The Niagara Companion

Linda L. Revie

Description

What is it about Niagara Falls that fascinates people?

What draws them to it? Is it love, obsession, or fear?

In The Niagara Companion, Linda Revie searches for an answer to these questions by examining the paintings and writings about the Falls from the late seventeenth century, when the first Europeans discovered Niagara, to the early twentieth century.

Linda Revie’s study considers how three centuries of representations are shaped by the earliest encounters with the waterfall and notes shifts in the construction of landscape features and in human figures, both Native and European, in the long history of fine art depictions. Travel narratives, both literary and scientific, also come under her scrutiny, and reveal how these chronicles were influenced by previous pictures coming out of Niagara, particularly some of the first from the seventeenth century.

In all of these portraits and texts, she notes a common pattern of response from the observers — moving from anticipation, to disappointment, to a kind of recovery. But in the end, there is fear. Even long after Niagara had become a tourist mecca, it was often drawn as a primordial wilderness — a place where civilization vies with wildness, artifice with nature, fear with control, the natural with the mastered. Throughout this history of images and narratives, as humans struggle to control nature, the notion of wildness prevails.

Those who want a deeper understanding of why Niagara Falls continues to fascinate us, even today, will find Linda Revie’s book an excellent companion.

Sujets

• Cultural Studies

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 22 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554587735
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Niagara Companion

Explorers, Artists, and Writers at the Falls, from Discovery through the Twentieth Century
Niagara River Recreation Trail Map. Niagara Parks Commission.
The Niagara Companion

Explorers, Artists, and Writers at the Falls, from Discovery through the Twentieth Century
Linda L. Revie
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Revie, Linda L. (Linda Lee) The Niagara companion: explorers, artists, and writers at the Falls, from discovery through the twentieth century / Linda L. Revie.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88920-433-0
1. Niagara Falls (Ont.)-Description and travel. 2. Niagara Falls (Ont.)-In art. 3. Niagara Falls (Ont.)-In literature. 4. Niagara Falls (Ont.)-History. 5. Niagara Falls Region (N.Y. and Ont.)-Description and travel. 6. Niagara Falls Region (N.Y. and Ont.)-History. I. Title.
FC3095.N5R477 2003 971.3 39 C2003-904095-X
2003 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5 www.wlupress.wlu.ca
Cover design by Leslie Macredie, using a painting by Isabella Stefanescu; text design by P.J. Woodland.
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.

Printed in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Introduction
C HAPTER 1 Indian Icons and Wilderness Ideals
C HAPTER 2 Challenges of the Niagara Sublime
C HAPTER 3 Naturalist Observations and Feats of Physical Endurance
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

W HILE THIS BOOK GREW OUT OF MY PH.D. dissertation at Boston College, it has deep roots in annual childhood pilgrimages to Niagara Falls (always on the Victoria Day weekend). For those early encounters, I thank my parents, Ronald and Doreen Revie. Graduate fellowships at Boston College gave me the opportunity to carry out work on the thesis. And, at Boston College, my former supervisor, Rosemarie Bodenheimer, saw me through the years of research, writing, and rewriting.
At Wilfrid Laurier University Press, thanks go to Sandra Woolfrey for instructive comments on an early draft, and to Brian Henderson, Carroll Klein, Jenny Wilson, Leslie Macredie, Pam Woodland, and Elin Edwards for advice and encouragement.
I am grateful to the three formal reviewers (all anonymous) from the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme for detailed and thoughtful readings.
Finally, I owe very sincere appreciation to Mary MacDonald, Angela Caretta, and Jeffery Donaldson; to Isabella Stefanescu for painting Niagara; and to Karen Dubinsky for all her insightful processing.
List of Figures

F IGURE 1: Anonymous, The Falls of Niagara (1697)
F IGURE 2: Sebastian LeClerc, View of Niagara Falls (ca.1700)
F IGURE 3: Herman Moll, The Cataract of Niagara (ca.1715)
F IGURE 4: Thomas Davies, Niagara Falls from Below (ca.1766)
F IGURE 5: Anonymous, A View of the Famous Cataract of Niagara in North America (1751)
F IGURE 6: Henry Fuseli, View of Niagara Falls (1776)
F IGURE 7: Robert Hancock, The Waterfall of Niagara in North America (1794)
F IGURE 8: Isaac Weld, View of the Horseshoe Falls of Niagara (1799)
F IGURE 9: Thomas Cole, A Distant View of the Falls of Niagara (1831)
F IGURE 10: W.R. Callington, The American Steam Packet Caroline , Descending the Great Falls of Niagara after Being Set on Fire by the British, December 29th, 1837, with a Distant View of Navy Island (1837)
F IGURE 11: Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara (1857)
F IGURE 12: Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara Falls, from the American Side (1867)
F IGURE 13: Arthur Lumley, Niagara Seen with Different Eyes (1873)
F IGURE 14: Elizabeth Simcoe, Niagara Falls, Ontario, July 30, 1792
F IGURE 15: Anonymous, Horseshoe Falls at Niagara, entrance of the cavern on the English side (1801)
F IGURE 16: Anonymous, Oilskins to Go Behind the Sheet (1879)
F IGURE 17: Power Works at Niagara Falls (1906)
Introduction

