Wild Impressions: The Adirondacks on Paper. Prints in the Collection of the Adirondack Museum

Boston, MA: David R. Godine, 1995. Hardbound. As New. Green cloth spine and tan boards. 99 pp. 19 color, 104 bw plates. Main essay by Georgia Barnhill, with a foreword by David Tatham. Published to accompany an exhibition held at the Adirondack Museum, May 27 to Oct. 15, 1995. There are 80 footnotes to accompany the essay, providing fertile ground for future research. There are 96 metal engravings, 64 artists' etchings, 181 lithographs, and 233 wood engravings. Since its opening last century, the Adirondack wilderness of upstate New York has captured the nation's imagination. Home to artists and writers, philosophers and sportsmen, its mountains, rivers, and valleys have always radiated a special mystique, offering its admirers what was, and still is, among the largest and most spectacular wilderness regions in the East. Nowhere is the topography, history, or activities of this area more eloquently recorded than in the print collection of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. And in this fully illustrated book, certain to become the standard reference work on the subject, the reader is treated to the remarkable variety and quality of graphic work that has flowed from this region. Here are wood engravings by Winslow Homer, color lithographs after A.F. Tait, hunting scenes from Currier and Ives, and etchings by Stephen Parrish and John Henry Hill. Whether intended to attract tourists, record the landscape, or sway public opinion, these prints not only document the history of a singular region but also mirror the broader cultural trends of a vigorous, expansive, and confident America.