Picturesque America was a two-volume set of books describing and illustrating the scenery of America, published by D. Appleton and Company of New York in 1872 and 1874 and edited by the romantic poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...

 (1794-1878), who also edited the New York Evening Post. The layout and concept was similar to that of Picturesque Europe

Picturesque Europe

Picturesque Europe was a three-volume, lavishly illustrated set of books published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. of London, Paris and New York in 1875...

. The work's essays together with its nine hundred wood engravings and fifty steel engravings, are considered to have had a profound influence on the growth of tourism and the historic preservation movement in the United States.

The preface described the book as "A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, canyons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country. With Illustrations on Steel and Wood, by Eminent American Artists. It is the design of this publication to present full descriptions and elaborate pictorial delineations of the scenery characteristic of all the different parts of our country. The wealth of material for this purpose is almost boundless"

This two-volume set and others of the same genre, achieved great popularity in the nineteenth century. Their illustrations provided a tour of nineteenth century America, unspoilt and pastoral, its centres of commerce, ports, architecture and natural treasures. In a modern (2001) treatment of the work, Sue Rainey, who is a historian of American graphic arts and has a particular interest in the artists who drew landscapes and cityscapes for periodical and book illustrations, wrote "As the first publication to celebrate the entire continental nation, it enabled Americans, after the trauma of the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, to construct a national self-image based on reconciliation between North and South and incorporation of the West." (p. xiii) The volumes display both steel and wood engravings based on the paintings of some of the best American landscape painters of the nineteenth century, such as John Frederick Kensett

John Frederick Kensett

John Frederick Kensett was an American artist and engraver. He attended school at Cheshire Academy, and studied engraving with his immigrant father, Thomas Kensett, and later with his uncle, Alfred Dagget...

, William Stanley Haseltine

William Stanley Haseltine

William Stanley Haseltine was an American painter and draftsman who was associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting, the Hudson River School and Luminism.-Early life and education:...

, James David Smillie

James David Smillie

James David Smillie , American artist, was born in New York City.His father, James Smillie , a Scottish engraver, emigrated to New York in 1829, was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1851, did much, with his brother William Cumming , to develop the engraving of bank-notes, and was an...

, John William Casilear

John William Casilear

John William Casilear was an American landscape artist belonging to the Hudson River School.Casilear was born in New York City. His first professional training was under prominent New York engraver Peter Maverick in the 1820s, then with Asher Durand, himself an engraver at the time...

, Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran from Bolton, England was an American painter and printmaker of the Hudson River School in New York whose work often featured the Rocky Mountains. Moran and his family took residence in New York where he obtained work as an artist...

, A. C. Warren, Harry Fenn

Harry Fenn

Harry Fenn was an English-born American illustrator, primarily of landscapes.He settled in Montclair, New Jersey around 1865. Fenn and is best known for the engravings he contributed to Picturesque Europe, Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt and "Picturesque America"...

, David Johnson

David Johnson (American artist)

David Johnson was a member of the second generation of Hudson River School painters.He was born in New York City, New York. He studied for two years at the antique school of the National Academy of Design. He also studied briefly with the Hudson River artist Jasper Francis Cropsey...

, Granville Perkins

Granville Perkins

Granville Perkins . Born October 16, 1830 in Baltimore, Maryland, was an American artist and illustrator.- External links :* http://www.vallejogallery.com/artist.php?name=Granville_Perkins&id=134* http://granvilleperkins.com...

, John Douglas Woodward

John Douglas Woodward

John Douglas Woodward was an American landscape artist and illustrator described by Joseph Pennell as one of the country's "best-known painters and illustrators"...

 (1846-1924), Felix Octavius Carr Darley, Albert Fitch Bellows

Albert Fitch Bellows

Albert Fitch Bellows , American landscape painter of the Hudson River School, was born at Milford, Massachusetts.-Early years:...

, James McDougal Hart

James McDougal Hart

James McDougal Hart , was a Scottish-born American landscape and cattle painter of the Hudson River School. His older brother, William Hart, was also a Hudson River School artist, and the two painted similar subjects....

, Casimir Clayton Griswold (1834-1918), Worthington Whittredge

Worthington Whittredge

Thomas Worthington Whittredge was an American artist of the Hudson River School. Whittredge was a highly regarded artist of his time, and was friends with several leading Hudson River School artists including Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford...