R ECENTLY, A PARTY OF WRITERS on a day trip from the International Festival of Authors in Toronto gathered behind the railings at Niagara and contemplated the Horseshoe Falls. William Gass, Isabel Colegate, and Al Purdy offered no yelps of surprise; instead, they gravely reflected on the architectural boils -the fast-food outlets and gift shops-that ruined their view. But one writer in their midst, South African novelist Andr Brink, moved beyond his initial reaction to the garish spectacle and claimed that Niagara was impressive. Brink went on to contemplate: What impresses one is that despite all the efforts to spoil it, the real power of nature remains untamed. 1 Brink s use of words like power and untamed, and the way in which his disapproval was succeeded by satisfaction echo centuries of responses at Niagara. The seventeenth-century European discoverer of the cataract, Louis Hennepin, expatiated on the wonders of the scene and on his own inadequacy, as if he did not have the power to describe such an awesome view; in the nineteenth century, writers, stunned by Niagara s sublimity, protested the impossibility of language, as if their civilized discourse could not account for the untamed experience of Niagara; and our twentieth-century authors from the International Festival complained about the sordid landscape and contemplated a wilder vision, as if they could get past the accumulated evidence of centuries of industry, commerce, and tourism to some once-pure nature, whose true form existed prior to the state of contamination. The way in which commentators at Niagara write about power and, conversely, deficiency-or wildness and sordidness-connects them through the centuries.

N IAGARA F ALLS WAS KNOWN about before the Mayflower landed. Samuel de Champlain, one of the first European explorers in Canada, alluded to a large waterfall as early as 1603, yet the name did not appear on maps until 1641. 2 The Neutral Nation, an Iroquoian tribe living in villages in the Niagara area from approximately AD1300 to 1643, gave us the name Niagara ( Thunder of the Waters ). 3 It is reported by Champlain that those Neutrals who lived along the Niagara River were called Onguiaronon ( People of the Thundering Waters ). While other variations of the Iroquoian word handed down to us include Ongiarah, Ouinagarah, and Ongniaraha , it was later anglicized as Nee-ah-guh-ah.
In 1678, the first party of Europeans explored the place that Champlain had only heard about. When Louis Hennepin wrote about Onguiaahra- his version of the word Niagara -he described an incredible Cataract which has no equal. 4 According to Hennepin, the deep, rapid river split into three waterfalls, each of which plunged down 600 feet. His account served as the foundation for a 1697 illustration- also the first picture of Niagara. That view contains two very tall, very broad sheets of water, a steep, thin cascade and, in the distance, a chain of high mountains. These latter features suggest that Niagara was seen as a gateway to some other place. Even though this description and drawing were idealized, later writers and painters were willing to follow Hennepin in his choice of viewpoint.
For the next wave of Europeans-French and British militia-the great waterfalls were obstacles that had to be circumvented, but the river, a channel for boats and people, allowed access to the rich resources of the New World s interior. 5 Later in the eighteenth century, wars between the First Nations, French, and British, followed by Indian-European alliances and inter-tribal conflicts, resulted in the Treaty of Paris (1783), which established the Niagara River as a dividing line between British North America and the United States of America. Once a conduit for people and goods, the river was now a border between nations. The successive wars, charters, and treaties, followed by waves of immigration, influenced settlement and travel around the Niagara River and had impacts on both culture and development.
While stationed at the Falls, some eighteenth-century military gentlemen sketched and described a Niagara that was implausible even by Hennepin s standards. Then, immediately before and after the American Revolution, Niagara became popular among a different group of people-European travellers, entrepreneurs, and natural historians. They came to the Falls to size it up for themselves and, in the process, challenged or, in some cases, furthered the exaggerated descriptions. After the War of 1812, Niagara was added to the itinerary of the popular Northern Tour taken by Americans. Wars with France meant that the British cancelled their European grand tours in favour of trips to the Falls. 6 Early in the 1820s, thousands of genteel travellers w