Print, Relief

Description

This copy of "The Shaker Settlement, at Canterbury," appeared in Robert Sears', A New and Pictorial Description of the United States, published in 1848. It appears on page 48. The artist for this illustration has not yet been identified, but according to Robert Emlen, Benson J. Lossing was Sears' chief engraver at the time and either he or someone working under his supervision may have been the engraver. This same illustration had previously appeared is Sears' New and Popular Family Magazine (2020.16.17) and later appears in Sears' Pictorial History of the United States, of which a number of editions were published, the last of which being published by John A. Lee & Co., Boston, Massachusetts, in 1876. Copies published in 1848 can be identified by the appearance of the numeral "4" in the bottom margin of page 48. The illustration is Sears' artist rendition of the scene at Canterbury that first appeared in The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge (November, 1835) (See: 2020.16.12). The illustration accompanies a description of the history, beliefs, and practices of the Shaker Society at Canterbury, New Hampshire, also generally copied from The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge. While the illustration undoubtedly was done originally as a wood engraving, its appearance in Sears' successive publications indicates that a set of stereotype or electrotype plates were made from the wood engraving. These plates would have then been used to print the illustration in other editions.