Author: Catherine Hoover Voorsanger & John K. Howat, editors

Publisher/Date: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Abrams, 2000 ISBN 9780300085181

Format/Condition: NEW hardcover book with dustjacket, 636 pages

Description: In 1825 the Erie Canal, connecting the Atlantic with the American heartland via the Great Lakes, was completed, and in 1861 the Civil War, disrupting American unity, began. This volume examines the explosive growth of New York as an international economic and cultural center in the period between these two far-reaching events, as it was transformed into what contemporary observers variously termed the Empire City, the Great Emporium, and the Empress City of the West. Along with its detailed scholarship, the book stands out for its wealth of 230 black and white and 412 color illustrations, representing landscape painting encouraging tourism; new departures in sculpture, architecture, and printmaking; the birth of photography; New York as a fashion center; shopping for home decorations; changing styles in furniture; and the evolution of the ceramics, glass, and silver industries.