Title page
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.

label levels:

Published in three volumes, Picturesque Worcester features the illustrations of artists living in Massachusetts. Elbridge Kingsley (1842-1918) was a painter, engraver, and art teacher who grew up in Hadley and Hatfield, MA. He spent considerable time as an adult sketching western Massachusetts in a homemade trailer. Frederick Knab (1865- 1918) was a painter born in Bavaria, who later came to the region. Picturesque Worcester, like many illustrated histories of its day, juxtaposed natural and man-made wonders, celebrating each. Page 7 of this book illustrates a large elm tree which was a particular symbol of America. Other pages show artistically rendered photographs of large rocks that are characteristic of the Worcester county landscape. Such rocks were deposited throughout the New England woods by glaciers and were often accompanied by particular stories of their origin. Other images of dams and mill ponds demonstrate ways in which man has harnessed these awe inspiring forces for his own use.

top of page