcuts throughout.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “An Outline of Society in Our Own Times,” from Our Own Times ([London]: Bradbury & Evans, 1846). No. 1 (Apr. 1846)-no. 4 (July 1846). Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1846.2

 

How can you tell an etching (intaglio) from a glyphograph (relief)? Look for the absence of a plate mark. On poor or cheap printing, you will also see some ink in the white areas, where the pressure has pushed the paper below the metal relief line.

 

The print features four women, beginning at the top center, personifying Science, Industry, Folly (seen above blowing bubbles), and Crime, with children of the various attitudes surrounding each. Cruikshank was still a heavy drinker in 1845-46—signing a vow of abstinence in 1847—and so the lower portions of society ruled by folly and crime still seems quite appealing.

 

We are fortunate to have a number of scrapbooks holding illustrations, proofs, newspaper clippings, letters, and more Cruikshank material. The one pictured here “Scrapbook of illustrations, 1839-1865” has 394 p. in a half morocco binding 57 x 38 cm. It was a gift from Alex van Rensseler, Class of 1871. The spine lists a few of the books contained inside. Unfortunately the paste used to fix the print to the album page is in many cases eating into the sheet and leaving intrusive marks.

Here are some additional pages from the scrapbook of Cruikshank illustrations.

Note in “The Triumph of Cupid” not only several self portraits of Cruikshank but enslaved European, African, and Middle Eastern men in chains at the bottom of this imaginary scene.

 

Steal This Post

Fifty years ago, when Steal This Book was published by Abbie Hoffman, Peter Vandevanter, Class of 1973, checked to see if the bookstore would carry it. He shared his findings in the Daily Princetonian (March 18, 1971): “Princeton’s book store seems amused and un-intimidated by the new book. ‘I definitely couldn’t put a book like that out on the shelves, because I’m afraid someone would steal it,’ commented Ralph Shadovitz, the buyer for the Princeton Book Mart on Palmer Square. But he does plan to stock the book behind the counter if it receives sufficient advertising. The Princeton University Store has ordered the paperback, which will be ready for sale in mid-April. The Resistance Book Store has no knowledge of the new Hoffman book, according to co-manager Mary Ann Bacon. ‘If Abbie Hoffman will send it to us free, we’ll be glad to put it on the shelves for anyone to take free.’”

At the time, neither Princeton University Library nor the Library of Congress added the book to their holdings. Today, a section from the book can be read in Princeton’s copy of “The Best of Abbie Hoffman.” Both Harvard and Yale have a copy locked in the non-circulating rare book vaults. No copy is available on Googlebooks or HathiTrust, although a portion of the study guide for students is available online (listed as a nonfiction classic). If you are a member of the Internet Archive, you can log in and read it, otherwise only the first few pages are visible.

Although the book was published in April 1971, it wasn’t until July that Dotson Rader reviewed it for the New York Times, beginning “If you are a teenage runaway on the lam, or a 50-year-old executive finally gone bananas and about to drop out, then what you should probably read is Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book. It will tell you how to live for free and survive.”

 


 

In his introduction, Norman Mailer writes, “this book is a remarkable document, is, indeed, the autobiography of a bona fide American revolutionary . . . . Of course, we all think we know the sixties. I always feel I can speak with authority on the sixties and I never knew anybody my age who didn’t feel the same way (whereas try to find someone who gets a light in their eyes when they speak of the seventies). Yet reading this work, I came to decide that my piece of the sixties wasn’t as large as I thought. If we were going to get into comparisons, Abbie lived it, I observed it.”

Index to Princeton’s Aubudon “Birds”


A Princeton University class is going to be using Princeton University Library’s 4 volume, double elephant copy of the Audubon/Havell Birds of America, (Oversize EX 8880.134.11e), watching as we turn the pages live through a hovercam (placed as high as possible). There was a question about which birds were in which volumes, someone saying that ours were bound slightly different than others. So an index was made to the plates and where they are bound in our set, confirming there are only slight differences with, for instance, Pittsburgh’s online set. Here is the index: PUL Audubon Birds. Volume and plate are obvious. The “No.” is the package that was shipped to subscribers with 5 plates to a package: one huge, one medium, and three small birds all printed on the same size paper.

