Show an adventure A advent lare in american 4 e s C cm VIV M IVR tv astor rog A k gg V 1 IRN z I 1 u 7 aw W SHON nna R gg va 1 A as the dincov brer of america there are legion but it remained for the yale research staff to trace back for the first time all these portraits to their original source and that original g burce Is the hovius portrait show n above a engraving which it Is believed was first pub limbed in 1575 and which is a copy of a portrait that huna tn the famous gallery of paulus 4 all ali picture from rom tim pageant of america courty courtesy yale vav ity pr by ELMO SCOTT WATSON warson ghea 0 MOST americans mention of st 9 the le event which we celebrate cc on ga july 4 tho the signing of the dec M la ration of independence brings brines to mind the famous painting of that historic scene which hangs hanga in the rotunda of the capitol in washington for it la Is through the eyes of john trumbull the connecticut pointer painter that we nave have received most of our visual impressions no not t only of what lmh place in independence luell tn in philadelphia on july 4 1770 but of ninny many of the other great events in tho the american revolution A short time ago yale university comme commemorate morat ed cd the centenary of tho the opening of the oldest art gallery in tills MB country connected with a college the founder of that art gallery the architect of the original building was tills same sama john trumbull whose body lies in a vault beneath the fine arts building which has succeeded the simple little structure which he designed and which housed the original collection of hla his canvasses that have since become so famous the commemorative ceremonies which consisted principally of showing g again all of the trumbull collection of paintings as they had once been displayed displaced in the vanished building which lie designed not only served to honor hollor ill the I 1 painter of americas epic but it emphasized once more the part which tills this university line haa played in the visual education of americans in the astory of their country it recalled once more an ambitious project of that institution in this educational field ocla b begun c more than a decade ago and appropriately enough brought to a triumphant conclusion during the year in which the of american independence was being celebrated that was the publication of the pageant of Ain america erien a 15 volume pictorial history of our country which tins has worked something of it revolution in the methods of presenting and studying Amer american lenn history the idea for such a project took form while the yale vale university press which had jutt just completed publication of another notable series tho the chronicles of america w was a 3 experimenting peri pert with the tha presentation of the drama of american history through the medium of moving pictures ures tho the result of this experiment wai ans the outlining of a plan for a pictorial chronicle of america ir in book form there hove have been many pictorial histories of america but the majority of them have been comparatively compi irn lively valueless valur lest because the pictures have often been tin nn excuse to weaken the text nud and the text has been an excuse to pass off ed or deceptive pictures on the confiding reader so the problem ot of the yale a authorities U thorit ties les was not only to avoid a repetition of the errora which had given pictorial history n bad repute but also to prepare a combination of pictured and text which would be scholarly enough to satisfy the most exacting scientific historian and lively and interesting enough to meet tho the demands of popular appeal without sacrificing anything of accuracy and acthen but the most interesting story of all in con lection with the presentation of this unique ling bant ts Is the story or of the worldwide world wide search for the pictures which went into it it is the story of nn an a adventure in american Americ nia history as roman tic nn an adventure in many of Us its aspects ns any an incident which Is recorded la in our school his tories for it Is the story of a nine year search through private collections and those of governmental ern mental bodies historical societies libraries museums inu art galleries learned societies and 1 french uniforms worn during the french and indian war from the paintings by H A ogden 2 the earliest engraved likeness of columbus published in 1575 from the hovius portrait the original source of all columbus portraits 3 emigrants attacked by indians indiana on the western plains A typical incident of the opening of the trans country after the drawing by F 0 C darley the foremost illustrator of american life and history in that period 4 the first oil well ja A derrick was erected in the neighborhood of Titus titusville ville pa and in the year 1859 the boring for a oil 11 began tn in the photograph drake wearing a silk hat appears talking to his friend peter wilson Vl laon a druggist of Titus titusville ville from a contemporary photograph taken by john A mather 0 r institutes and religious and educational institutions not only in this country but in foreign coun countries tries as well it la Is the story of at some fine detective work vork in following clews some of tich which ended successfully and some unsuccessfully of persistence and perseverance in the face of baffling balT lIng problems and seemingly insuperable obstacles all in the name of historical accuracy I 1 nut but out of it all came a total of more than authenticated pictures as the basis for what Is now recognized as the farst and thus far the only real source book of victoria pictorial americana incidentally when tho the work was completed it represented the e expenditure pend iture tor for capital account of more than probably the largest sum ever spent for a single piece of historical research but a very modest amount when compared to the ahie value and importance of the tha results obtained in considering