1815-1850: The Arts: Chronology

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1815-1850: The Arts: Chronology

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.