Alterations wrought on the early American landscape by the transportation revolution, which some historians date as having begun in New England around 1790, were profound and far-reaching. Roads and railways were built; canals were dug, and larger and faster steamers plied the waters of the young republic. The widespread ramifications were political, social, economic and artistic.
As the pace picked up, Americans and their goods went on the move. The average citizens who traveled previously on foot, by water and by horse †were they lucky enough to possess one †clambered aboard ships, steamboats, canal barges and railroad cars to reach their destinations. Goods could now to be transported easily and with far more dispatch than previously.
A national system of roads and turnpikes was developed as early as 1808, in effect, unifying the country, and the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. The westward expansion that resulted was twofold: it demonstrated the unification of the nation and the concomitant triumph of man over nature. National pride drew more Americans to venture deeper into the heartland of their country, and the new means of travel allowed them to expand their horizons.
Americans fell in love with the new modes of transportation and the freedom they engendered. While classically trained artists celebrated the grandeur of the American landscape, folk artists were inspired to create and embellish objects celebrating the burgeoning means of transportation. Captivated by their forms and functions, these generally anonymous but creative souls expressed themselves exuberantly, combining whimsy and meticulous calculation.
A selection of such objects is on view in “By Land or By Sea: American Folk Art and the Golden Age of Transportation” at the Shelburne Museum through October 25. The exhibit is drawn from the museum collections and is a compelling blend of the decorated utilitarian and the purely decorative in the forms of weathervanes, trade signs and textiles, to decorative paintings and carvings. It is arranged according to travel venue.
Many Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Americans arrived on the nation’s shores by ship; many derived their living from the sea and other waterways, while many others depended on them to convey their goods to market. Water transport was many things to many people: exotic, liberating and romantic, fraught with danger and heroism and, above all, profitable. Artists and craftsmen responded accordingly. The nautical theme is pervasive in American folk art.
A copper weathervane, circa 1869, by Cushing and White of Waltham, Mass., sails along in the form of a gaff-rigged sloop with a pronounced bowsprit. A ship’s portrait by John and James Bard of the Hudson River side-wheeler C. Vanderbilt , was probably commissioned by her owner, Cornelius Vanderbilt. The portrait alludes to the Hudson River race between the C. Vanderbilt and the Oregon and is a masterwork of revisionist history. Only the bow of the Oregon is visible off the stern of the C. Vanderbilt , although the former in fact won the race.
A selection of five scrimshaw whale’s teeth on view was acquired from museum founder Electra Havemeyer Webb’s cousin, George Freylinghuysen, between 1948 and 1952. A sixth came from Harry T. Peters.
An oil on wood painting on view, “Whale with a Long Tail,” is signed R. Costa and is said to have been painted by a cook on a whaling vessel. While the whale is a fanciful interpretation of the actual animal, its overwhelming power is suggested. The isolation of the ships at sea is also evident in the folky picture.
The unknown artist of the oil on canvas “Our Flag is There” was ambitious †the action-packed scene of a vessel under sail includes sailors loading a cannon, a village and a steam paddle-wheeler in the background and a voluminous American flag unfurling as it is raised. The artist gave the picture a painted trompe l’oeil rope frame with a banner proclaiming “Our Flag is There,” perhaps an allusion to the phrase from “The Star Spangled Banner.”
The horse was the essential means of conveyance since Pilgrim times and has been a favorite representational subject since. The Nineteenth Century peddler’s wagon has been described as a traveling trading post. The colorful one drawn by a team of six horses (four black and two white) in the painting “James Hervey Carter, Peddler” suggests a successful businessman. Henry Wood Carter, brother of James, was known as the “Merchant Prince of Northern New England.” The wagon is painted fancily and speeds along beneath a florid sky.
Another object with equine subject matter is the oil on canvas trade sign by Vermont sign maker Charles Hardin Andrus. The subject is “Kendall’s Spavin Cure,” an elixir for man and beast developed and sold by Dr Burney James Kendall of nearby Enosburg Falls. The sign depicts the trotter Rarus, who finished the fastest mile in an 1878 competition. Must have been the elixir.
Horses are also perennially popular weathervane forms. Two on view contrast the distinctions between mass production and handcrafting. The circa 1890 rider and sulky weathervane of tin and iron is attributed to the J.W. Fiske company. By contrast, the sheet iron sulky and rider weathervane was handcrafted and is unique.
As the iron horse swept across the landscape, its arresting form appeared on all manner of objects. A sheet zinc weathervane in the form of a locomotive on view came from a Providence, R.I., railroad station. The sunburst lightning rod with the mushroom device was a later addition. The circa 1840‱860 vane was purchased by the museum by Edith Halpert.
A hooked wool rug on view depicts the DeWitt Clinton, one of the earliest steam locomotives built in the United States. The train began its career on the Mohawk and Hudson line in New York August 9, 1831. The rug is later, perhaps based on a silhouette of the train by artist William Henry Brown.
The anonymous folk painting “Montpelier Railroad Station” depicts the impact of the newly emerging mass transportation. The crisply delineated locomotives of the Central Vermont Rail Road dwarf the humbler approaching horse and buggy.
The Shelburne Museum is on Route 7. For information, www.shelburnemuseum.org or 802-985-3346.