 

 

While the volumes were open, very quick jpgs were taken of a few thumbnail details. These are not formal or professional but it’s hard to resist. Here are a few examples.

 

 

 

 

 


The Princeton copy “was presented … in 1927 by Alexander van Rensselaer (class of 1871), a charter trustee of the University. It had formerly belonged to Stephen van Rensselaer (Princeton, class of 1808) of Albany, New York, one of the original subscribers to the work. The latter’s name appears as no. 32 in Audubon’s list of subscribers.” — Howard C. Rice, An Aububon Anthology, page 16.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaston or Augustus Fay?

In Early American book illustrators and wood engravers, 1670-1870 and his supplement, Sinclair Hamilton lists a 19th-century wood engraver named Gaston Fay and credits any illustration using the single name “Fay” to Gaston. Yet, New York directories, magazine advertising, and other sources reveal that Augustus Fay had a greater presence in the commercial publishing world of the mid-19th century.

The life dates for Augustus Fay are unknown. He is listed as age 26 in 1850 and 45 in 1870, so he was born in the early 1820s. Throughout his career he is known as both an engraver and a designer, a slighly high position than engraver alone.

Listings here are from Robert Macoy, How to See New York and Its Environs, 1776-1876 (1875) and The Trow City Directory … of New York City (1866 – ), along with an Ancestry census page.

 

 

In the late 1850s or early 1860s, Augustus Fay joined forces with Stephen J. Cox to form Fay & Cox located at 105 Nassau Street in lower Manhattan. Their logo [below] was found in the autobiography of the popular magician and ventriloquist Signor Blitz, published in 1872.

An online biography of True Williams notes that the artist “returned to New York was hired by a graphics firm owned by Augustus Fay and Stephen J. Cox in New York City. It was in fact the first syndicated illustration business in America. The firm produced illustrations and engravings for the subscription publishing companies located in Hartford, Connecticut.”– https://histclo.com/art/illus/ind/i-will.html

Below is a partial list of books with illustrations provided by the company of Fay & Cox, including several suggesting they were written and published by the company. Another two dozen or so, not listed here, were illustrated by Augustus Fay individually. This puts into question Sinclair Hamilton’s suggestion that any mention of the name Fay should be attributed to Gaston.

 

The New world in 1859: being the United States and Canada, illustrated and described in five parts … by Thomas Wightman; John William Orr; John Andrew; …; Fay & Cox… (London ; New York: H. Bailliere, 1859).

The J.L. Mott Iron Works. St. George Building, 90 Beekman Street, New York by Fay & Cox ([between 1860 and 1880])

The miner boy and his Monitor, or, The career and achievements of John Ericsson, the engineer by P C Headley; William Henry Appleton; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865, ©1864).

The hero boy, or, The life and deeds of Lieut-Gen. Grant by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1864).

Life and naval career of Vice-admiral David Glascoe Farragut by P C Headley; William Henry Appleton; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865).

The patriot boy, or, The life and career of Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865. ©1864)

Old salamander: the life and naval career of Admiral David Glascoe [sic] Farragut by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (Boston: Lee and Shepard ; New York: Charles T. Dillingham, ©1865).

A youth’s history of the great Civil War in the United States from 1861 to 1865 by R G Horton; Fay & Cox.; Van Evrie, Horton & Co.; Smith & McDougal (New York: Van Evrie, Horton & Co., 1867, ©1866)

Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley; Moses Woodruff Dodd; Fay & Cox… (New York: M.W. Dodd, 605 Broadway, 1867).

Percy’s year of rhymes; Fay & Cox ([Cambridge, Mass.]: Riverside Press ; New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867, ©1866)

Paul and Virginia by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre; Augustus Hoppin; Fay & Cox (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867).

Pebbles and pearls for the young folks by Abby Sage Richardson; Edwin Forbes; H L Stephens; George G White; Henry Walker Herrick; Arthur Lumley; A C Warren;…; Fay & Cox (Hartford, Conn.: American Pub. Co. ; New York: Bliss and Co. 1868, ©1867).

Angel-dreams: a series of tales for children by Austin Carroll; Fay & Cox (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1869).

