Our Vanishing Landscape

by Eric Sloane

Written with humor and affection, and enhanced with the author's charming, historically accurate drawings, this book takes readers on a leisurely journey through a bygone era. Fascinating accounts describe networks of canals, corduroy roads, and turnpikes; waterwheels and icehouses; colorful road signs and their painters; circus folk; and more. Brimming with anecdotes about people and the times, this delightful narrative remains a genuine and permanent contribution to the field of Americana. 81 black-and-white illustrations.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Americana, Art, American History, Historical

Paperback

First published June 1, 1955

About the author

Eric Sloane (born Everard Jean Hinrichs) was an American landscape painter and author of illustrated works of cultural history and folklore. He is considered a member of the Hudson River School of painting.

Eric Sloane was born in New York City. As a child, he was a neighbor of noted sign painter and type designer Frederick W. Goudy. Sloane studied art and lettering with Goudy. While he attended the Art Students League of New York City, he changed his name because George Luks and John French Sloan suggested that young students should paint under an assumed name so that early inferior works would not be attached to them. He took the name Eric from the middle letters of America and Sloane from his mentor's name.

In the summer of 1925, Sloane ran away from home, working his way across the country as a sign painter, creating advertisements for everything from Red Man Tobacco to Bull Durham. Unique hand calligraphy and lettering became a characteristic of his illustrated books.

Sloane eventually returned to New York and settled in Connecticut, where he began painting rustic landscapes in the tradition of the Hudson River School. In the 1950s, he began spending part of the year in Taos, New Mexico, where he painted western landscapes and particularly luminous depictions of the desert sky. In his career as a painter, he produced over 15,000 works. His fascination with the sky and weather led to commissions to paint works for the U.S. Air Force and the production of a number of illustrated works on meteorology and weather forecasting. Sloane is even credited with creating the first televised weather reporting network, by arranging for local farmers to call in reports to a New England broadcasting station.

Sloane also had a great interest in New England folk culture, Colonial daily life, and Americana. He wrote and illustrated scores of Colonial era books on tools, architecture, farming techniques, folklore, and rural wisdom. Every book included detailed illustrations, hand lettered titles, and his characteristic folksy wit and observations. He developed an impressive collection of historic tools which became the nucleus of the collection in the Sloane-Stanley Tool Museum in Kent, Connecticut.

Sloane died in New York in 1985, while walking down the street to a luncheon held in his honor.

Sloane's best known books are A Reverence for Wood, which examines the history and tools of woodworking, as well as the philosophy of the woodworker; The Cracker Barrel, which is a compendium of folk wit and wisdom; and Diary of an Early American Boy: Noah Blake-1805, based on a diary he discovered at a local library book sale. His most famous painted work is probably the skyscape mural, Earth Flight Environment, which is still on display in the Independence Avenue Lobby in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

By no means a definitive reference, it is a good overview into changes & what remained (in the early 1970's) from the Colonial times in America, mostly the northeast & midwest. Sloane's sketches bring to life a lot of old scenes & his knowledge of the subject is shared quickly. It's a joy to read & glance at on occasion.

[Dave E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished re-reading this book, having read it for the first time some years ago. It's a really good and easy way to take a look back at how the human-made features of the American landscape (with a focus on the northeast U.S.) have changed; not just from the early years of our country through the time of his writing the book in 1955, but also since that time. As always with Eric Sloane, the illustrations are excellent.

[Kathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eric Sloane was an American landscape painter, illustrator, and author of illustrated books about the cultural history and folklore of America. My husband remains a fan of his from long ago (Sloane died in 1985) and asked me to read this book, one of his favorites of his past. Bill had ordered a new copy from Amazon after the exceedingly-worn, dog-eared copy he had found in a long-ago-packed box came apart.

I understand why Bill likes it so much. He loves memorabilia from the American past—from road signs to canals, from country churches to covered bridges...to motorcycles. Except for the last, Sloane wrote about all the others and more in 1955, and painted and described detailed pictures, too. He wrote about how things were constructed as well as how they worked, and also why so many had vanished, even by the mid-50s. With over 100 drawings, the book is interesting to me, and will always be fascinating to Bill.

We’ll keep this copy on one of the bookshelves that young people can reach in our house. I’m guessing that some of the grandchildren will feel the same way.

[Michael Rehberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful sketches of old buildings, fences, and machinery with narrative that provides very interesting context for where they existed and why they took the forms they had. Recommended for anyone who nerds out on the built environment, the old ways of early America and finding old relics hidden in the woods.

[Catherine Richmond]

The drawings and text provide details helpful for writers of historicals, but the author whines about the good old days. For instance, he applauds the artistry of stone fences. The farmer who built the fence realized the fields would never be clear, received sore backs and crushed fingers from moving boulders, and moved west to escape stones.

[Hellkitten · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent read, like all of Slone's books. Quality. Take a trip into America's past. Check out his other books too.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so enjoy Eric Sloane's eye in this and other books.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful nostalgic trip down memory lane and also with so many insights into the many little ways life was once led. And Sloane's illustrations are always beautifully done.

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent informative reflections with great drawings.

[Jonathan Mahoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cords of wood on a sled, circus performers along the Mississippi, outhouses as hideout from desperate native tribes, and fencing measured with a Gunter’s chain, there is plentiful literal detail preserved in this book. As a lover of old homes and tools, reading about the erasing changes of time referring to the 1950s REALLY puts today into humbling perspective. This book is biased trivia (often agreeable) of a bygone setting.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 1955 book that sold for $6 is the wonderful way to spend a lazy afternoon reviewing the wonderful sketches highlighting Americana.

[Sarah Schaeffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, I know what an acre is.

[Thor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just looked at the pictures.