USA > Ohio > Sketches and statistics of Cincinnati in 1859 > Part 19
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The following table points out at a glance our progress, to this date, in buildings. Dwellings, shops, public buildings, warehouses and offices in ---
1815.
1819.
1826.
1932.
1838.
1844.
1850.
1070 1890
2495
4016
5981
9136
16286
This statement shows that Cincinnati has been increasing, for the past forty-three years, at an average rate, which doubles its buildings every nine years. At the same time the erection, since 1850, of private dwellings and public buildings, in value, conve- nience and style of finish, and the warehouses in increased num- bers of stories, as well as enlarged ground space, surpass their predecessors in a far greater ratio.
It is worthy of notice, also, that while, in 1815, the brick build- ings were but 22 per cent. of the whole, they now form four-fifths or 80 per cent. of all the buildings in Cincinnati.
There is no city in the world, of equal or greater size to ours, in which so large a share of the community are property-holders.
VII. THE FINE ARTS.
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EVERY intelligent and reflective tourist in foreign countries must have noticed, as significant and suggestive, the fact that the most lasting and honorable monuments of a people's greatness are those connected with the national art. Statesmen and their petty schemes of policy die together, and the consequences of victories are little more than a richer harvest or two, when the battle-fields are tilled again, and the desolated cottages rebuilt. Commerce, too, has its vicissitudes, but art is eternal. Even science and mechanics must yield to it, since the discoveries and improvements of one age ob- literate by surpassing the results of a former one; but beauty is immutable while infinite, and the creations of a true artist endure to yield pleasure and instruction to successive generations. Every country in Europe affords examples of this, and frequently the musing traveler finds that States, once mighty in arms and com- merce, now literally subsist on the capital of artists who once, per-
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THE FINE ARTS.
haps, starved in them. Venice, for instance, was, in her time, the richest and most potent republic in the world; yet take from her Titian and his great cotemporaries, and the art which decorates her churches and palaces, and the Lido would soon claim the fallen city. Rome was the mistress of empires, and now the only national evidences of her past glory are the mutilated remains of her architecture and sculpture; nor would the religion of the modern city prevent it becoming as much a desert as the Appian Way, had not the genius of Angelo and Raffael renewed its immor- tality, and made it more than ever the "Eternal City." Who would visit Parma were it not for Correggio, or stop a day at Perugia, were it not for Pietro, the master of Raffael? Govern- ments in Europe recognize the truth of this, and the records of a grateful public are not wanting to substantiate it. In Germany, and indeed throughout the Continent, the towns are populous with statues of great artists; the chiefest attraction of the cities are the galleries of their works; streets are named after them, and the great living painters and sculptors are the companions of sove- reigns, and are loaded with honors. In Italy it is forbidden to export any great picture of a grand master, and so intimately are they esteemed to be connected with the prosperity, as they are with the sympathies of the people, that an attempt to carry away any famous picture would cause a revolution or occasion a war.
These are not imaginary reflections, and it only needs to be shown how the great Napoleon recognized the fact to assure us of it. While he lived, he endeavored in every way to enrich his capital with these works of genius; and the sagacious policy of his nephew is exhibited in the same way, until Paris has become the wonder and delight of the world. The art of a country has thus become the type of its power, not less than its refinement, and political economists in this country would do well to learn that it is not alone in the encouragement of what are called, with an illiberal and false distinction, the useful as compared with the fine arts, that the prosperity of a nation is advanced.
Our limits will not permit us to pursue this subject further. Leaving it, we may turn with justifiable pride to the eminence that our young city, in spite of its remoteness from the great art schools of the world, has attained in both painting and sculpture. Without invidious comparisons, we may well feel proud of what we have accomplished. No other city of the Union, cateris paribus,
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THE FINE ARTS.
has produced so many artists, reckoning among them, too, some of the brightest names in the art of the country.
As early as the year 1823, our infant city had its claims to æstheti- cal consideration. Of the artists, who painted here at that time, Joseph Kyle was the most eminent; and he, not an old man at present, enjoys a metropolitan reputation in New York, where he still has a studio. Following him, in 1826, was Sydney Lyon, a painter of some reputation, who had studied in Europe. His pic- tures were chiefly portraits.
