Instagram Post of July 10, 2020:
It’s true. In 1839, Catharine was a self-professed “teller of dreams” who probably experienced what many international travelers today experience when speaking to a local whose eyes start to glaze over. As she explained in her letters, “[i]nquiries are often put to me about my country, and I laugh at my own eagerness to impart knowledge and exalt their ideas of us, when I perceive my hearers listening with the forced interest of a courteous person to a teller of dreams.” It was probably difficult for her to convey what the American experience was like without the help of photographs, videos, or motion pictures.
What is exciting is that Catharine’s dream for a world-class park in New York City would come true after her trip was over. Check out today’s Facebook post at https://www.facebook.com/awomanofthecentury to see why U.S. parks were so important to her after visiting London.
On June 14, 1839, Catharine’s traveling party took the train into London and arrived at their lodging on Halfmoon Street in the Piccadilly neighborhood.
In the images, I’ve included an 1886 picture of Piccadilly and an excerpt from Catharine’s letter (that she purposely published in 1841) with a tiny tirade on the failure of the United States to save room for parks and pleasure-grounds in its towns, villages, and cities. As a resident of New York City living with her brother Robert’s family for half of the year, Catharine lamented the lack of a park in New York comparable to those that she found in London. To give you a sense of what English parks were like then and now, I’ve included an 1846 engraving of Regent’s Park, an 1890 picture of the Italian Gardens, and my own 2019 picture of the Italian Gardens from the opposite angle.
Connecting the dots, I suspect that it was a very good thing for all of us that Catharine had the ear of close friend poet and newspaper editor William Cullen Bryant. He was credited with spearheading the effort to create New York City’s Central Park in 1844. :) Can you even imagine today’s New York City without Central Park?
