The romance of rivers in precious old photographs
Rivers have as much power as the sea to inspire photographers. Here are some pictures on the subject from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although very old, they still brim with the charm and mystery of the rivers that captured the photographer’s imagination.
It is by the brink of running water that poetry is revealed to the mind.
— James Stephens, from Irish Fairy Tales, 1920
Susquehanna River near Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, c. 1900
Photographer unidentified
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA
Under the Bluffs of the Withlacoochee River, Florida, c. 1885
Photographer unidentified
Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Crusoe’s Island – River Granta, 1887
Photo by Peter Henry Emerson (British, born Cuba, 1856–1936)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
RIVER
Something wanders among the mountains,
Something ripples along forget-me-not fields,
Somethihngs curves its golden sand-bar
Like the hanld of a purple sword.
Do not wonder :
Something is looking for a castle
Made of seaweed, shells and coral,
Where the sea curls
Under the sunrise.
— Hilda Conkling, 1920
Cape Horn on Columbia River, c. 1900
Photo by J.F. Ford (American, active 1900s)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Minnesota River, 1908
Photo by J. Frederick Krost (no other information available)
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA
Boys with a Boat, Ohio River, near Wheeling, West Virginia, 1880
Photo by Thomas Anshutz (American, 1851?1912)
Courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable.
— T. S. Eliot, from The Dry Salvages (No. 3 of ‘Four Quarters’), 1943
River and elevators, Buffalo, c. 1900
Photographer unidentified
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA
Parliament From the River, 1914
Photo by Alvin Langdon Coburn (British, born United States, 1882–1966)
Courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
A related post you may also like:
~ Barista Uno
