Environmental Perception: The Influence of
Wilderness on United States Artists, Writers,
and Their Legacy
Charles O. Mortensen
Abstract—The 19th century produced a wide array of landscape
artists and writers of prose and poetry who helped to sensitize a
nation toward a greater understanding of the entire spectrum of
natural resource values and services. Highlighted are William
Cullen Bryant, Thomas Cole, and Henry David Thoreau. Each not
only celebrated wilderness, but through their intimate contact with
the natural environment, they exhibited personal growth, which
embraced a widening set of human values. They and others like
them, helped to spur a legacy of resource protection that has
endured for a century and formed the majority of the National
Wilderness Preservation System in the United States of America.
“The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the
harvest of the future.” These prescient words inscribed on
the pedestal outside the National Archives in Washington,
DC, elucidate the many activities of man that later come to
fruition as improvement in the life and condition of society.
Yet, throughout the 19th century our collective stewardship
of the nation’s resources made it unclear as to the harvest it
would bring, for it was a time when advancing technology
and industrialization utilized resources in an all-too-often
profligate manner, with the concomitant harvest of deforestation, sediment-laden waterways, mineral waste, diminished air quality, and extinction of species. However, by the
latter part of the 1800’s and the beginning of the 20th
century, there was to come another harvest, one born of
increasing perception and sensitivities to the land and
resulting in the world’s first National Park, setting aside
millions of acres in forest reserves, and initiating laws
protecting wildlife and other acts of insight toward the
ecosystem in which man is but a part.
What led to this latter harvest—this beginning of national
consciousness, when the very word conservation became a
part of our lexicon? Certainly there were many contributions—early ordinances regulating forest cutting and periodic regulation on utilization of wildlife in some colonies.
Then came the artists and writers/naturalists valuing landscape esthetics, celebrating nature purely for its existence,
and acknowledging a species’ “right” to live in perpetuity.
Those who “broke the trail” for this aspect of environmental
In: Watson, Alan E.; Aplet, Greg H.; Hendee, John C., comps. 2000.
Personal, societal, and ecological values of wilderness: Sixth World Wilderness Congress proceedings on research, management, and allocation, volume II;
1998 October 24–29; Bangalore, India. Proc. RMRS-P-14. Ogden, UT: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
Charles O. Mortensen is Professor and Chair, Department of Natural
Resources and Environmental Management, Ball State University, Muncie,
IN 47306 U.S.A., e-mail: comortense@bsu.edu
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perception were several, and the entirety of contributors
cannot be discussed in the scope of this paper. Yet, we hold
the banner high for those who sensitized the United States
public to the inherent value in protecting not just some of
nature’s “parts,” but all of them.
Three of the 19th Century _________
I have selected three artists/writers who left an indelible
mark on humankind. Additionally, I have narrowed the
timeframe to the 19th century because this was a time, as I
have stated earlier, when the United States was using its
natural resources in a most profligate manner, bespeaking
both advancing industrialization and population growth.
William Cullen Bryant
Like all humans given to contemplative thought throughout their lives, Bryant shines in relation to intellectual
growth related to a more holistic or encompassing philosophy, vis-a-vis nature. If we compare poems such as “The
Yellow Violet“ and “To a Waterfowl,” which are celebratory
poems for individual aspects of nature written in his 20’s to
“The Prairies” written a decade later, intellectual growth is
readily apparent, for in the latter poem while he celebrates
the prairie beauty,
Lo! They stretch
In airy undulations, far away,
As if the ocean, in his greatest swell,
Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed...
he also acknowledges the bison’s removal from the Illinois
tall grass prairie to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains,
The bison feeds no more. Twice twenty leagues
Beyond remotest smoke of hunters camp,
Roams the majestic brute, in herds that shake
The earth with thundering steps-yet here I meet
His ancient footprints stamped beside the pool.
and finally ends by forecasting the prairie’s doom resulting
from the tide of advancing agricultural populations, yet for
the moment it is still wilderness minus the great bison.
I hear the sound of that advancing multitude...
Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain
Over the dark brown furrows. All at once
A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream,
and I am in the wilderness alone (Jones and others
1952: 359-361).
Hans Huth (1990), writing in his seminal book “Nature
and the American,” notes an aspect of Bryant’s growth.
Referring to an 1834 visit to Italy, Huth states that Bryant
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felt the Italian mountains were more picturesque than the
mountains in the Eastern United States, but he then quotes
Bryant: “if the hand of man had done something to embellish
the scenery, it has done more to deform it...the simplicity of
natural scenery, so far as can be done, is destroyed” (p. 33).
He further quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson, the noted 19th
century writer/philosopher who commented on Bryant’s half
century (1820’s to 1870’s) impact on American thought in
relation to the environment: “... first, and he only made
known to mankind our Northern Nature - its summer
splendor, its autumn russets, its wintry lights and glooms”
(p. 36). Poet James Russell Lowell wrote these words of
tribute:
The voices of the hills did his obey; of the torrents
flashed and tumbled in his song;
He brought our native fields from far away... (p. 36).
