KARST, PICTURESQUE AMERICA, AND VICTORIAN IMAGES OF NATURE

One of the most important popular publications of the 19^th century is Picturesque America, a two-volume set of books that was published in 1872 and 1874 that describes the natural and built landscape of America. The editor of the set was William Cullen Bryant, the noted romantic poet and essayist. The book is divided into dozens of essays about particular places and contains striking steel and wood engravings that depict an America that is beautiful and untarnished by the recent Civil War. Indeed, the book’s prose is effusive in its praise for the glory of the American landscape and sets a tone for the development of tourism and the elevation of particular places as exalted in the vernacular landscape and memory of Americans. Yet, what places were selected as worthy of inclusion? Throughout the book there are dozens of images of places that depict nature in ways that presage Ansel Adams’ photographic expression of nature as a landscape devoid of humans or at least with humans as simple observers of nature. Also, the books contain pretty scenes of cities showing robust actors on an urban stage with strong architecture and regional character. Some karst and pseudokarst landscapes, particularly Mammoth Cave and Niagara Falls, are discussed. Their descriptions and images are entirely romantic and Victorian in tone. Nature is seen as a place of great beauty with human observers elevated by their interactions. While some karst landscapes contain the romantic beauty prized by Victorian era writers and artists, most do not. Therefore, the majority of America’s karst landscapes are missing from Picturesque America. Given that the book was published during a golden age of geologic exploration and research in the United States, and that science of the time was influenced by the Victorian landscape romantics, it is not surprising that karst landscapes were not the focus of many scientists during the Victorian era in the United States.