Onward: a magazine for the young manhood of America by Charles L Schönberg; David L Schönberg; Arthur Lumley; Fay & Cox (New York: [Mayne Reid], [1869-70])

Impressions of Spain by Mary Elizabeth Herbert Herbert, Baroness; Fay & Cox (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 126 Nassau Street, 1869)

Beyond the Mississippi … by Albert D Richardson; Frank Beard; James Carter Beard; Joseph Becker; Albert Bierstadt …; William Warzbach; Carelton E Watkins; Alfred R Waud; Fay & Cox… (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, ©1869).

Views of Native Americans by C Sohon; John Mix Stanley; N Fay; A W Warren; Bowen & Co.; Sarony, Major & Knapp.; Fay & Cox (approximately 1850-ca. 1870).

Roughing it by Mark Twain; True Williams; James H Richardson; Duffield Ashmead; …; Fay & Cox (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1871).

Struggles and triumphs, or, Forty years’ recollections by P T Barnum; George Edward Perine; Fay & Cox (Buffalo: Warren, Johnson & Co., 1872, ©1871).

Life and adventures of Signor Blitz; being an account of the author’s professional life; his wonderful tricks and feats… by Antonio Blitz (Hartford, Conn., T. Belknap, 1872.

Wood’s illustrated hand-book to New York and environs ... by Fay & Cox (New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1873).

The adventures of the Bodley family by Horace Elisha Scudder; S B Barrett; Charles Whittingham; John J Harley; J Augustus Bogert; John Andrew; James L Langridge; Henry Walker Herrick; Felix Octavius Carr Darley; Thomas Nast; William J Pierce; Chiswick Press.; Fay & Cox (London: S.B. Barrett, 1876, ©1875).

Doings of the Bodley family in town and country by Horace Elisha Scudder; Henry Walker Herrick; Felix Octavius Carr Darley; Thomas Nast …; Annette Bishop; Fay & Cox… (Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Co., 1879).

. . . This otherness, this “Not-being-us”


In one small corner of the world, both the poem Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery (1927-2017) and the Arion Press limited edition of Mirror, published in 1984 on the poem’s ten-year anniversary, are so well-known that some would find it shocking that Princeton University would not have already acquired them both. This has been rectified with the recent acquisition of the limited edition with its circular prints by Larry Rivers (1923-2002), Alex Katz (born 1927), Jane Freilicher (1924-2014), Jim Dine (born 1935), Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), R.B. Kitaj (1932-2007), Elaine de Kooning (1920-1989), and Richard Avedon (1923-2004).

The stainless steel pseudo-film canister binding with a cover convex mirror opens to reveal Ashbery’s lines radiating outward like the spokes of a wheel twirling as they are read. Each artist’s contribution is unique, printed as lithographs, woodcut, soft ground etching with aquatint tone, photogravure, and photolithographs on cream wove handmade Twinrocker Mill paper.

Princeton’s reading room will need to also acquire a 20th century record player to facilitate listening to the 33 1/2 rpm recording of Ashbery reading his poem but happily the foreword and essay by Helen Vendler (born 1933) is printed text, designed as liner notes. The record jacket reproduces the original reference for Ashbery’s poem, Francesco Parmigianino’s 1523-24 painting of the same name [below].

 

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Dozens of scholarly essays have been written about this poem and the corresponding publication, including one recently presented at the Gagosian Chelsea gallery: https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2019/01/22/books-john-ashbery-self-portrait-convex-mirror/. Best to simply let Ashbery say a few words:

As Parmigianino did it, the right hand
Bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer
And swerving easily away, as though to protect
What it advertises. A few leaded panes, old beams,
Fur, pleated muslin, a coral ring run together
In a movement supporting the face, which swims
Toward and away like the hand
Except that it is in repose. It is what is
Sequestered. Vasari says, “Francesco one day set himself
To take his own portrait, looking at himself from that purpose
In a convex mirror, such as is used by barbers . . .

…For one to intervene? This otherness, this
“Not-being-us” is all there is to look at
In the mirror, though no one can say
How it came to be this way. A ship
Flying unknown colors has entered the harbor.
You are allowing extraneous matters
To break up your day, cloud the focus
Of the crystal ball. Its scene drifts away
Like vapor scattered on the wind. The fertile
Thought-associations that until now came
So easily, appear no more, or rarely. Their
Colorings are less intense, washed out
By autumn rains and winds, spoiled, muddied,
Given back to you because they are worthless.

