English 1830 -1891

In 1853, the 23-year-old British artist Frederick Piercy embarked on a journey to the Great Salt Lake Valley. He wrote, “My objectwas to make sketches of ... the Route, and Great Salt Lake City, which were afterwards to be published.” His aim was to provide crucial information to Mormon converts emigrating to the Rocky Mountains. In January 1854 Piercy returned to England, where Charles Fenn made Piercy’s sketches into high quality steel engravings. James Linforth, an editor for the LDS publication Millennial Star, added footnotes to Piercy’s 45 drawings, which became the illustrations for Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley. From July 1854 to September 1855 it was published first in 15 parts, and then in full book form. Though its use was limited among Latter-Day Saint emigrants, who by then were using eastern seaports to avoid cholera in the New Orleans area, the book proved to be a valuable aid for historians of the West.  

The gallery is offering three leaves from this important publication: The Great Salt Lake Valley; View of the Missouri River and Council Bluffs from an Elevation; and Loop