Blue Sulphur Springs, WV

Date: 1789 to 1863
Location: Blue Sulphur Springs, GREENBRIER County, VA
Surname/tag: Prickett, Buster, Patterson

This entry has been registered at One-Place Studies as of 3 November 2016..

• An early health resort in the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia, later West Virginia, northwest of the better-known White Sulphur Springs.

Blue Sulphur Springs

Blue Sulphur Springs Pavillion

Left is a columned pavilion with four gable ends. It covers the sulphur spring and is the only remaining structure from Blue Sulphur Springs, the rest having been burned by Union troops in 1864.

For a time Blue Sulphur vied with nearby White Sulphur Springs as the grandest of the spas. Northwest of Lewisburg, West Virginia, this spa was connected by road with other nineteenth century resorts and natural attractions.

"This watering place, long and favorably known as a pleasant retreat, inviting to its shades from the heat of summer, is situated in a lovely Valley in the County of Greenbrier, on the Road leading from the White Sulphur to the Hawk's Nest. The improvements consist of a large and handsome Hotel, with a three-story piazza, and other buildings adjoining, with a two-story piazza - the whole connecting, is 420 feet in length, which affords a delightful promenade during a rainy season. In the centre of the place rises the Spring, enclosed in a Marble Basin five feet in diameter. The water is clear and cool, and flows off in a bold stream. Dr. Martin has erected an extensive Bathing Establishment, which enables Visitors to take baths of any temperature. The Blue Sulphur is twenty-two miles from the White Sulphur, and thirty-two miles from the Red Sulphur. A fine turnpike leads to them."

NOTE: William Benjamin Franklin Prickett, M.D. practiced medicine at Blue Sulphur Springs from about 1863-1874. By the time he moved to Blue Sulphur the hotel had closed and a Baptist institution, Alleghany College, founded in 1859, was housed in the building.

Edward Beyer

Edward Beyer

When Edward Beyer, the German artist

visited Virginia spas in the decade

preceding the Civil War,

Blue Sulphur Springs

was one of the

places he

painted.

Blue Sulphur Springs, a painting by German artist Edward Beyer, 1855

Edward Beyer

Edward Beyer was born in the Rhineland of western Germany in 1820 and studied art at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art. The Düsseldorf Academy , founded in 1767, has graduated students who have made significant marks on the art world, especially since the early 1840s. Albert Bierstadt, Eastman Johnson, and William Morris Hunt studied at Düsseldorf at about the same time as Beyer. George Luks, Anselm Kiefer, and Virginia artist Gari Melchers attended later. Paul Klee and Joseph Beuys taught at Düsseldorf. All of these artists are represented in the collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Beyer likely developed his painting style while studying at Düsseldorf. His meticulously detailed portrayal of nature combined with the works of man in a romantic pastoral whole appear to be influenced by the Düsseldorf style of landscape painting, that of combining classical and romantic approaches with minute detail.

After a period of making art in Dresden in the 1840s Beyer and his ailing wife traveled to the United States about 1848, settling first in Newark, New Jersey, and by 1850 in Philadelphia. During his first few years in America he made drawings and paintings such as Niagara Falls, Skating on the Passaic, and a large panoramic painting in collaboration with French-born Leo Elliott of Philadelphia.

During the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, large panoramas were a popular, publically-accessible form of art, somewhat comparable to the modern cinema. The artist transported his panorama from city to city, which was no small feat. Imagine a canvas 100 feet long and 12 feet high (we don’t the size of Beyer’s painting) covered with a great deal of paint. That made for a very heavy painting. Consider, too, that the painting might have been mounted on a wooden framework or rolled around a wooden reel. The artist then rented a public hall, displaying the painting by either hanging it in a circle or mounting it rolled up like a scroll, which, as the artist or speaker described each scene, was unrolled to reveal each scene in succession. Admission was charged to view the panorama. Beyer’s and Elliott’s painting, The Wars for Liberty in Upper Italy, Rome, and Hungary, portrayed more than 90,000 figures engaged in battle amid spectacular European landscapes. In New York adults were charged 25 cents admission, children 12 ½ cents, and arrangements were made for school groups. This panorama was last displayed in Cincinnati in 1853, possibly 1854. It is not known what became of this painting.

Beyer in Virginia

In 1854 Beyer visited Virginia, remaining until 1856 or 1857. Impressed by the Virginia landscape and by technological advancements, such as canals, railroads, tunnels, and factories, Beyer traveled the state sketching and painting. He also made panoramic paintings, though on a small scale, of Staunton, Buchanan, Salem, Liberty (Bedford), Wytheville, Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, and other sites. Perhaps 17 paintings were produced during Beyer’s Virginia sojourn, including five of the Lynchburg area. These paintings display vibrant color and meticulous detail; bright yellow fields of grain, white or red brick buildings, dark green forests, and green mountains fading to purple in the distance. There are the superbly detailed houses, churches, stores, barns, fences, horses, and people going about their business. The fine detail of these paintings, not discernible in real-life at those distances, were possibly aided by use of a telescope, camera obscura, or close-up sketches. While less stiff than the lithographs that make up the Album of Virginia, Beyer’s landscape paintings lack the looseness and seemingly quickly-applied brushstrokes of his more famous landscape contemporaries, such as Thomas Cole and the more impressionistic J. M. W. Turner. Yet the color, detail, and accuracy of these paintings make for informative, photograph-like renderings.