From these early days the number of artists has continued to increase, until the saying has become as true as alliterative that has distinguished Cincinnati for pork and painting. Omitting the hum bler aspirants, who have left little or no influence upon our art, we will content ourselves with a brief notice of those whose reputa- tion is national.
1828. Minor K. Kellogg, a native of Cincinnati, who has painted some fine pictures, mostly illustrative of oriental life. He has re- sided for many years in Florence, Italy; and has now a studio in Paris.
1836. James H. Beard. This gentlemen came to the city when quite a youth, and has remained here ever since, steadily rising in reputation. His pictures are chiefly portraits, of which many have already a historical interest. He has tried, however, with consid- erable success, several other branches of art. "The Poor Rela- tions," "The Emigrants," and "The Last Victim of the Deluge," are among the more important of his works.
1831. John Frankenstein; a portrait painter of considerable eminence, to whom our progress in art is much indebted; a faith- ful student of nature, his pictures will be valuable for the correct likenesses they almost invariably present. He has still a studio in the city, but has exchanged the pencil for the chisel, and has suc- ceeded equally well as a portrait sculptor. Godfrey Frankenstein, his brother, commenced his career as an artist in 1840, and is a distinguished landscapist. George Frankenstein, a still younger member of this family of artists, is also a promising painter.
1833. William II. Powell, a student of Inman, has studied also in Rome and Paris, in which latter city he painted his picture of "De Soto Discovering the Mississippi," a picture in the rotunda at Washington, and, with the exception of Weir's painting, one of the
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THE FINE ARTS.
best of our national pictures. He has returned to this country, and is painting pictures which will increase his reputation; being en- gaged at present upon a historical work representing "Perry's Victory on Lake Erie,"-a commission from the State of Ohio, for which he is to receive five thousand dollars.
1838. T. Buchanan Reed; born in Chester county, Penn., in 1822, Cincinnati may also rank among her illustrious painters, since it was here that he commenced his artistic career. Like Washington Allston, Mr. Reed is famous both as a poet and painter; though, perhaps, no one has ever lived who has united these two branches of art with such excellence in both. We can only notice him here in his latter character. He was a mere child, when he attracted the notice of Clevenger, with whom he at first studied sculpture, giving promise of extraordinary capacity also in that field of art. The embryo poet-painter, however, was soon driven, partly by the impulse of his genius, and somewhat also, perhaps, by that necessity which so often attends the cradle of art, to portrait painting, in which he soon attracted attention. After painting with indifferent success, both in the eastern cities and in the west, he went, in 1850, to Italy, where he produced some more ambitious pictures. His poetical reputation having, by this time, been recognized in the most flattering terms, both at home and abroad, and his position as a painter rapidly rivaling it, he was induced, soon after his return to this country, to make a second voyage to Italy. The pictures painted during this visit, especially the " Lost Pleiad," and the " Undine," greatly enhanced his fame; but, unfortunately for his countrymen, the two pictures we have mentioned were both purchased in England. He came home only to revisit Europe a third time, whence he has again returned with new honors and still finer pictures ; among which are " The Water- fall," " The Apotheosis of the Innocents," "Jephthah's Vow," and other sacred and poetical designs. Our limits forbid any details of criticism, but we may generally observe that in subjects of a historio-poetic character, such as require a delicacy of feeling and treatment, Reed has no rival in this country; while in portraits, especially of women, he is not less successful. His present studio is in New York.
1838. T. W. Whitridge, a landscape painter of great merit. His earlier pictures gave great promise. In 1849, he went to Europe, where he has since resided, at Dusseldorf, and more
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THE FINE ARTS.
recently in Rome. His pictures partake of the character of the German school, in which he studied, but bear the marks of an earnest and independent personal study of nature. He ranks among the first of our American landcape painters.
1841. Charles Soule; a portrait painter, who has painted some remarkably fine heads.
1842. William L. Sonntag; a landscape painter, who has fol- lowed the school of Cole, in which he has surpassed his master. His pictures are bold and imaginative, and exhibit a creative genius and ability, which, if chastened and moulded by a closer study of nature, would have raised him to the highest rank of his profession. He has been twice to Europe, without influencing his unfortunate style. His present studio is in New York.
