Untitled c. 19th century

William B. Closson created this engraving, sometime in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. This small print presents an expansive vista of a town nestled between mountains, an aqueduct, and a suggestion of figures along the road. Prints like these were very popular in the United States at that time. With industrialization and urbanization rapidly changing the landscape and the makeup of society, they often served to remind people of simpler, more rural times. These were not simple documents of the real, however, but idealized visions of a life that may never have existed. Understanding the power of these images requires research into popular magazines, advertisements, and other forms of mass media. They are revealing of the longings and desires of the society that consumed them. They are important for considering how nostalgia shapes artistic production and institutional collecting.