1815-1850: The Arts: Chronology

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1815-1850

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 1815-1850

1815

• Literature Hugh H. Brackenridge, Modern Chivalry; Philip Freneau, A Collection of Poems on American Affairs and a Variety of Other Subjects; Lydia H. Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse; G. C. Verplanck, A Fable for Statements and Politicians.
• Music Oliver Shaw, The Providence Selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes; Samuel Worcester, Christian Psalmody.
• The North American Review is founded.

1816

• Literature Francis W. Gilmer, Sketches of American Orators; James Ogilvie, Philosophical Essays; George Tucker, Letters from Virginia; Alexander Wilson, Poems: Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect; Samuel Woodworth, The Champion of Freedom.
• Music Ananias Davisson, Kentucky harmony; George K. Jackson, A Choice Collection of Chants; William Whiteley, The Instrumental Preceptor.
• Jan. Thomas Jefferson recommends that the Italian scuptor Antonio Canova be commissioned to make a life-size statue of George Washington.

1817

• Literature Thomas Branagan, The Pleasures of Contemplation; Amasa Delano, Narrative of Voyages and Travels Comprising Three Voyages Round the World; James K. Paulding, Letters from the South.
• Music Samuel Dyer, New Selections of Scared Music; Wheeler Gillet, The Virginia Sacred Minstrel; Thomas Hastings, The Musical reader; Enoch Mudge, The American Camp Meeting Hymn Book.
• William Cullen Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis” is published anonymously in the North American Review.

1818

• Literature William Cullen Bryant, To a Waterfowl; Hannah M. Crocker, Observations on the Rights of Women; Edwin C. Holland, Corsair; James K. Paulding, The Backwoodsman; John Howard Payne, Brutus; or, the Fall of Tarquin: An Historical Tragedy.
• Music James M. Boyd, The Virginia Sacred Musical Repository; Daniel Read, The New Haven Collection of Sacred Music.
• Architect Benjamin Latrobe completes the Baltimore Cathedral.

1819

• Literature James N. Barker, She Would Be a Solidier; or, The Plains of Chippewa; Washington Irving, The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon; James K. Paulding, Salmagundi, Second Series; Richard H. Wilde, The Lament of the Captive.
• Music Ezekiel Goodale, Instrumental Director; Andrew Law, The Harmonic Companion; Oliver Shaw, Melodia Sacra.

1820

• Literature Maria Brooks, Judith, Esther and Other Poems; James Fenimore Cooper, Precaution; Samuel Judah, The Mountain Torrent; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Battle of Lovewells’s Pond; William Tudor, Letters on the Eastern States.
• Music Allen D. Carden, The Missouri Harmony; Cary Harris, Western Harmony for Singers.

1821

• Literature William Cullen Bryant, The Ages and Other Poems; James Fenimore Cooper, The Spy; Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography; James Percival, Poems.
• Music James P. Carrell, Songs of Zion; Ananias Davisson, An Introduction to Sacred Music; Angus Humphraville, Missouri Lays and Other Western Ditties.

1822

• Literature Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall; James Lawson, Ontwa, the Son of the Forest; Clement C. Moore, Twas the Night before Christmas; Mordecai M. Noah, The Grecian Captive; Catharine M. Sedgwick, A New England Tale; john Taylor, Tyranny Unmasked.
• Music Jacob Franch, Harmony of Harmony; Thomas Hastings, Dissertation on Musical Taste; Peter Spencer, African Union Hymn Book.

1823

• Literature James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers; James McHenry, The Spectre of the Forst; James K. Paulding, Koningsmarke, the Long Finne; John Howard Payne, AliPascha.
• Music Nathaniel Gould, Social Harmony.

1824

• Literature Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok; A Tale of Early Times; Washington Irving, Tales of a Traveller; catharine M. Sedgwick, Redwood; Royall Tyler, The Chestnut Tree.
• Music Asahel Nettleton, Village Hymns for Social Worship.
• Architect William Strickland designs the Second Bank of the United States.

1825

• Literature John G. Brainard, Occasional Pieces of Poetry; Lydia Maria Child, The Rables; or, Boston before the Revolution; Nicholas Hentz, Tadeuskund, the Last King of the Lenape; William Leggett, Leisure Hours at Sea; William Gilmore Simms, Poems.
• Music William Moore, Columbian Harmony.
• The Manuel Garcia family appears in The Barber of Seville and Don Giovanni in New York City, the first performances of Italian opera in the United States.