Finally, 6 decades after his first published poem, and
illustrative of his widening intellectual depth, he penned
these lines upon the death of President Abraham Lincoln:
Thy task is done; the bonds are free:
We bear thee to an honored grave,
Whose proudest moment shall be
The broken fetters of the slave.
Pure was thy life; its bloody close
Hath placed thee with the sons of light,
Among the noble host of those,
Who perished in the cause of Right (Jones and others
1952: 364).
Thomas Cole
Next we turn to the celebrated work of artist Thomas Cole,
who from his early childhood hoped he would leave his native
England for the then lush wilderness of the newly formed
United States of America. Emigrating to the United States
with his family in 1818, it was but 5 years later that he left
for Philadelphia to earn a living through wood engravings
and illustrations. While his commercial art sold, his initial
landscape paintings did not. Rejoining his family in New
York, his landscapes attracted the attention of George Breun,
Director of the American Academy of Fine Arts, who purchased them and helped fund his sketching trip up the
Hudson River Valley. Cole found the Valley as magical as he
had envisioned.
Returning with ample sketches, he sold his first Hudson
River landscapes in 1825, which in one example, “Lake with
Dead Trees,” depicted the full reality of some wilderness
settings, in this case decaying trees, which some critics
impute were meant to also convey the full range and ultimate end of human life. Whether this was a primary intent
of Cole is not known; however, it may have been his acknowledgment that we are integral to, and part of, one system.
This important painting and sale (1825) is generally considered the beginning of the famous Hudson River School or
style of painting as elucidated by subsequent artists such as
Asher Durand and Frederic Church (Bertrand 1989). Additionally, his depiction of robust and gnarled trees, rugged
rock outcroppings, light-bathed hillsides, towering peaks,
swirling clouds and reflecting water through his landscape
“In The Catskills” relates well to a range of esthetic pleasures found in wilderness.
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In 1833, Cole moved to Catskill, New York, married,
began raising a family, and completed the bulk of his
wilderness landscapes, which helped to move a nation toward increasing understanding of the noncommodity values
of the natural resource base, particularly its esthetic qualities. His paintings were true to a philosophy acquired earlier
in his life, and expressed to a patron in 1826, “I believe with
you that it is of the greatest importance for a painter always
to have his mind upon Nature, as the star by which he is to
steer to excellence in his art” (Ledgerwood 1985: 40).
It is Cole’s consummate understanding and appreciation
for natural beauty which, I believe, comes through to us in
his “wilderness” paintings. Few can take this intellectual
grasp as indicated in these insightful lecture statements:
The waterfall may be called the voice of the landscape, for
…the waterfall strikes its own chords, and rocks and mountains re-echo in rich unison (Cole 1980: 11).
The sky will next demand our attention. The soul of all
scenery, in it are the fountains of light, and shade and color
and place them on canvas for generations to view (Cole
1980: 15).
Cole was an inveterate wilderness hiker carrying a knapsack, sketch book, and flute, which gave him knowledge of
nature born only by those who are intimate with it. He wrote
and lectured of his experiences. A notable example was his
1835 speech, delivered at the American Lyceum in New York
City, where he stated his awareness of the sublimity of
untamed wilderness and the majesty of the eternal mountains (Huth 1990). In that same lecture, he discussed the
romantic ideals of grandeur, loveliness, and the sublime
melting into the beautiful as expressed through waterfalls,
rivers, forests, and the seasons. Further, this wildness was
the most characteristic feature of the American scene. Huth
reveals Cole’s growing intellectual perception toward the
value of wilderness beyond the picturesque when he includes this Cole quote in his summation of his work: “American associations are not so much of the past as of the present
and the future—and in looking over the uncultivated scene,
the mind may travel far into futurity” (p. 51-52). It is
apparent then, that he, like Bryant, was sensitive to the
eventual diminution of the American wilderness in the
Eastern United States as he ends his futurity comments by
stating, “where the wolf roams, the plough shall glisten; on
the gray crag shall rise temple and tower...” (Cole 1980: 17).
Author Lynne Bertrand (1989) asks this question of Cole
scholar Elwood Parry, III, “Did Cole influence the idea of
wilderness in America?” Parry responded, “There are those
who would argue he invented it” (p. 44). Additionally, Robert
Magrath (1991) in his analysis of Cole’s paintings states,
“Through Cole’s pictorial intervention, American nature
gave up its negative connotation.... His art imbued the
wilderness with a new found esthetic and moral respectability” (p. 12). Finally, illustrative of his personal growth, he
was an outspoken critic of the Catskill-Canajoharie Railroad cut through a forested area north of Albany, New York.
Bertrand (1989) states that his stance on the cut may place
him in the category of early U.S. conservationists and quotes
his writing on the aforementioned railroad cut, “Beauty
should be of some value among us...where it is not necessary
to destroy a tree or a grove, the hand of the woodsman should
be checked” (p. 44).