 

See also: John Ashbery (1927-2017), Self-portrait in a convex mirror: poems (New York: Viking Press, 1975). Rare Books PS3501.S475 S4

 

Selina Bracebridge’s Panoramic Sketch of Athens


 

These days, answering some reference questions can be easier done online with pictures than in multiple emails. Princeton is fortunate to have Selina Bracebridge’s Notes descriptive of a panoramic sketch of Athens, taken May, 1839,  including the text booklet and the zinc lithograph panorama. In addition, we hold the facsimile reprint “Sold for the benefit of the Protestant Chapel at Athens,” also with both the text and the panorama.

Selina Bracebridge (1803-1874), Notes descriptive of a panoramic sketch of Athens, taken May, 1839: sold in aid of the London Benevolent Repository (London: W.H. Dalton, 1839). Graphic Arts Collection Oversize 2007-0025Q. Spine title: Sketch of Athens ; “Sketched from nature and on zinc by Mrs. Bracebridge, May 1838”–Folded plate.

Selina Bracebridge (1803-1874), Notes descriptive of a panoramic sketch of Athens, May, 1836 : sold for the benefit of the fund for building a Protestant Chapel at Athens (Coventry: Henry Merridew, [1836]). Graphic Arts Collection Oversize 2007-0652Q. Cover label: “… Sold for the benefit of the Protestant Chapel at Athens. Reproduced from an early print by Mrs. Bracebridge. Sold in aid of St. Catherine’s British Embassy School, Athens.”

 


The British Museum describes Bracebridge as an amateur artist; pupil of Samuel Prout, who lived with her husband Charles Holte Bracebridge (q.v.) in Athens for several years during the 1830s; later traveled to Italy, Greece and Egypt with Florence Nightingale and joined her at Scutari during the Crimean War. They appear in the painting of 1857 by Jerry Barrett entitled, “The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari.”

Jerry Barrett, The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale receiving the Wounded at Scutari, 1857. Oil on canvas. NPG 6202

Fourteen figures identified, from left to right: Sir William Linton (1801–1880); Sir Henry Knight Storks (1811–1874); Alexis Benoît Soyer (1810–1858); Miss Tebbutt (1810–1896); Robert Robinson (active 1857); Mary Clare (Georgina Moore) (1814–1874); William Cruickshank (died 1858); Charles Sillery; Jerry Barrett (1824–1906); Florence Nightingale (1820–1910); Eliza Roberts; Selina Bracebridge (c.1800–1874); Charles Bracebridge (1799–1872); and Lord William Paulet (1804–1893).

Denkmal in Stereotypen = A Monument in Stereotype


Vincenz Pall von Pallhausen (1759-1817) and Joseph Bonaventura Progel (died 1851). Denkmal in Stereotypen, den Manen Gutenberg’s geweiht von von Vincenz von Pallhausen im Jahre 1805 und zur vierten Säcularfeier der Buchdruckerkunst mit lithographirten Federzeichnungen zu Johannis 1836 herausgegeben von Progel ([München]: [Franz], 1836, 1805

 

The Graphic Arts Collection now holds a unique copy of the first and only edition of A Monument in Stereotype: dedicated to Gutenberg’s men, commemorating the Gutenberg jubilee in 1836, edited and reprinted from the 1805 stereotypes under the direction of Joseph Progel.

“Joseph Progel was Registrar of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich from the late 1820s until the mid-1840s. He was also Registrar for the joint scientific collections of the Academy and of the University of Munich (General-Conservatorium der wissenschaftlichen Sammlungen des Staates). His son was the distinguished botanist August Progel.”–https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections/collection/1306
–Georg Kaspar Nagler, Die Monogrammisten, 1871

 

The loose plates, collected inside the original paper wrapper, have additional color, compared to the copy in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: https://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10057223_00015.html?zoom=0.45. On the right is a second, proof sheet from Princeton’s copy.


The volume at Princeton includes a second, perhaps rejected proof copy as well as 3 double-page sheets with still another variant of the illustrations, a sheet with a pencil drawing of one of the printed illustrations, and a design in gold for a title-page on a folded double-page sheet contained in blue wrappers with the illustrations in black only.

