1892 The Growth of Industrial Art
DESCRIPTION
The Growth of Industrial Art is a remarkable volume of diagrams offering visually rich and historically significant documentation of American innovation during the late 19th century.
Published in 1892 by the U.S. Government Printing Office under the supervision of Hon. Benjamin Butterworth the book was featured at major expositions such as the Columbian Exposition of Chicago, the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, the Southern Exposition in Louisville, and the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans.
The book is arranged as a large-format atlas, with over 200 engraved plates, each devoted to a different type of industrial device, process, or category of manufacture. From the development of paper-making machinery and bridge construction to tobacco pipes, musical instruments, and agricultural tools like corn harvesters, each plate features finely rendered illustrations accompanied by explanatory text. Many plates also include patent data, inventor names, and economic production figures, offering a rare visual and statistical snapshot of America’s technological landscape in the post-Civil War industrial boom.
What sets this work apart is its encyclopedic breadth and museum-like presentation. It merges art and industry in a way that celebrates both the aesthetic design of machinery and its functional brilliance. Printed at government expense as a public document under the 1886 Act of Congress, it was intended for educational and exhibition purposes rather than private sale. Today, it stands as a treasured artifact of the Gilded Age and an enduring tribute to American enterprise, inventiveness, and the visual culture of invention at the dawn of the modern industrial era.
CONDITION
1200 W. 35th Street #425 Chicago, IL 60609 | P: (312) 496 - 3622