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Henry David Thoreau
Perhaps no one is so identified with the American movement for wilderness than Thoreau, for it was his clarion call
in an 1851 lecture titled “The Wild” where he stated, “I wish
to speak a word for nature, for absolute freedom and wildness...” (Anderson 1973: 133) that arguably is the historical
antecedent for the foundation of modern thought concerning
the many inherent values of wilderness. Additionally, few, if
any, writers can show such a remarkable personal intellectual growth over a lifetime. In the 1830’s he begins writing
his journals, which would eventually lead to over two million
words. Initially they centered on astute nature observations, thoughts on human relationships, short aphorisms,
poetry on a variety of subjects, and epigrams. One moment
he reflects on the eye revealing the soul of man, the next that
music is the sound of the circulation in nature’s veins and,
“The healthy ear always hears it, nearer or more remote”
(Thoreau 1984: 251).
These early Journal years also contain thoughts related to
his trip on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers in 1839, which
resulted in his first published book (1847).
Consider the phenomena of morn, or eve, and you will say
that Nature has perfected herself by an eternity of practice,—evening stealing over the fields, the stars coming to
bathe in retired waters, the shadows of the trees creeping
farther and farther into the meadows, and a myriad phenomena beside (Thoreau 1984: 443).
Concurrent with his observations on the rivers is one of his
first essays, “A Winter Walk,” published in an 1843 volume
of the “Dial.” “The wonderful purity of nature at this season
is a most pleasing fact. Every decayed stump and mossgrown stone and rail, and the dead leaves of autumn are
concealed by a clean blanket of snow” (Jones and others
1952: 883). As he continues, every student of nature, professional and amateur alike, can relate to his comment that
while the snow is cold and powdery he feels the “warmth” of
an inner glow brought about by his thoughts and feelings
resulting from the intimacy of this joyous morning in nature.
It is what Odell Shepard (1927) refers to as “a beauty that
invites my collaboration and seems to need my comment—
a beauty, in short, that can be harvested only by a quiet eye”
(p. 242).
Thoreau ends his winter essay by moving into social
commentary on religion as he states, “We know of no scripture which records the pure benignity of the gods on a New
England winter night” (p. 891). He seems to be saying that
if Hebrew prose, in part, conveys “beauty” then it is no more
beautiful than the crisp stillness of this night. Commentary
such as this was but prelude to a far deeper social consciousness culminating in the essay first titled “Resistance to Civil
Government” and published in 1849. Later retitled as “Civil
Disobedience,” it was all but neglected in the 19th Century,
yet now considered one of his most important statements
and is said to have had great influence on Mahatma Gandhi
and Martin Luther King in their struggles for freedom from
oppressive rule and for civil rights of all individuals respectively. A careful reading of his essay clearly shows why this
claim would be true.
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Thoreau points out that in a nation founded on liberty,
one-sixth are now enslaved, and a nation (Mexico) is being
unjustly overrun and conquered militarily. He states, “...I
think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and
revolutionize” (Jones and others 1952: 894). Here then is the
maturing Thoreau standing against, in his eyes, an unjust
government and stating that a truly just government would
have the sanction and consent of the governed. His essay
ends with a tremendously powerful comment:
There will never be a really free and enlightened State
until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher
and independent power, from which all its own power and
authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please
myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be
just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a
neighbor... (Jones and others 1952: 907).
In 1851, 2 years after the Civil Disobedience lecture,
Henry David Thoreau would speak at the Concord, Massachusetts, Lyceum and utter one of his most enduring phrases
“...what I have been preparing to say is, that in wildness is
the preservation of the World” (Anderson 1973: 144).
Conclusion _____________________
Of the legacy of these three prominent individuals we can
say this: William Cullen Bryant’s celebration of nature
through poetry, public speaking, and as a newspaper editor;
Thomas Cole’s leadership of artists who would sensitize the
new nation to value the esthetic splendors of natural landscapes; and Henry David Thoreau’s unabashedly outspoken
call for wilderness protection would collectively yield a
“harvest.” A harvest seeded by these individuals, and others
as well, would culminate in protection of forests through
State and Federal reserves (later National Forests), wildlife
through laws and refuges, and scenic grandeur through
National Parks. Eventually this harvest would form the
majority of wildland from which the National Wilderness
Preservation System would “grow.” Beyond that there is a
“third” harvest—for all who are acquainted with the words
and artistry of these three 19th century Americans have
“grown” as a result of knowing them.
References _____________________
Anderson, C. H. 1973. Thoreau’s vision: the major essays. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 218 p.
Bertrand, L. 1989. The American canvas. National Parks. 63(9-10):
32-36, 44.
Cole, T. 1980. The collected essays and prose sketches. Tymn, M., ed.
St. Paul, MN: The John Colet Press. 226 p.
Huth, H. 1990. Nature and the American. Lincoln, NE: University
of Nebraska Press. 250 p.
Jones, H.; Leisy, E; Ludwig, R., eds. 1952. Major American writers.
New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company. 1,930 p.
Ledgerwood, I. 1985. Hudson River artists walked with nature.
Modern Maturity. 28(3): 38-43.
Magrath, R. 1991. The tree and the stump. Journal of Forestry.
89(7): 12-16.
Shepard, O. 1927. The harvest of a quiet eye. Cambridge, MA: The
Riverside Press. 282 p.
Thoreau, H. 1984. The journal of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 1. Salt
Lake City, UT: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc. 549 p.
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