1878 Ruger Bird's-Eye View of Dover and Foxcroft, Piscataquis, Maine

DoverFoxcroft-ruger-1878
$2,000.00
Dover and Foxcroft. Piscataquis Co. Maine 1878. - Main View
Dover and Foxcroft. Piscataquis Co. Maine 1878. - Main View
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1878 Ruger Bird's-Eye View of Dover and Foxcroft, Piscataquis, Maine

DoverFoxcroft-ruger-1878

Wool towns on the Piscataquis.
$2,000.00

Title

Dover and Foxcroft. Piscataquis Co. Maine 1878.
  1878 (dated)     15.5 x 27.24 in (39.37 x 69.1896 cm)

Description

This is a scarce 1878 bird's-eye view map of Dover and Foxcroft, Maine, by J. J. Stoner. It captures the river towns at the height of their prosperity as industrial and mill centers of the Maine wool industry.
A Closer Look
On publication this view was described in the Piscataquis Observer, Dover-Foxcroft, April 11, 1878:
The Bird’s Eye View of Dover and Foxcroft from Mayo’s Hill looking North, in Lithograph form, has been brought to our office. We are pleased to chronicle the fact that it is a decided success, both in point of accuracy and quality of work. It is not always that our hopes in such matters are realized, but we can cheerfully admit that the lithographer has exceeded his promises and very much improved on the original sketch. We should suppose that many of our citizens having relatives abroad would take advantage of such an opportunity to mail copies of this picture to the absentees, as it can be done at a trifling expense. Every citizen should secure a copy if possible, and preserve it for future years. It will be a source of pleasure to call up old scenes by looking at the Bird’s Eye view of Dover and Foxcroft in 1878. The agent informs us that he has only twenty-five extra views.
Dover and Foxcroft
The Piscataquis River separates the towns of Dover and Foxcroft, which administratively merged in 1922. Dover, settled in 1803, utilized the river’s waterpower from the 1830s to operate sawmills, grist mills, and a woolen mill, sparking a thriving woolen industry. Other local manufacturing included carriages, boots, shoes, and tinware. Dover became the seat of Piscataquis County in 1838. Foxcroft, settled in 1806, developed similarly with its own woolen mill, lumber and grist mills, and various factories, becoming a key commercial and industrial hub.
American Bird's-Eye City Views
The Bird's-Eye view industry emerged in the United States in the middle part of the 19th century and coincided with the commercial development of lithographic printing. Before the rise of lithography, the ability to own and display artwork in the home was largely limited to the extremely wealthy, but the advent of lithographic printing made it possible for everyone to own visually striking artwork. A robust trade developed in portraits of political leaders, allegorical and religious images, and city views.

City views were being produced in the United States as early as the 1830s, but the genre exploded after the American Civil War (1861 - 1865). Bridging the gap between maps and pictures, most 19th-century American bird's-eye views presented cities to the public from high points. Some were imagined, but others were drawn from hot-air balloons or nearby hills. The presentation, combining high elevation, commercial interest, and new printing technology created a uniquely American art form, as described by historian Donald Karshan,
Some print connoisseurs believe that it was only with the advent of the full-blown city-view lithograph that American printmaking reached its first plateau of originality, making a historical contribution to the graphic arts. They cite the differences between the European city-view prints and the expansive American version that reflects a new land and a new attitude toward the land.
The vogue for bird's-eye city views lasted from about 1845 to 1920, during which period some 2,400 cities were thus portrayed, some multiple times. Although views were produced in many urban centers, the nexus of view production in the United States was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The major American viewmakers were Stoner, Wellge, Bailey, Fowler, Hill Ruger, Koch, Burleigh, Norris, and Morse, among others.
Publication History and Census
This view was drawn by Albert Ruger and published by J. J. Stoner in 1878. It was engraved and printed by Beck and Pauli Lithography of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We see examples at the Boston Public Library and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Rare.

CartographerS

Albert Ruger (August 29, 1828 - November 12, 1899) was an important Prussian-American viewmaker active in the mid to late 19th century. Ruger was born in Prussia and immigrated to America as a young man sometime before 1850. He lived for a time in Akron, Ohio, where he was an apprenticed stone mason. By 1860, he had his own journeyman and apprentice. Near the end of the American Civil War, Ruger enlisted with the 196 Ohio Infantry. His first views date to this period and illustrate Union camps and an 1865 view of Columbus, where he was stationed. Discovering a talent for viewmaking, Ruger abandoned his work as a stonemason to move to Battle Creek, Michigan, and pursue a new career. Like most view makers, Ruger's views were sold by subscription and most were self-published. Ruger worked with a variety of other view makers and publishers, among them Eli S. Glover, Thaddeus M. Fowler, Joseph J. Stoner (Ruger and Stoner), and Augustus Koch. Ruger's work is distinctive, presenting cities from an exceptionally altitudinous perspective, giving his views a notably maplike quality Moreover, Ruger is significant in the corpus of view making. He is considered the first American viewmaker to achieve commercial success. Moreover, he is noteworthy not only for the quantity of his views, about 175, but also for the subject matter, focusing on southern and western cities following the Civil War. Ruger died in Akron, Ohio, at 71. More by this mapmaker...


Joseph John Stoner (December 21, 1829 - May 1917) was a Madison, Wisconsin based publisher of bird's-eye city views active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Stoner was born in Highspire, Pennsylvania and apprenticed as a carver of ornamental chairs before turning to publishing. He partnered with the bookseller Ephraim T. Kellogg of Madison, Wisconsin, for whom he was a traveling agent. His career in views began around 1867 when he met and befriended the bird's-eye view artist Albert Ruger, who was sketching Madison that year. Ruger and Stoner partnered and began publishing city views under the imprint 'Ruger & Stoner.' The partners traveled extensively through the Midwest publishing some 11 city views under their joint imprint - although there may be as many as 62 others unattributed. The partnership partially dissolved in 1872 although they continued to work together on a contractual basis. Stoner subsequently traveled even more extensively, hiring young artists to sketch city views in such wide ranging destinations as Texas, Maine, and Oregon, among others. He produced a total of some 314 views with various artists including: Albert Ruger, Herman Brosius, Thaddeus M. Fowler, Augustus Koch, Albert F. Poole, Henry Wellge, Joseph Warner, and Camille N. Drie (Dry). Stoner died in Berkeley, California in 1917. Learn More...


Beck and Pauli (fl. c. 1878 – 1889) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin based lithography firm founded in 1878 by Clemens J. Pauli and Adam Beck. The firm published hundreds of lithograph city views for many of the most prominent viewmakers of the period, including Lucien Rinaldo Burleigh, J. J. Stoner, Henry Wellge, Pauli himself, and others. The company was most active in the mid-1880 until about 1889, when the partners went separate ways and closed the company. Learn More...

Condition

Very good.

References

Reps, John, Views and Viewmakers of Urban America (University of Missouri, Columbia, 1984), #1203. Boston Public LIbrary, Leventhal, #G3734.D6A3 1878 .R8.