Product Details
Paperback
272 pages
University of Minnesota Press (Txt)
Published 2002
Book Description
As mapmaker and photographer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Henry Peter Bosse (1844-1903) took more than three hundred photographs of the Upper Mississippi River from 1883 to 1893. His work was almost unknown until five separate volumes of his photographs were discovered during the past few years. Since then, Bosse's work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian and sold by leading auction houses to private collectors around the world. Views on the Mississippi brings together for the first time almost one hundred of Bosse's most stunning images. These cyanotype photographs trace the river from Minneapolis to St. Louis, capturing the Mississippi as it was transformed from an untamed natural wonder to a modern commercial highway. A detailed reproduction of Bosse's rare landmark map of the river, first published in 1887-88, is a fascinating guide to the historic Upper Mississippi.
"Views on the Mississippi transports readers back more than one hundred years and puts them behind the camera of a photographer and mapmaker whose work is recognized around the world. The photos-of the river, its bridges, towns, bluffs, barges, and boats-provide a view of the river during its early development as a major commercial highway and recreation area. . . . Includes many marvelous vistas of the breadth and sweep of the river." Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Mark Neuzil has assembled a stunning array of nineteenth-century photos. . . . While researching another topic, he stumbled upon the bluish cyanotype photos made by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mapmaker Henry Bosse. Neuzil could not pass up the chance to give readers a lesson in river history, biology, urban planning, engineering, and industry." Des Moines Register
"Views on the Mississippi opens a window on the great river before its face was changed by America's industrial boom and navigation construction projects. It is part travelogue, part history, part a collection of works of art." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Mark Neuzil is associate professor of journalism and mass communication and environmental studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. |
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