The year 1909 marked the tricentennial of Henry Hudson’s arrival in the New World and the centennial of steam technology as developed by Robert Fulton. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration marked the occasion in New York and New Jersey with pageantry and civic pride. The commission overseeing the festivities was led by Andrew Carnegie and J. P. Morgan, and included participation by institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New-York Historical Society. All of which mounted exhibitions that showcased the cultural history of a thriving New York City. At the same time, the organizers intended to display the growing economic influence and industrial might of New York, one of the world’s metropolitan capitals (Kobbé, 19 and 27). Employing more than one million incandescent light bulbs, a newly developed technology at the time, organizers of the Celebration awed crowds by illuminating the city in a manner never seen before ("Wonders in Lighting").
The participants in the Celebration ranged from large to very small institutions. Following the festivities, the New York Society of Iconophiles made its contribution with the publication of The Hudson-Fulton Celebration by Gustave Kobbé and illustrated by Francis S. King, which has been digitized for the Documenting the Gilded Age project (see illustrations). Kobbé was a noted art critic who worked for the New York Herald Tribune, and his book reflects on the history of the Hudson River and New York as well as the significance of the Celebration.
Kobbé noted that celebrations of the size of Hudson-Fulton seldom accompany “peaceful achievements” and are more closely linked to the “pomp, circumstance and panoply of war” (Kobbé, 24). He called the event a “great object lesson in the history and development of their city” and the impact of this instruction was intended to be felt most by “New York’s foreign-born population,” who may not be as attuned to the present success of the city as the “native population” (Kobbé, 26).
Founded by William Loring Andrew of the Grolier Club in 1894, the “humbler and narrower” New York Society of Iconophiles, the publisher of the book by Kobbé, was dedicated to the art of engraving and the preservation of the city’s “buildings of interest..., before the rapid march of improvement should sweep away the... relics of the olden time” (Andrews, 15). The Society commissioned artists and engravers to depict picturesque views of the New York and portraits of famous historic New Yorkers. Originally begun by Andrews as a hobby, a group of bibliophiles, collectors, and engraving enthusiasts joined him in his interest in the fading memory of a bygone past (Andrews, 15).
The founding members numbered six, and the Society sought to keep the organization small. After ten years of existence, Andrews noted that the Society maintained the “doubtful distinction of being the most limited of any book or print club now in existence” (Andrews, 15). The group’s modest ranks were matched by the limited production of prints that it sponsored. The Society published seventeen print series. Each was issued in an edition of 101 impressions, with the first eleven prints being proofs signed by the engraver. Their plates were destroyed after the printing of each series.
—. “Wonders in Lighting.” New York Times 15 Jul 1909: 6. Web. 3 July 2012. <http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0B12FF355E12738DDDAC0994DF405B898CF1D3>
Andrews, William Loring. Catalogue of Engravings Issued by the Society of Iconophiles of the City of New York, 1894-1908. New York: Society of Iconophiles, 1908. Print.