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Source of View: The view is based on a drawing made by by
Captain Basil Hall, R.N. using a device known as a "Camera
Lucinda." The image drawn by Captain Hall was made into an
engraving by W.H. Lizars. The engraving was published by
Cadell & Company, Edinburgh, Simpkin & Marshall & Moon,
Boys & Graves, London in 1829, in Forty Etchings from
Sketches Made with the Camera Lucinda in North America in
1827-1828, by Basil Hall, Edinburgh.
Title of the Engraving: Buffalo on Lake Erie
Some Variations in Size and Type:
Dinner Plates 9.5, 9.75, 10.5 and 11 inches (Black brown, lavender and pink)
Soup plates 9.5 to 10.5 inches (Black brown, lavender and pink)
Historical Background: Captain Basil Hall (1788-1844), was
born at Edinburgh, Scotland on the 3ist of December 1788.
He was during his lifetime a British naval officer,
traveler and writer. He joined the Royal Navy in 1802, at
the age of 14. Following six years at sea, during which
time he had been home only twelve days, he received a
lieutenant's commission in 1808, he served on the frigate
Endymion, employed at that time in transporting troops for
Sir John Moore's army in Spain. In 1814 he was promoted to
the rank of commander, and in 1817 to that of post-captain.
Pending his promotion from the rank of lieutenant in 1813,
he was appointed acting commander of the Theban on the East
India station, when he accompanied its admiral, Sir Samuel
Hood, in a journey over the greater part of the island of
Java. On his return home he was appointed to the command of
the Lyra, a small gun brig that, in 1816, formed part of
the armament in the embassy of Lord Amherst to China. He
sailed extensively along the coast of South America in the
early 1820s.
He retired from the Navy at half pay in 1824. Captain Hall
traveled across much of North America with his wife and
their daughter between 1827 and 1828 during which time he
recorded his impressions of the continent both in words and
images. These images are of note as having been made using
a device known as a "Camera Lucinda." A Camera Lucinda is a
prism that could be set up on a flat surface and pointed at
a distant object, casting its outline onto a sheet of
paper, which the artist-engineer could then trace. An
antecedent to photography, this technique in Hall's
description, "enabled the amateur (to) rove where he
pleases, possessed of a magical secret for recording the
features of Nature with ease and fidelity..." These prints
provide us with the most transparently accurate visual
portrayal of the condition of America in the first part of
the nineteenth century, a portrayal unique and of
considerable historical significance. In
1829 he published his Travels in North America in the Years
1827 and 1828. The Manuscripts Department, Lilly Library,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN has 169 sketches made
in North America made by Captain Hall with the Camera
Lucinda.
One of the images produced by Captain Hall and published in
Forty Etchings from Sketches Made with the Camera Lucinda
in North America in 1827-1828, was the Erie Canal basin on
the Buffalo waterfront. The first building to front on the
Canal Basin, as the Commercial Slip was originally termed,
was the large wooden cantilevered dockside depot
prominently shown in the famous 1827 view of the waterfront
by Captain Basil Hall. The drawing made from the vantage
point of the high terrace was done with a Camera Lucinda
device and although drawn or traced, could be considered
"almost photographic." The panoramic view illustrates the
interconnection of the canal and lake traffic. The
intriguing building fronting directly on the Commercial
Slip is located on Water Lots 5 and 6. Each of the water
lots was one chain (66 feet) wide. Lots 1 - 4 along the
foreground, where the canal boat is seen, were never taken
since they were not buildable lots. The distinctive
building takes special advantage of its site by projecting
the entire second story out above the canal towpath. Along
the roof, a pair of dormer hatches with extended roofs
could facilitate hoisting goods directly from the canal
landing. This wooden structure was unique along the Buffalo
waterfront and was one of the attractions that drew
nineteenth century sightseers to the western terminus of
the Erie Canal.
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