Here are a few more pages:

 

Overthrow of Christian Morality by the Disorders of Monasticism

Renversement de la Morale chretienne par les desordres du Monachisme. Enrichi de Figures. Premiere Partie. Overthrow of Christian morality by the disorders of Monasticism. Enriched with Figures. First part. [all published.] On les vend en Hollande, chez le Marchands Libraires & Imagers. Avec Privilege d’Innocent XI. Omstootinge der christelyke Zeden. Door de wan-schik ongeregeltheden der Moniken. Holland [Switzerland, n.p.], ca. 1780. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process

Originally published in Amsterdam, perhaps as early as 1676 with the title Renversement de la morale Chretienne par les desordres du Monachisme = Omstootinge der Christelyke zeden. Door de wan-schik en ongeregeltheden der moniken, this series of engravings caricature Jesuits and other religious figures. A variant edition, seen here, published approximately 1780 was recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection.

The plates have been attributed to or copied from Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), although the frontispiece in this volume is engraved after Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708). Readers were delighted with these portraits of monks drinking and carrying on, which led to their reissue in both general trade and secret pirated editions for more than 100 years. It should be noted that the nuns present equally bad behavior and are rightfully caricatured alongside the priests.

“The first twenty-five plates are prefaced by explanatory text in French and Dutch, the second twenty-five just by French verse. The second series is even more vicious than the first, depicting clerics with foxlike cunning, ready to cut a purse and appropriate money etc. They are listed under headings such as the Insatiable, the Cunning, the Seditious, the Idolator, the Superstitious, etc.”

Compare these plates with Dusart’s Les Héros de la ligue. Ou, La procession monacale. Conduitte par Louis XIV, pour la conversion des protestans de son royaume (The Heroes of the League: Or, The Monastic Procession. Led by Louis XIV for the Conversion of Protestants in his Kingdom) from 1691: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/04/15/les-heros-de-la-ligue/


l’abrégé du faux clergé romain = Summary of the false Roman clergy

 

Golden receipts against drunkenness. 1, Drink no longer water…

On February 13, 1929, an unidentified Princeton student noted the gift of a book to the university library with an article in the Daily Princetonian, “Parson Weems, First American Book Agent, Subject of Biography Presented to Library.”

“First American book agent, adventurer, early biographer of Washington ‘and fabricator of the cherry-tree myth, Parson Weems is the subject of ‘a set of privately issued books presented to the Library last week by Emily Ellworth Ford Skeel, who has completed the work commenced by her brother, Paul Leicester Ford. …Mason Locke Weems, known as the “Parson”, lived a colorful life during the early days of the republic. Having just completed his theological training he went, upon the close of the Revolutionary War, to England to be ordained. The Archbishop of Canterbury refused to “touch the rebel.” He journeyed from one bishop to another fruitlessly. Finally, upon the personal intervention of President Adams, , the Church of Denmark agreed to admit him to the ministry.”

The student continued writing about individual books Weems self-published. “Tiring of [the ministry], he undertook to sell books for Mathew Carey, a Philadelphia publisher. …He saw a market for something besides the holy book, however and filled; it with moral pamphlets of his own composition. One was “The Drunkard’s Looking Glass, reflecting him in sundry very interesting attitudes.” He would enter the taverns illustrating ‘the “attitudes” which he described as follows: “First, when he has only a drop in his eye, second, when he is only half shaved, third, when he is getting a little on the staggers or so, and fourth and fifth and so on ’til he is quite capsized or snug under the table with the dogs and can stick on the floor without holding on.”

Originally written, printed, and published by Weems, the best-selling book continued to appear after his death, privately printed by his wife Mrs. Frances Ewell Weems. Princeton’s 1918 edition was the first to include illustrations, one engraving for the frontispiece “possibly engraved by William Charles,” along with 13 wood engravings attributed to William Mason. Often called the first wood engraver in Philadelphia, Mason is listed as a drawing master at 27 Sansom Street in an 1834 Philadelphia directory and in 1838 another directory listed W.S. Mason at 45 Chestnut.