1844. William Walcutt; portrait and historical painter. His studio has been, until recently, at Paris. His paintings are fre- quently fine.
1846. J. O. Eaton; one of the best of our resident portrait painters. His pictures are generally faithful as likenesses, and nearly always good as paintings.
1847. William Miller; a miniature painter of taste and ability. His studio is still in the city.
1853. John R. Tait; a native of Cincinnati. This young and talented landscape painter and poct, began his career as an artist in the studio of Sontag, in his native city, in 1853. In the same year he accompanied Sonntag to Europe, and took up his resi- dence in Florence. Here he enjoyed many advantages, not only from the study of the great masters, but from the loveliness of the surrounding scenery, which were immediately manifested in his pictures, and still more strongly in his poems. In 1855, after having visited northern Italy, he returned to our city, where he remained, pursuing his profession until the autumn of 1858, when he again turned his steps to Europe.
Sculptors .- Cincinnati may boast of three of the most dis- tinguished sculptors of the Union, one of whom has probably a wider-spread reputation than any other living artist. With him our country's genius for this stately art was first recognized. Hiram Powers is a Vermonter by birth, but came to this city very early, and his first studio was here. His first works were in wax, and portraits and dramatic tableaux in this fragile material are still preserved in the Western Museum. Among his first marble busts,
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was one of the late Judge Burnet, which is still considered inim- itable. In 1836, he went to Europe, and settled in Florence, Italy, where he now resides. His works; exhibit no less versatility than genius. The most important of them are, "The Greek Slave," "Eve," "California," "America," "The Fisher Boy," " Il Pense- roso," etc., and portrait statues of Washington and Webster. In addition to these, he has made many fine ideal and portrait busts.
Shubacl Clevenger died, after the briefest fulfillment of a most brilliant promise. His artistic remains are nearly all portrait busts. Had he lived long enough for a complete development of his genius, he would have won the highest rank in his art.
Joel T. Hart, born in Lexington, Ky., also commenced his artist life in Cincinnati, in the studio of Clevenger. He went abroad, in 1849, to Florence, where he has since remained. He has scarcely a living rival in marble portraiture. He is engaged, at present, finishing a statue of Henry Clay for the State of Virginia.
William Wiswell, jr., long and favorably known here not only as a manufacturer of gilt mirror, portrait and picture frames, with mouldings in a variety of styles, and all richly ornamented and of the latest improved patterns, but as a liberal patron of the fine arts, has devoted the entire lower floor of No. 70 West Fourth st., to exhibition, free of charge to visitors, of one of the finest col- lections of works of art by masters in Europe and America, which surpass in excellence, number and variety many of the exhibitions in the Academies of the Fine Arts in our eastern cities. They con- sist of historical and fancy pieces, portraits, landscapes and other pictures. A description of these would be an entire catalogue. As specimens, it may suffice to refer to portraits of Webster, J. Q. Adams, Gen. Taylor, Gov. Chase, and others, by Beard, Soule, Eaton, etc., and landscapes by Whittridge, Sonntag, Kemper, etc., of Cincinnati celebrities; to Rothermel's "Landing of Cortez at Campobello and the burning of his vessels;" Bruckner's " Marriage of' Pocahontas," and what is probably the chef d'oeuvre of the col- lection, Robbe's " Bull Broke Loose," pronounced by connoisseurs equal to the famous " Bull" of Paul Potter at the Hague.
This gallery is a favorite resort, of evenings especially, and fre- quented by visitors, principally strangers, as many as fifteen hun- dred of whom have visited it in one day and evening.
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OBSERVATORY.
VIII. SCIENCE AND LITERATURE.
OBSERVATORY.
