Adirondack Vernacular

by Bogdan, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780815607816
• ISBN10: 0815607814
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr

Summary

The first full-length book to explore Henry Beach and his photographic legacy. Henry M. Beach was a prolific and accomplished upstate New York photographer who documented the North Country during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Although much less known and celebrated, Beach's work is as important to the twentieth-century Adirondacks as Seneca Ray Stoddard's is to the nineteenth century. Illustrated with over 250 examples of his work including ten panoramic foldouts, this book covers the range of Beach's subject matter. Robert Bogdan's lively and accessible approach to the photographer's work encourages the reader to explore the North Country's people and places through Beach's photography and life. Although Beach's postcard pictures and other photographs were taken to sell in bulk to hotel managers, tourist shop owners, and other retail merchants, they are not just mass-produced, stylized, pretty pictures. Beside the bubbling brooks and shady woodland paths are factory boomtowns and paper mills belching pollution. As the rails brought increasing num

Author Biography

Robert Bogdan is professor of sociology and cultural foundations of education at Syracuse University.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	ix
Preface: Tracking Henry	xv
Abbreviations	xvii
Part One: Time, Place, and Format
Introduction: Did You Take That Picture, Henry?	3	(8)
Life and Times of Henry M. Beach: Is That You, Henry?	11	(18)
How Did You Do Those Pictures, Henry? Postcards and Panoramic Photographs	29	(14)
Part Two: The Photographs
Hard Traveling: Buggies, Trains, Boats, and Automobiles	43	(16)
Scenic Views: Woods and Waters	59	(10)
Vacation Retreats: Family-Run Camps and Modest Hotels	69	(22)
Vacation Retreats: Grand Hotels and Clubs	91	(12)
Outdoor Life: Hunting, Fishing, and Camping	103	(12)
Logging and the Wood-Product Industry	115	(20)
Benson Mines and Other Industrial Sites	135	(12)
Towns, Villages, and Hamlets	147	(14)
Disasters	161	(10)
Montage and Whimsical Postcards	171	(12)
Conclusion: Vernacular Photography	183	(6)
References	189	(4)
Index	193