German-American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
*1844: Henry Peter Bosse is born November 13 at his father's estate, Sonnedorf in Prussian Saxony, where he spends his childhood. Little is known about Bosse's early life and education in Germany, although his surviving family asserts some connection to
Abraham Bosse
Abraham Bosse ( – 14 February 1676) was a French artist, mainly as a printmaker in etching, but also in watercolour.engraver and
topography
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...
theorist. Henry Peter Bosse claimed to be the grandson of Count
August Neidhardt von Gneisenau
August Wilhelm Antonius Graf Neidhardt von Gneisenau (27 October 176023 August 1831) was a Prussian field marshal. He was a prominent figure in the reform of the Prussian military and the War of Liberation.
Early life
Gneisenau was born at Schil ...
.
*1870: Henry Peter Bosse settles in Chicago upon emigrating to the United States. He finds employment in the
stationery
Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand (e.g., letter pape ...
business. By the 1880s Bosse is employed as a draughtsman and cartographer with the Army Corps of Engineers at Rock Island, Illinois. Between 1882 and 1892 he photographs the upper
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
with a passion for the land and the place.
*1893: Henry Peter Bosse publishes his large format ''Views on the Mississippi River between Minneapolis, Minn and St. Louis, Mo. 1883–1891'' as bound albums of meticulous, blue
cyanotype
The cyanotype (from Ancient Greek κυάνεος - ''kuáneos'', “dark blue” + τύπος - ''túpos'', “mark, impression, type”) is a slow-reacting, economical photographic printing formulation sensitive to a limited near ultraviolet ...
s. One of these albums came into the possession of Alexander Mackenzie, Army Corps Chief of Engineers. Each of the 169 Mackenzie album cyanotypes is printed using an oval mask, and each is titled by Bosse in hand-written ink.
*1894–95: Henry Peter Bosse's album ''Views on the Mississippi River between Minneapolis, Minn and St. Louis, Mo. 1883–1891'' is shown at the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, a turning point in photographic history.
An artist
Henry Peter Bosse was a prescient photographer in that he foresaw and adhered to aesthetic values which have come to define the work of German
photo-journalist
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...
s around the world. Straightforward composition and a concern for the efforts of man characterize Bosse's photographic point of view, as it would come to be the basis of '' foto-reportage''. Bosse took great care when making his presentation albums. He foresaw the need for color: the intense moody blues of his refined cyanotypes reflect this concern. His cyanotypes were exposed with large glass plates and printed on the finest French cyanotype paper, each sheet off-white measuring 14.5" x 17.2" and bearing the watermark ''Johannot et Cie. Annonay, aloe's satin''. The albums are leather bound. Beyond technique, in his appreciation for railroad bridges and structural steel, Bosse stood at the forefront of German appreciation for photographic ''look books'' concerned with the hand of man, modern architecture and urban design.
Image:HP_Bosse082.jpg, From the Bluffs at Fountain City, Wis. looking upstream, 1885; cyanotype No. 82 from Mackenzie album
Image:HP_Bosse117.jpg, Front St., Davenport, Ia during High water 1888; cyanotype No. 117 from Mackenzie album
Image:HP_Bosse198.jpg, Wagon Bridge at Fulton, Ill., 1889; cyanotype No. 198 from Mackenzie album
Image:HP_Bosse204.jpg, Iowa Central R'y Bridge at Keithsburg, Ill., 1889: cyanotype No. 204 from Mackenzie album
Image:HP_Bosse210.jpg, Wagon Bridge at Winona, Minn., 1892; cyanotype # 210 from Mackenzie album
Image:C.M. and St Paul RR Bridge Hastings 1885.JPG, C.M. and St Paul RR Bridge Hastings 1885
An engineer and a cartographer
Henry Peter Bosse was one of the highest-paid technical people of his day in the United States. The 1880s were the beginning of structural steel buildings and cable suspension bridges like Röbling's Brooklyn Bridge (1883); at the time Bosse was a top engineer at the key point where railroads companies wanted to cross the wide Mississippi River. Bosse's photography assisted with his creation of the most accurate map yet made of the upper Mississippi which, in turn, facilitated the engineering of bridges, locks and levees. Several variants of his drawn maps exist, while his album of photographs, per se, may have been the first photographic map of a major river ever created.
In public collections
Since the Alexander Mackenzie album of Henry Bosse cyanotypes surfaced at a
Sotheby's
Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
auction in 1990, Henry Bosse's cyanotype photographs have been included in the permanent collections at the
J. Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa.
The Getty Center is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and fea ...
in Los Angeles. The
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...
in California, The New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, the
Amon Carter Museum
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American ...
of Art in Texas, the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of Asian art.
In 2007, ''Time'' magaz ...
in Kansas City, Missouri, the
National Museum of American Art
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...
in Washington D.C., and the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...
in Minnesota. The United States Army Corps of Engineers offices at Rock Island, IllinoisJohn. O. Anfinson, ''Henry Bosse's Views on the Upper Mississippi River'', Army Corps of Engineers, St Paul, Minnesota, 1996 and St. Paul, Minnesota, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa, and elsewhere also retain Bosse photograph albums. The Corp offices also have various Bosse photographs, charts/maps and ephemera.
An inventory
A inventory of known Henry Peter Bosse photographic views and print variants was first assembled by Bob Wiederanders of the Fred W. Woodward Riverboat Museum, Dubuque, Iowa. Kenton Spading, P.E., U.S Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, with the capable assistance of Roberta (Bobbie) Peterson, expanded the inventory.