1826

• Literature James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohians; Frederic S. Hill, The Harvest Festival and Other Poems; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poems; George P. Morris, Brier Cliff; James K. Paulding, The Merry Tales of the Three Wise Men of Gotham.
• Music Hymns of the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States; Lowell Manson, Address on the Church Music; Samuel Woodworth, Melodies, Duets, Trios, Songs and Ballads.
• Samuel F. B. Morse and fellow artists found New York’s National Academy of Design.

1827

• Literature James Fennimore Cooper, The Prairie; Richard Henry Dana Sr., The Buccaneer and Other Poems; Edgar Allan Poe, Tamerlane and Other Poems; Sarah Wood, Tales of the Night.
• Music Thomas Hastings, The Juvenile Psalmody.
• Sales of Catharine M. Sedgwick’s novel Hope Leslie make her the first American woman to earn a living from her writing.

1828

• Literature Robert M. Bird, The City Looking Glass; Timothy Flint, The Life and Adventures of Arthur Cleanings; National Hawthorne, Fanshawe; Grenville Mellen, Sad Tales and Glad Tales; Margaret B. Smith, What Is Gentility?
• The Charleston journal The Southern Review begins publication.
• Minstrel performer Thomas D. Rice hears the song “Jump Jim Crow” and turns it into a minstrel standard.

1829

• Literature James Fennimore Cooper, The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish; James A. Jones, Tales of an Indian Camp; Nathaniel Willis, Fugitive Poetry.
• Music Allen D. Carden, United States Harmony; Orange Scott, New and Improved Camp-Meeting Hymn Book.
• American actor Edwin Forrest holds a playwriting contest, won by John Augustus Stone for his Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags, a tale of an Indian warrior.

1830

• Literature James Fennimore Cooper, The Water Witch; William Dunlap, A Trip to Niagara; or, Travelers in America; James K. Paulding, The Loin of the West; Catharine M. Sedgwick, Clarence; William J. Snelling Tales of the Northwest; or, Sketches of Indian Life.
• Music Francis Greenwood, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Sacred Worship; Samuel P. Taylor, Practical School for the Organ.
• “Marry Had a Little Lamb” appears in poet and literary editor Sarah Josepha Hale’s Poems for Our Children.

1831

• Literature Delia S. Bacon, Tales of the Puritans; Robert M. Bird, The Gladitor; Richard P. Smith, Caius Marius; John A. Stone, The Demoniac; or, the Prophet’s Bride; John Greenleaf Whittier, Legends of New England.
• Congress revise the federal copyright law but fails to recognize foreign copyrights.
• James K. Paulding’s drama The Lion of the West offers an early theatrical portrayal of the backwoodsman as hero.
• 4 July “America,” written by the Reverend Samuel Francis Smith, is sung for the first time in public at the Park Street Church, Boston.

1832

• Literature William Cullen Bryant, Poems; Lydia Marina Child, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans; Washington Irving, The Alhambra; John P. Kennedy, Swallow Barn; James K. Paulding, Westward Ho!
• Music Nathaniel Gould, National Church Harmony; Uriah and Joseph James, The Aeolian Songster; Charles Zeuner, The American Harp.
• Feb. Congress commissions Horatio Greenough to create a statue of George Washington.

1833

• Literature Jacob Abbott, The Little Philosopher; Asa Greene, Life and Adventures of Dr. Dodimus Duckworth, A.N.Q.; Grenville Mellen, The Marty’s Triumph and Other Poems; John Neal, The Down-Easters; John Greenleaf Whittier, Justice and Expediency.
• Music Joshua Leavitt, Companion to the Christian Lyre; Henry E. Moore, Merrimack Collection of Instrumental and Martial Musick.
• Mme. Celnart publishes The Gentleman and Lady’s Book of Politeness in France and the United States; she is sharply critical of round dancing.

1834

• Literature William A. Caruthers, The Kentuckian in New York; Caroline Gilman, Recollections of a New England House-Keeper; Susan R. Sedgwick, Allen Prescott; Phillis Wheatley, Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley.
• Music Lowell Mason, Manual of the Boston Academy of Music; A. Merrill and W.C. Brown, The Wesleyan Harp; William Porter, The Musical Cyclopedia.
• William Strickland designs the Philadelphia Merchants’ Exchange.

