Inventing the American Past: The Art of F.O.C. Darley

A celebration of the work of one of America's greatest nineteenth-century draughtsmen, this illustrated volume explores the achievement of F.O.C. Darley, illustrator of works by Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the popularizer of such national types as the Pilgrim, the Pioneer, the patriotic Minuteman, and the canny Yankee Peddler. In style and subject matter, Darley's work ranges from the earthy realism and humor of his early illustrations for popular fiction through the heroic grandeur of the large engravings of historical subjects and the deluxe editions of his later career. Many of these compositions are closely related to contemporary developments in history and genre painting. The reproductions presented here are all from originals in the collections of The New York Public Library and include drawings demonstrating Darley's great skill as a draughtsman, as well as wood engravings, steel engravings, and lithographs revealing how other artists interpreted his work.