THE site on which the Cincinnati Observatory is erected, is one of great beauty. The building crowns a hill which rises some five hundred feet above the low water of the Ohio river, and commands a view of wonderful variety. On the east are seen in the distance the hills of Kentucky; the river coming in from the northeast; the towns of Fulton and Jamestown, with their manufactories and ship- yards: toward the north and northeast extends the same range of high grounds, on the most southern spur of which the Observatory is erected. The nearest of these are now highly cultivated, and are covered with luxuriant vineyards, and orchards of choice fruit. The village of Mt. Auburn presents an elegant appearance, espe- cially when lighted by the first rays of the morning sun. Looking west from the summit of the Observatory, the entire city of Cin- cinnati is spread out before the beholder as upon a map. There is scarcely a building in the whole city which may not be dis- tinguished from this elevated position. The river is followed by the eye toward the southwest, its continuity occasionally broken by · the interposition of high hills : on the south and southwest are seen the Kentucky cities of Newport and Covington, separated by the Licking river, whose rich valley indents the country for more than twenty miles.
Such is the character of the position selected for the erection of the first great Astronomical Observatory ever erected by the people. Four acres were presented, on the summit of this hill, to the Astro- nomical Society, by N. Longworth. From so elevated a position, there is, of course, an uninterrupted horizon; so that the moment an object ascends above that line, it may be brought within the sweep of the telescope.
The Observatory building is constructed of stone, quarried from the hill, presents a front of eighty feet, and rises two stories and a half high on the wings, and three in the centre. The front is orna- mented by a Grecian Doric portico.
Through the centre of the main building, and founded on tho
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OBSERVATORY.
natural rock, rises a pier of grouted masonry, eight feet square, entirely insulated from the floors through which it passes, to fur- nish a permanent and immovable basis for the great equatorial tele- scope, the chief instrument of the Observatory. This magnificent telescope, one of the largest and most perfect in the world, was made at the Frauenhofer Institute, Munich, by Messrs. Mertz & Mahler, so distinguished for the perfection of their optical instru- ments. The focal length is about seventeen and a half feet; the diameter of the object-glass, twelve inches; bearing magnifying powers varying from one hundred up to fourteen hundred times. Clock-work is attached to the ponderous mass of the telescope and all its machinery and circles, by which its mass, weighing some twenty-five hundred pounds, is moved with such admirable accu- racy that an object under examination may be followed by the tele- scope at the will of the observer. This stupendous instrument, mounted on a stone pedestal of great strength and graceful figure, rises, when directed to the zenith, some twenty feet above the floor of the room in which it is located.
This room is surmounted by a roof of peculiar structure, and so arranged that a portion of the vertical wall and the roof, strongly framed together and mounted on wheels on a railway track, may, by a single person, be rolled either north or south, when the entire heavens fall within the sweep of the telescope. It is truly wonder- ful to behold the admirable manner in which this huge instrument is balanced and counterpoised, until the astronomer handles it with as much facility as if it were divested of gravity, or were afloat on some liquid surface.
One story lower, and in the transit-room, is mounted the transit telescope, the property of the United States Coast Survey, and fur- nished to the Observatory by the present Superintendent, Dr. A. D. Bache. Connected with this instrument is an admirable sidereal clock, by Molyneux, of London, and presented to the Observatory by Wilson McGrew, of our city. Here also is found the new ma- chinery invented and constructed by the present Director of the Observatory, Prof. O. M. Mitchel: it consists of two instruments of entirely different construction, the one intended to record the observations of right ascension; the other, observations of difference in declination or of N. P. distance.
It would be quite impossible, in the compass of this notice, to give any just idea of this wonderfully delicate apparatus. By
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OBSERVATORY.
means of the electro-magnet, the clock is made to record its own beats, with surprising beauty, on a disk revolving with uniform velocity on a vertical axis. This disk, covered with paper or metal, receives a minute dot, struck into it by a stylus, driven by a magnet, whose operating electric circuit is closed at each alter nate beat by a delicate vibrating wire attached to the pendulum of the clock by an actual spider's web; thus, at each alternate vibra- tion of the pendulum, the circuit is closed, and the second is en- tered, magnetically, on the revolving disk. At the close of each revolution, the disk moves itself forward about the tenth of an inch, without check or interference with the uniformity of its angular motion, and a new circumference of time dots commences to be recorded. On the time-scale thus perpetually forming, the ob- server can enter, magnetically, by the touch of a key, the observed instant of transit of any star or other object across the meridian wires of his telescope.