, Charles G. Rosenberg (1818 - 1879), William Ludwell Sheppard (1833-1912), Homer Dodge Martin

Homer Dodge Martin

Homer Dodge Martin was an American artist, particularly known for his landscapes.-Biography:Martin was born at Albany, New York. A pupil for a short time of William Hart, his earlier work was closely aligned with the Hudson River School...

, Alfred Rudolph Waud, William Hart

William Hart (painter)

William Hart , was a Scottish-born American landscape and cattle painter, and Hudson River School artist. His younger brother, James McDougal Hart, was also a Hudson River School artist, and the two painted similar subjects...

, Robert Swain Gifford

Robert Swain Gifford

Robert Swain Gifford was an American landscape painter. He was influenced by the Barbizon school.Much of his work focuses on the landscapes of New England, where he was born. He, along with Victorian contemporaries from the White Mountain and Hudson River Schools, helped immortalize the majestic...

, Jules Tavernier

Jules Tavernier (painter)

Jules Tavernier was a French painter. He was born in Paris in 1844 and died in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1889. He studied with the French painter, Félix Joseph Barrias , but left France in the 1870s, never to return. Tavernier was employed as an illustrator by Harper's Magazine, which sent him on...

, William Hamilton Gibson

William Hamilton Gibson

William Hamilton Gibson was an American illustrator, author and naturalist.-Biography:Gibson was born in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, of an old, distinguished New England family; one of his great-great-grandfathers was the jurist Richard Dana , who was the great-grandfather of the famous author...

, Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...

 and others.

Engravers included Robert Hinshelwood (1812-), Edward Paxman Brandard (1819-1898), Samuel Valentine Hunt (1803-1893), William Wellstood (1819-1900), William Chapin (1802-1888), Henry Bryan Hall

Henry Bryan Hall

Henry Bryan Hall , was an English stipple engraver and portrait painter.He was apprenticed to the engravers Benjamin Smith and Henry Meyer. Later he worked for Henry Thomas Ryall who was designated 'Portrait and Historical Engraver to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria'...

 (1808-1884).
Robert Hinshelwood was born in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 in 1812 and emigrated to America in 1835 where he became renowned for his landscapes, etchings and engravings. His meticulous attention to detail was appreciated by publishing houses such as Appleton’s and Harper's

Harper's Magazine

Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

, and also by the Continental Bank Note Company who employed him to produce plates for the printing of currency. He died in New York.
Volume I engravings:

• On the Coast of Maine
• St. John's and Ocklawaha Rivers
• Up and Down the Columbia
• Lookout Mountain and the Tennessee
• Richmond, Scenic and Historic
• Natural Bridge, Virginia
• Delaware Water-Gap
• Mauch Chunk
• On the Savannah
• The French Broad
• The White Mountains
• Neversink Highlands
• St. Augustine, Florida
• Charleston and its Suburbs
• Weyer's Cave, Virginia
• Scenes on the Brandywine
• Cumberland Gap
• Watkins Glen
• Scenes on Eastern Long Island
• The Lower Mississippi
• Mackinac
• Our Great National Park
• Harper's Ferry
• Scenes in Virginia
• Newport
• West Virginia
• Lake Superior
• Northern California
• Niagara
• Trenton Falls
• The Yosemite Falls
• Providence and Vicinity
• South Shore of Lake Erie
• On the Coast of California.

Volume II engravings:

• Highlands and Palisades of the Hudson
• Philadelphia and its Suburbs
• Northern New Jersey
• Valley of the Connecticut
• Baltimore and Environs
• The Catskills
• The Juniata
• On the Ohio
• The Plains and the Sierras
• The Susquehanna
• Boston
• Lake George and Lake Champlain
• Mount Mansfield
• Valley of the Housatonic
• The Upper Mississippi
• Valley of the Genesee
• St. Lawrence and the Saguenay
• Eastern Shore
• The Adirondack Region
• The Connecticut Shore of the Sound
• Lake Memphremagog
• The Mohawk, Albany and Troy
• The Upper Delaware
• Water-Falls at Cayuga Lake
• The Rocky Mountains
• The Canons of the Colorado
• Chicago and Milwaukee
• A Glance at the Northwest
• The Mammoth Cave
• New York and Brooklyn
• Washington