1835

• Literature Jacob Abbott, The Little Scholar Learning to Talk; Joseph R. Drake, The Culprit Fay and Other Poems; Charles F. Hoffman, A Winter in the West; Washington Irving, A Tour of the Prairies; Cornelius A. Logan, The Wag of Maine; William Gilmore Simms, The Yemassee.
• The Southern Literary Messenger begins publication with Edgar Allan Poe as editor; it remains in circulation until 1864.
• English actress Fanny Kemble’s Journal of a Residence in America arouses resentment for her criticisms of American society.
• House designer and builder Minard Lafever publishes The Beauties of Modern Architecture.
• Lithographer Nathaniel Currier opens his own business in New York City.
• William Walker Publishes The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, a songbook popular in the South and West.

1836

• Literature Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature; Richard Hildreth, The Slave; Washington Irving, Astoria; Nathaniel B. Tucker, The Partisan Leader; John Greenleaf Whittier, Mogg Megone.
• Music John W. Steffy, The Valley Harmonist; Peter Wolle, Moravian Tune Book.
• Architect Robert Mills designs the United States Treasury and the Patent Office.
• The drama Pocahontas (1830) is revived at the National Theater in Washington, D.C., at the height of the Indian removal controversy.
• Oct. Painter Thomas Cole’s The Course of Empire is exhibited.

1837

• Literature Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”; Nathaniel Hawthorne, Twice-Told Tales; Washington Irving, The Adventures of Captain Bonneville; Hubbard Winslow, Virtue and Happiness.
• Music Thomas Hastings, The Manhattan Collection; Thomas Whittemore, Songs of Zion.
• Edgar Allan Poe Leaves the Southern Literary Messenger.
• Sarah Josepha Hale’s Ladies’ Magazine merges with Louis Godey’s Lady’s Book to become Godey’s Lady’s Book, The most influential women’s magazine of the era.
• Stephen Foster composes “Susanna.”

1838

• Literature Caroline Gilman, Recollection of a Southern Matron; Eliza B. Lee, Sketches of a New England Village; George P. Morris, The Deserted Bride and Other Poems; Frances S. Osgood, A Wreath of Wild Flowers from New England; Edgar Allan Poe, Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym; William Ware, Aurelian.
• Music John B. Jackson, Knoxville Harmony; Lowell Mason, The Boston Glee Book; Sylvanus Pond, Union Melodies.
• The American Art Union opens in New York as the Apollo Gallery.
• Aug. Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his “Harvard Divinity School Address”.

1839

• Literature Caroline Gilman, Tales and Ballads; Charles Hoffman, Wild Scenes in the Forest and Prairie; Caroline Kirkland, A New Home—Who’ll Follow?; Henry Wardsworth Longfellow, Voices of the Night; Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque; Daniel Thompson, The Green Mountain Boys.
• Music David Paine, Portland Sacred Music Society’s Collection of Church Music.
• May Paul and Amelie Taglioni stage the first complete American performance of the famous European ballet La Sylphide.

1840

• Literature Amos B. Alcott, Orphic Sayings; James Fenimore Cooper, The Pathfinder; Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years before the Mast; Washington Irving, Oliver Goldsmith; John Pierpont, Airs of Palestine and Other Poems.
• Daguerreotypist Alexander Wolcott and John Johnson set up the world’s first commercial photographic portrait studio in New York City.
• Viennese ballerina Fanny Elssler begins a successful two-year tour of the United States.
• The Dial, the periodical of the Transcendentalist Club, begins publication with Margaret Fuller as editor.

1841

• Literature Jacob Abbott, The Rollo Code of Morals; Washington Allston, Monaldi; James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer; Richard Henry Dana Jr., The Seaman’s Friend; James Russell Lowell, A Year’s Life; Frances S. Osgood, The Poetry of Flowers and Flowers of Poetry.
• Music William B. Bradbury, The Young Choir; Lowell Mason, Carmina Sacra; Filippo Traetta, Rudiments of Singing.
• Edgar Allan Poe becomes editor of Graham’s Magazine. He holds the position for only a year, but in that time he publishes The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the first American detective story.
• Dec. Horatio Greenough’s sculpture of George Washington is displayed in the capital rotunda.

1842

• Literature William Cullen Bryant, The Fountain and Other Poems; Nathaniel Hawthorne, Biographical stories for Children; Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death; Elizabeth O. Smith, The Western Captive; Walt Whitman, Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate.
• Music Thomas Hastings, Sacred Songs for Family and Social Worship.
• Charles Dickens visits the United States and publishes American Notes.
• Landscape and house designer Andrew Jackson Downing publishes Cottage Houses.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow refuses compensation for his Poems on Slavery, written for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
• The New York Philharmonic is founded, the first symphony orchestra in the United States.