These entries are subsequently read from the disk, even down to the thousandth of one second of time.
This apparatus has now been in use for nearly ten years, and has furnished observations of accuracy never before reached by any previous instruments. The rapidity, facility, and accuracy at- tainable by these observations are truly admirable. Results have made it manifest that the errors, from all sources, were only to be found among the hundredths of one second of time. The inventor hopes to banish the errors from this region even, and drive them to the thousandth of a second.
The declination apparatus is also entirely new, and seems to possess astonishing power. It releases the observer from the ne- cessity of reading any circles or other means of identifying his in- strumental positions, and enables him, at a single transit, to record as many as ten observations for declination, even among the swiftly- moving bodies of the equator. This gives an advantage, all other things being equal, of ten to one over the old methods of observing. This instrument is yet incomplete in some of its refined details, but has produced remarkable results, and gives the highest promise, when mechanically complete in all its parts.
Such are the appliances for work in the Cincinnati Observatory. There is no endowment, and the present director has no salary or other compensation, and no assistance but what is paid for by him- self. The great telescope has been principally employed in the
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CINCINNATI HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
measure of the newly-discovered and previously-discovered double and multiple stars, and in figuring remarkable clusters and nebulæ.
The other apparatus and transit instrument are employed in re- determining the places of the N. A. standard stars, and other kin- dred observations. It is only to be regretted that an enterprise, so nobly conceived, and so well carried out, could not now be per- manently endowed, that its instruments might be worked day and night to their utmost capacity.
The Observatory is one, and not least among all, of those fea- tures of Cincinnati, which have given it character in Europe. The reputation of the director, Prof. Mitchel, is as high abroad as at home. His astronomical works have been reprinted in England, and find a place in scientific libraries there. His clock-registering invention has been adopted in trans-atlantic observatories, and his astronomical labors have been acknowledged as unsurpassed for industry and value by the distinguished savans of the age.
CINCINNATI HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
THIS flourishing and useful society, which originated in the active exertions of Robert Buchanan and a few others, of this city and vicinity, was formed in 1843, during the spring, summer and autumn of which year it held meetings nearly every Saturday, in the lower room, on 'Third street, between Walnut and Vine, for- merly occupied as the postoffice. A correspondence was opened with distinguished horticulturalists in different parts of the Union. New fruits were thus brought to light, and seeds and scions of su- perior varieties were exchanged and disseminated. The exhibi- tions of flowers in the spring, and of fruits, vegetables and Ameri- can wine in the autumn, were crowded with visitors, and a great impulse thus given to the culture of fruits and flowers.
From this humble beginning it has prospered beyond the antici- pations of its most ardent friends, and now, in the sixteenth year, numbers eight hundred and sixty members. Its receipts for the past year were over three thousand dollars, and expenditures nearly the same; about twelve hundred dollars of which were paid out in premiums for fruits and flowers, and horticultural designs and decorations. It has a library numbering more than four hun- dred and fifty volumes.
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Y. M. M. L. ASSOCIATION.
That the society has been productive of much good, there can be no doubt; the great improvement in our fruit and flower market, which we notice every year, is the strongest evidence of its utility, while the growing taste for the beautiful and innocent pursuits of horticulture, gives delightful occupation to the leisure hours of many an amateur in our city and vicinity, affording, at the same time, an extensive and liberal market for the nurseryman and florist.
The semi-annual exhibitions of this society, particularly the autumnal, have been rich and varied, and highly creditable to our infant western institutions. Gentlemen from the east have acknowledged that our exhibitions compare favorably with the best of those across the mountains, and in many fruits even excel them.
The officers of the society for the present year are-S. W. Haseltine, President; Gen. M. S. Wade, George Graham, Wm. D. Bickham, Vice Presidents : E. J. Hooper, Recording Secretary; F. G. Cary, Corresponding Secretary; William Stoms, Treasurer.
Y. M. M. L. ASSOCIATION.
Organized April 18, 1835, with forty-nine members; increased to four hundred and seventy-two by April, 1841; to sixteen hun- dred and fifty-three by January, 1851, and now numbering three thousand and seventy members.
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