Hartford Jail’s Picturesque America, Ex-Library
$350
In stock
Description
Bryant, William Cullen; Ed. Picturesque America; or, the Land We Live In. A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Forests, Waterfalls, Shores, Canons, Valleys, Cities, and other Picturesque Features of our Country. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1874. First Edition. Two volumes. Ex-library, former property of Connecticut’s infamous Hartford County Jail.
First edition of the beautiful classic, Picturesque America, “one of the great books of American Illustration” (Hamilton, 216). This standard-issue set appears to have gone straight from the publisher to Connecticut’s Hartford County Jail. Built more for form than function in 1878, the originally 200 cell facility began garnering negative attention as early as 1915 when the state legislature created a committee to investigate the poor conditions, including a lack of plumbing which was never corrected. Another committee in 1938 referred to it as “medieval”. Finally closed after substantial protest in 1977, the Jail is remembered for housing 100 suspected socialists during the 1919-1920 Palmer Raids which led to The Nation’s scathing coverage of the conditions of political prisoners in windowless, boiler-heated punishment rooms.
Two volumes. Large 4to, three quarter bound in the publisher’s standard cloth. Wear to edges, corners bumped. Leather losses along top and bottom spine and hinges. Volume 1’s back board’s leather has been scraped. Volume 2’s front board, bottom corner and top spine scraped with losses, back board faded nearly white along edges. Volume 1 back pastedowns and endpapers creased from past folding. Ex-library stamp, Hartford County Jail, present in both volumes on nearly all pastedowns and endpapers. One of volume 2’s is located on the tissue protector before the title page. Contemporary pencil, erased, on Volume 1 title. Complete with 49 steel-engraved plates and many other illustrations throughout both volumes. Good condition.
If Hartford Jail Picturesque America appeals to you, consider another amusing association copy like Anna Freud’s student’s copy of her first major work.