1843

• Literature James Fenimore Cooper, Wyandotte; Joseph C. Neal, In Town and About; Nathaniel Willis, Poems of Passion.
• Music William B. Bradbury, The School Singer; Joshua V. Himes, The Millennial Harp; George Loder, The New York Glee Book.
• The American Copyright Club is founded with poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant as its president.
• Hiram Powers completes his sculpture The Greek Slave.
• Feb. The Virginia Minstrels are features performers in New York City; is the first instance of a minstrel troupe performing an entire show.

1844

• Literature William Cullen Bryant, The White-Footed Doe and Other Poems; George Lipard, Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk-Hall; Susan R. Sedgwick, Alida; or, Town and Country; Nathaniel Willis, Pencilling by the Way.
• Music Lowell Mason, The Vocalist; Samuel Tuckerman, Episcopal Harp.
• Minister and novelist Henry Ward Beecher delivers a series of lectures to young men.
• Photographer Mathew Brady sets up his first gallery in New York.
• The Dial ceases publication.

1845

• Literature Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven and Other Poems; William T. Thompson, Major Jones’s Chronicles of Pineville.
• Music William B. Bradbury, Young Melodies —Musical Gems for School and Home; Isaac B. Woodbury, The Choral.
• Margaret Fuller begins work as the literary critic for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune.
• 26 Mar. Anna Cora Mowatt’s play Fashion is performed for the first time.

1846

• Literature Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse; Herman Melville, Typee; William Gilmore Simms, Areytos, or Songs and Ballads of the South; Ann S. Stephens, The Diamond Necklace and Other Tales.
• Music George F. Root, The Young Ladies’ Choir; William Walker, Southern and Western Pocket Harmonist.
• American ballerina Marry Ann Lee dances the first American rendition of Giselle, in Boston.
• E. P. Christy and the Christy Minstrels open in New York City.

1847

• Literature William Wells Brown, Narrative of William W. Brown; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline; Herman Melville, Omoo; Anna Cora Mowatt, Armand, the Child of the People; Epes Sargent, Songs of the Sea with Other Poems.
• Music Jesse B. Aikin, The Juvenile Minstrel; Augustus Fillmore, The Christian Psalmist; Russel Haskell, A Muscial Expositor.
• Hiram Power’s sculpture The Greek Slave is first displayed in the United States; the nude figure of a young girl causes considerable controversy.

1848

• Literature Oliver Bunce, The Morning of Life; George W. Cutter, Buena Vista and Other Poems; Eliza Leslie, Amelia; or a Young Lady of Vicissitudes; Sarah Anna Lewis, Child of the Sea and Other Poems.
• Music William Hauser, The Hesperian Harp; W. H. and M. L. Swann, The Harp of Columbia.
• Actor Frank Chanfrau introduces a working-class hero, Mose the Bowery B’Hoy, in the play A Glance at New York.
• African American dancer William Henry Lane, known as Master Juba, performs at Vauxhall Gardens in London.
• The Germania Musical Society tours the United States and stirs up interest in classical music.
• Margaret Fuller travels to Italy to serve as the foreign correspondent for the New York Tribune during the Italian revolution.

1849

• Literature Ralph Waldo Emerson, Representative Men; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh; Francis Parkman, The California and Oregan Trail; John Greenleaf Whittier, Margaret Smith’s Journals.
• Music Lazarus J. Jones, The Southern Minstrel.
• Asher Durand paints Kindred Spirits, a portrait of Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant in a Hudson River valley scene.
• 10 May A riot breaks out at the Astor Place Opera House in New York City between fans of British actor William Charles Macready and American actor Edwin Forrest.
• 7 Oct. Edger Allan Poe dies under mysterious circumstances.

1850

• Literature Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter; Herman Melville, White-Jacket; John G. Saxe, Humorous and Satirical Poems; Bayard Taylor, El Dorado; John Greenleaf Whittier, Songs of Labor and Other Poems.
• Music William B. Bradbury, The Alpine Glee Singer—Sabbath-School Melodies; Isaac Woodbury, The Dulcimer.
• House designer Andrew Jackson Downing publishes The Architecture of Country Houses.
• Mathew Brady and associates publish Gallery of Illustrious Americans, a collection of photographic portraits of eminent Americans for general readership.
• July Margaret Fuller dies in a shipwreck while returning to the United States.