Two exhibitions now at the St. Louis Public Library are “Historic St. Louis Maps and Pictures” by St. Louis historian and artist Norbury L. Wayman, and illustrations from woodcuts by a noted eighteenth century wood engraver, “…With Engravings on Wood by Mr. Thomas Bewick.” Both exhibits are open to the public without charge at the Main Library, 1301 Olive Street, the maps during regular hours, the Bewick Collection from noon •to 5 pm.
Meticulously drawn and carefully researched, Wayman’s drawings of “Historic Maps and Pictures.” in the third floor gallery present a chronological pictorial account of St. Louis development from a rude frontier settlement founded in 1764 to the spectacular St. Louis Exposition of 1904. Many of the maps were drawn from rare originals, and much of the research material is in the St. Louis Public Library collection. Included are copies of the earliest known map of the city, probably drawn in 1767 by Guy Dufossat; one drawn and signed in 1825 by Auguste Chouteau, and the Frederick Billion map of 1804 showing the location and identification of each existing house in St. Louis at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Also shown are pictures of St. Louis landmarks and one of Wayman’s most ambitious projects, an authentic bird’s eye view of the 1904 World’s Fair.
Now historian with the St. Louis Community Development Agency, Wayman has served for many years with the agency and its predecessor, the City Plan Commission. He is the author of “Life on the River,” “A Pictorial History of St. Louis” and, for the City Plan Commission, “History of Physical Growth of City of St. Louis.” His current project is a history of St. Louis by neighborhoods. Wayman’s drawings hang in the Fine Arts Collectibn of Boatmen’s National Bank and in the Missouri Historical Society’s River Room.
The selection of illustrations from wood engravings by Thomas Bewick is in the Carol McDonald Gardner Rare Book Room of the Main Library. The illustrated books published in the late 1700s and early nineteenth century include contrasting examples of fifteenth-centruy Italian and English wood engravings which point up the clarity and richness of detail which Thomas Bewick (1753-1328) brought to the art. He is considered the reviver of the art of wood engraving, in the eighteenth century, and is credited with the introduction of tints and perspective to the craft which previously had been confined to flat, nondimensional renderings. He was particularly noted for his mathematical and natural history illustrations.
The Bewick exhibit is open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and on alternate Fridays and Saturdays through February.
Originally published in The Paper, February 1977.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Printed Thomas Bewick lifespan1753–1328 and fifteenth-centruy retained pending review; no silent factual repair.
Original source: SD_Times1977_02.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