the task before the yale authorities thorl ties it must be remembered that american history began long long before there were cameras to record historic incidents as they bare are recorded today so the only pictorial record anve e have hae of some events of the greatest his orient importance was made by artists equipped only with the crudest sort of inspru rodents and materials for their work mu but the importance of their accomplishment lies itea in the fact that they furnished contemporary records and the modern camera can be used for copying their work and here again comes in the matterer matt matter eror of cost in producing tho the pageant of america for tn in many cases cacs the cost of securing a copy 0 of f some individual picture ranged anywhere fr from 0 m IC up to 30 in two to of the volumes of th the e series tire are 17 full page illustrations such as Is a shown hown uell ati ebore tire which reproduce in colors the uniforms forma worn artl by participants in the various american wars the search for paintings da guerreo types lithographs and engravings of contemporary events and for charters commissions and other documents preserved tn in official archives took the r research ele ar C h staff of tile the pageant of america into many strange places it wal ans recognized at the start that the discovery or of america was only an incident tn in tho the discovery of asia arid that to illustrate the background of the lie beginnings of american history it would be necessary to find pictures which would show the influences tn in europe as far back as the time of zerphil and enrco polo which led ultimately ti to columbus attempt to find tho the route to asia by railing calling west so the earliest dated picture in the pageant IVagean vI Is it a page from the I aten manuscript of alfini 0 bremen in the eleventh nie century in which the tha first mention or of vinland discovered by the norsemen norseman Nor semen was made after considerable difficulty this manuscript was wag located in the tn in vienna of portraits of columbus popularly regarded hovius archbishop of nocera a man of vast wealth who spent a fortune in collecting portraits of the great men of his time and who was an ardent admirer of the italian navigator it is believed that this Is the only portrait of columbus painted during his life lifetime tinte back of a portrait which appears in another volume of the pageant 1 the winning of freedom Is a typical story of perseverance when this volume was tn in preparation the authors wanted a portrait of one of the german who fought under the british flag d during u ring the revolution none being available in this country a search was begun through the amerlean american consul general in berlin after considerable correspondence with various museums and private v n te collectors the consul general learned that an excellent oil painting of baron friederich edesel Rl who commanded the hessians under burgoyne was still hanging in the castle 0 of f neuenhof hof bel eisenach II essen through the courtesy of freiherr Frel herr albrecht Rl edesel a descendant ant of the eighteenth century baron permission was finally grunted granted a year later to make a photographic copy of the original even more devious was the trall trail which finally led to an authentic daguerreotype of william F founder of the express business in the united states while assembling material for the volume the march of commerce the editors came upon a very poor woodcut of in stimsons sons JIl history story of the express companies published in 1858 desiring the original daguerreotype from which this reproduction had apparently been made they enlisted th the e aid of the officials of the american railway express company through S M baker general auditor at chattanooga tenn they learned that the original had been tn in the possession of son who was living in san francisco shortly after 1800 1860 using the san francisco directories they addressed identical letters to several Harn dens listed therein one of these was W ir and he proved to be a grandson of william F W IC hamden replied that he believed the desired daguerreotype was in the possession of hla his older elder brother frederic then ihen living in palo alto such proved to be the case but the end of the trall trail was not yet for the elder brother could not locate the picture na as it had been tn in storn storage go for some time Mria finally lly however a year after the first inquiry a copy of the daguerreotype was received just in time to be reproduced and included in the plato pictorial elal history of the express business but not all descendants of past notables were as help helpful fulps AS the Harn Ilar dens the yale authorities tell the story of the search for an authentic portrait of a little known but important figure in the revolution they located one of his descendants in a small new england town a woman who owned a contemporary oil portrait alt of the revolutionary fighter but when ay ap pealed to for permission to reproduce the painting she refused presumably because of the reticence and reserve which characterize the old fashioned spinster lady of the yankee type and also possibly because she feared that some injury to the painting might result so it was necessary to send a member of the editorial staff there tor for the diuri purpose ose of coaxing the old lady to make it possible for her ancestor tobe to be represented in this important historical work the staff member found the portrait hanging in the parlor where it could not be photographed on the wall and he experienced great difficulty tn n persuading her to let him take it down from the wall then when he secured the necessary permission she would not let him take the painting out of the house so BO he had to bring a commercial photographer for more than one hundred miles to in order to make certain bertah of getting a good copy 0 by bir wem won 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