China, Hunan, Yangtsze, Hankow cm150
"TCruising Up the Yangtsze," by Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore, Illustrations by Harry Fenn. This is an original article from Century Magazine, Vol. LVIII, March, 1884, 12 pp. (loose), 7 Engraved Illustrations, 6 1/4" x 9 1/4".
About The Author
Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore (1856-1928) was a writer, photographer and geographer, who became the first female board member of the National Geographic Society. She visited Japan many times between 1885 and 1929. Scidmore was born October 14, 1856 in Madison, Wisconsin. She attended Oberlin College. Her interest in travel was aided by her brother, George Hawthorne Scidmore, a career diplomat who served in the Far East from 1884 to 1922. Eliza was often able to accompany her brother on assignments and his diplomatic position gave her entree into regions inaccessible to ordinary travelers. It was on their return to Washington, D.C. in 1885 that Eliza had her famous idea of planting Japanese cherry trees in the capital. Scidmore found little interest in her cherry tree idea, but more in her impressions of Alaska, the subject of her first book, Alaska, Its Southern Coast and the Sitkan Archipelago (1885). She joined the National Geographic Society in 1890, soon after its founding, and became a regular correspondent and later the Society's first female trustee. Further eastern travels resulted in Jinrikisha Days in Japan, published in 1891. It was followed by a short guidebook, Westward to the Far East (1892). A trip to Java resulted in Java, the Garden of the East (1897) and visits to China and India resulted in several National Geographic Magazine articles and two books, China, the Long-Lived Empire (1900), and Winter India (1903). Another stay in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War became the basis for Scidmore's only known work of fiction, As the Hague Ordains (1907). The novel purports to be the account of a Russian prisoner's wife who joins her husband at the prisoner's hospital in Matsuyama. Scidmore's cherry blossom scheme began to bear fruit (or at least flowers) when incoming first lady Helen Taft took an interest in the idea in 1909. With the first lady's active support, plans moved quickly, but the first effort had to be aborted due to concerns about infestation. Subsequent efforts proved successful, however, and today many visitors enjoy the sakura of West Potomac Park and other areas of the capital, particularly during the National Cherry Blossom Festival. After As the Hague Ordains, Scidmore published no new books and a dwindling number of articles for National Geographic, the last being a 1914 article entitled "Young Japan." She died in Geneva on November 3, 1928, at the age of 72.
Harry Fenn (1845-1911): Harry Fenn was known as a painter, illustrator, etcher, and engraver. He began his career as a wood engraver but quickly switched to pencil drawings. He came to the U.S. in 1864 ostensibly to see Niagra Falls, but he remained for six years, then traveled to Italy to study. In 1870 he came back to the U.S. and illustrated his first book, Whittier's Snow Bound, which was soon followed by the Ballads of New England. These were the first illustrated gift books produced in this country, and they marked an era in the history of book making. In 1870 he made an extended tour of the United States to gather material to be used for illustrations for his landmark book, Picturesque America (edited by William Cullen Bryant), a book which was published in 1872. He traveled to Europe in 1873 to make sketches for Picturesque Europe and subsequently spent two winters in the Orient for the last of the trio, Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. The publication of these books won him fame. He returned to the U.S. in 1881 and kept a studio in New York City. Later in life, Fenn concentrated on watercolor paintings. He was a member of the New York Watercolor Club, the Society of Illustrators, the Salmagundi Club, and was a founder of the American Watercolor Society. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1864 and at various times at the Brooklyn Art Association between 1864 and 1885. He exhibited at the Columbian Expo in Chicago in 1893 where he was awarded a medal. His White Mountain scenes include Evening in New Hampshire, Evening on Mount Washington, Mount Washington and Adams, Mount Washington under Three Feet of Snow, and Mount Washington, North Conway. |
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