Mason Locke Weems (1759-1825), The Drunkard’s Looking Glass Reflecting a Faithful Likeness of the Drunkard, in sundry very interesting attitudes, with lively representations of the many strange capers which he cuts at different stages of his disease … Sixth edition, greatly improved ([Philadelphia?]: printed for the author, 1818). Graphic Arts Collection Sinclair Hamilton 1019

Mason Locke Weems, his works and ways. In three volumes. [I] A bibliography left unfinished by Paul Leicester Ford. [II-III. Letters 1784-1825] Edited by Emily Ellsworth Ford Skeel (New York, 1929). Rare Books Z8962 .S62. Colophon of vol. III: This work originated with Paul Leicester Ford, was edited by Mrs. Roswell Skeel junior, and printed by Richmond Mayo-Smith, all of one family.

Reverend Mason L. Weems was rector of Pohick Church for a while, when Washington was a parishioner. He was possessed of considerable talent, but was better adapted for “a man of the world” than a clergyman. Wit and humor he used freely, and no man could easier be “all things to all men” than Mr. Weems. His eccentricities and singular conduct finally lowered his dignity as a clergyman, and gave rise to many false rumors respecting his character. He was a man of great benevolence, a trait which he exercised to the extent of his means. A large and increasing family compelled him to abandon preaching for a livelihood, and he became a book agent for Mathew Carey. In that business he was very successful, selling in one year over three thousand copies of a high-priced Bible. He always preached when invited, during his travels; and in his vocation he was instrumental in doing much good, for he circulated books of the highest moral character.”—Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution (1850)

North American sylva and the lost garden of New Jersey

J[ules?] Renard after a drawing by Adèle Riché (1791-1878), Chamærops palmetto (Cabbage Tree), for François André Michaux (1770-1855), The North American sylva; or, A description of the forest trees of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia, considered particularly with respect to their use in the arts, and their introduction into commerce: to which is added a description of the most useful of the European trees … (Philadelphia: Rice, Ritter, 1865). Rare Books 8772.642.11 v.3

 

[left] Rembrandt Peale, Portrait of François André Michaux, 1809-10. Oil on canvas. American Philosophical Society. Gift of family of Dr. Joseph Carson, 19 March 1880. 58.P.38

 

Andre Michaux (1746-1803) was sent to the United States in 1785 to find and collect woods suitable for building and plants good for eating, which could be grown in France. Traveling with his teenage son François André Michaux (1770-1855) and gardener Pierre Paul Saunier, he established two gardens in the United States to facilitate the accumulation of seeds and plants for shipment to France.

One of these 18th-century gardens was in New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City in Bergen County and the other in Charleston, South Carolina. When Michaux and his son returned to France, Saunier was left in New Jersey to manage the garden (with no English and little money). According to a study by William J. Robbins and Mary Christine Howson: “Today the site of Michaux’s New Jersey Garden is divided between the Hoboken Cemetery, warehouses, railroad tracks, and marshlands along the Cromakill Creek. … Nothing marks the spot and no one in the neighborhood realizes that this bit of land once was of special significance to France, as well as the United States of America, and a matter of concern to some of the outstanding figures of the day.…”–“André Michaux’s New Jersey Garden and Pierre Paul Saunier, Journeyman Gardener,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 102, no. 4 (Aug. 27, 1958).

Above selection from: Charles Hardenburg Winfield, History of the county of Hudson, New Jersey: from its earliest settlement to the present time (1874)

François André Michaux later returned on a commission by the French government to explore the forests of the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. By 1810 he completed the North American Sylva, first published in twenty-four parts, issued in pairs from July 1810 to March 1813, before being collected into three volumes. An English edition of the Sylva was originally planned in six half-volumes, but a seventh was added to help accommodate the extra plates and the corresponding text.
Read more: An Oak Spring sylva: a selection of rare books on trees in the Oak Spring Garden Library / described by Sandra Raphael (Upperville, Va.: Oak Spring Garden Library, 1989). Graphic Arts SD391 .R36q

The books are prized today for the color stipple engravings produced by a team of artists, including Bessin, Gabriel, Renard, Cally, Boquet, Dubreuil, J.N.Joly after botanical illustrations by Pancrace Bessa (1772–1846), Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840), Henri-Joseph Redouté (1766–1852), and Adèle Riché (1791-1878). Later additions published by Thomas Nuttal are illustrated with lithographic plates.

Although New Jersey’s garden has disappeared, the Michaux State Forest near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania remains.