Niagara Falls, New York — Thomas Jefferson said it is worth a trip across the Atlantic to see Niagara Falls. Although he never got there.
Jefferson displayed two prints of Niagara Falls in his dining room at Monticello, both by the American-born artist John Vanderlyn. He ordered them in 1803 and began to display them in 1804 in the last year of his first term as president.
In Jefferson’s short list of reasons to visit (and paint) America were Niagara Falls, the Natural Bridge in Virginia, and the confluence of the Shenandoah and the Potomac at Harpers Ferry.
In a love letter to the painter and musician Maria Cosway on October 12, 1786, Jefferson made the case for Mrs. Cosway and her husband Richard Cosway making a visit to the United States:
“Where,” he asked in the third person, “could they find such objects as in America for the exercise of their enchanting art? … especially the lady, who paints landscape so inimitably. She wants only subjects worthy of immortality to render her pencil immortal. The Falling spring, the Cascade of Niagara, the Passage of the Potowmac thro the Blue mountains, the Natural bridge. It is worth a voiage across the Atlantic to see these objects; much more to paint, and make them, and thereby ourselves, known to all ages.”
The Cosways never made it. Mrs. Cosway later made it clear that she was prepared to come — alone — to see the Sage of Monticello but by that point Jefferson had decided what happens in Paris should probably remain in Paris.
So she never saw the dining room at Monticello.
One of Vanderlyn’s depictions is entitled A View of the Western Branch of the Falls of Niagara, Taken from the Table Rock, Looking Up the River, Over the Rapids, the other A Distant View of the Falls of Niagara, Including Both Branches with the Island and Adjacent Shores, Taken from the Vicinity of the Indian Ladder.
Jefferson may also have known the illustration from the London-based Gentleman’s Magazine from 1851. You’ll recognize it here from the rope ladder Native Americans had built to descend to the base of the Falls.
Travel was difficult in Jefferson’s America and Jefferson himself was not an adventurous traveler. The closest he got was Albany, New York, which he visited with his closest friend and collaborator James Madison on their “botanizing tour” of New England in 1791. Albany is 325 miles from Niagara. Jefferson never saw the Great Lakes.
This was my third visit to Niagara Falls. I was in the company of friendly guides and while gazing at American Falls I met two sisters who were about to bicycle the entire length of the towpath of the Erie Canal. I was filled with envy.
Over the next few months, Clay is shadowing Steinbeck’s 10,000-mile trek around the USA (and making a few detours of his own). Clay’s expedition is a central part of LTA’s big initiative to explore the country and take the pulse of America as it approaches its 250th birthday. Be sure to follow Clay’s adventures and subscribe to our newsletter.