When researching Southern history, it is always interesting to find first-person accounts of earlier times, but it is most fascinating to find early images. It is surprising just how many of those early images are around and how they can relate to the present.
Many of the flowers that we are all familiar with in local gardens were first pictured in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. It was established in England by William Curtis in 1787 and contained hand colored engravings of plants and flowers with descriptive articles about each. It is still published today as Curtis’s Botanical Magazine by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
An 1804 illustration in the magazine comes to mind of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea, which was first recorded in South Alabama around 1780. William Bartram in 1791 published a book with what is probably the first illustration of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea. As a child growing up in Columbus, I can remember going with my grandmother to dig up wild specimens to transplant to our yard.
During the 1770s, Bartram traveled across the lower South observing and sometimes drawing its people and landscapes. In the late 1780s, he begin writing a book on his travels. “Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, Etc.,” was published with some of Bartram’s illustrations in 1791. It is still considered a classic account of the natural history of the early American South. It is still in print and often simply called “Bartram’s Travels.”
From the earliest European exploration of North America, many artists have sketched or painted their view of Native American people. Probably the most vivid images were watercolor paintings by John White, who sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh to Roanoke Island in 1585. During the early 1590s, Theodore de Bry turned those watercolors and paintings by Jacques le Moyne into what became widely published engravings. De Batz during the 1730s and du Pratz between 1718 and 1754 provided illustrations of the Choctaws and the Natchez Indians.
Other artists also attempted to visualize the New World. Unfortunately many of the early image makers give European attributes to both the Southern landscapes and peoples.
Between 1820 and 1830, Charles Bird King painted portraits of notable Native Americans. The portraits were placed in the Indian Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. That gallery burned in 1865 and most of the portraits were lost. One portrait that has survived in private hands is of Pushmataha, the great Choctaw chief.
Though most of the originals were lost, 120 of King’s paintings had been published as lithographs by Thomas McKinney and James Hall between 1838 and 1842. McKinney and Hall were not the artists but the publishers who commissioned the lithographs. In doing so, they have preserved many historic images that otherwise would have been forever lost.
The most prolific of all of the artists of early America scenes was George Catlin. From 1830 to about 1860 he painted hundreds of American and Native American scenes. Among his portraits were images of Choctaws including Ha-Tchoo-Tuc-Knee (Peter Pitchlynn) and Mo-Sho-La-Tub-Be, who lived in what is now Lowndes and Noxubee Counties respectively. Another interesting painting that he did was of the “White Sand Bluffs, on Santa Rosa Island” which is a view of the Gulf beach near Pensacola, Fla. Catlin’s book “Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians” can still be found in print and contains about 300 illustrations.
When thinking of historic images most people do not think of John J. Audubon, but his illustrations do not only contain birds or animals. He tried to paint his subjects in their natural habitat. So although his birds are interesting, it is often the background that catches my attention. Those backgrounds provide beautiful illustrations of the flora and landscape of the south during the 1820s.
One southern plant that figures prominently in Audubon’s art is the Oak Leaf Hydrangea. Among early artists the plant seems to have been a popular image, which I find most interesting as it is one of my favorite flowers.
The development of photography in the mid 1800s resulted in untold numbers of photographs of people and places. Also mid-1800s billheads often contained engravings of the store front or type of merchandise offered for sale. The widespread introduction of illustrated magazines in the second quarter of the 19th century additionally provided a wealth of images. Because of the large number of these later images, a search for an image can be more local. Archives such as the Billups-Garth Archives at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library or Special Collections at Mississippi State University Libraries or the Mississippi Department of Archives and History are filled with photographs and other images of local interest.
Southern history and art are deeply intertwined and to fully study one requires an understanding of the other.
Rufus Ward is a local historian. Email your questions about local history to him at [email protected].
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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