Beyer's approach to landscape reflects the then-popular convention of the Claudian landscape, so-called after the seventeenth-century French artist Claude Lorrain. Claude was interested in light, coastal scenery, and classical mythology. He strove to portray a golden age of the past when man lived in harmony with nature, creating scenes that were more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself. Elements of Claudian landscape painting include aerial perspective, hazy atmospheric light, foreground framing elements such as trees, and a distinct foreground, middle distance, and background.

Beyer's paintings and prints exhibit these elements, although not always together. Where Beyer tends to deviate from the Claudian ideal is with his precise detail, bold simple colors, and his reluctance to overly romanticize the scene. He strove to paint exactly what he saw, as accurately as possible. His art does include the big sky, but without the depth and light variations found in stricter Claudian-style art. Beyer did make frequent use of foreground framing elements and employed distinct fore, middle, and backgrounds.

The railroads and other technological intrusions in the landscape presented problems to those artists following the Claudian ideal in the 1850s. Those big, noisy, smoky, smelly locomotives just did not evoke the feeling of man and nature coexisting in a pastoral setting. Yet Beyer was able to combine those disparate elements into a somewhat successful whole. His numerous landscapes including trains, stagecoaches, canals, and factories lead one to assume that Beyer had no problem with the considerable alteration to the landscape and, perhaps, was even impressed by these recent technological advances and the taming of nature. He was not alone- many looked forward to the easier life promised by improved transportation and mass-production. As early as 1685 a posthumously published poem, The History or Narrative of the great level of the Fens, called Bedford Level, by England's Sir Jonas Moore seems an ode to the domination of nature during the coming Industrial Revolution. It reads in part “I sing Floods muzzled, and the Ocean tam'd Luxurious Rivers govern'd, and reclaim'd Water with Banks confin'd, as in Gaol, Till kinder Sluces let them go on Bail; Streams curb'd with Dammes like Bridles, taught t'obey, And run as strait, as if they saw their way.”

Even the process of producing the Album, lithography, was a recent technological advance which overshadowed all but the most specialized of the existing printing techniques, such as mezzotint for reproducing portraits and paintings, steel engravings for high-volume book printings, and wood engravings for periodicals.

In addition to the oil paintings on canvas Beyer made many sketches of Virginia views, 39 of which were reproduced in the Album. Most of his Virginia work portrays scenes in the mountainous western part of Virginia, including the part that seceded in 1863 to become the state of West Virginia. It is possible that the scenery reminded Beyer of his birthplace in the German Rhineland. Heavily forested mountains of moderate size are cut by narrow river valleys. Coal is abundant in both regions.

Beyer might also have found an affinity with the inhabitants of western Virginia. During the eighteenth century the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was settled by German immigrants who moved south through the valley from starting points in Pennsylvania and Maryland, following the Great Wagon Road, itself following the route of an ancient Indian trail. Many of these settlers were from the Rhineland and the nearby Saarland and Palatinate areas of western and southwestern Germany- areas familiar to Beyer. While assimilating somewhat with their English and Scotch-Irish neighbors, the German immigrants maintained many of the customs of their homeland, such as language, house construction, and food preparation.

Another similarity between western Virginia and western Germany were the spas. To the south of the Rhineland the Black Forest contains many mineral-water spas, as do the mountainous areas of Virginia. Resorts in both regions attracted visitors from far and wide. The Virginia spas were in some instances less grand than their German counterparts, yet for a new and relatively undeveloped country the rustic spas were quite acceptable. Of course there were those spas, such as Greenbrier White Sulphur and Hot Springs, that were elegant enough to attract health-seekers and socialites from throughout the United States as well as from Europe. Might Beyer's interest in these spas be related to his wife's ailments?

The Spas of Virginia While geothermal and mineral springs are found in the Piedmont of Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge, the majority of these springs are located west of the Blue Ridge. Humans had long frequented hot springs for therapeutic reasons. Archaeologists tell us that the springs of Bath, England, have been used for 10,000 years, with the Romans developing that resort 2,000 years ago. Native Americans had enjoyed Virginia’s springs for centuries.

The springs offered a variety of temperatures and minerals considered curatives to the ill and preventatives to the healthy. The waters were believed to cure or prevent a host of illnesses. “Taking the waters” included both bathing in and drinking the sulphurous liquids. Minerals found in the springs include sulphur, iodine, bicarbonate, nitrate, sodium chloride, and chalybeate, an iron-bearing water. Temperatures encountered run from a cool 54̊ at Red Sulphur to a hot 106̊ at Hot Springs. The water temperatures were sometimes cooled or heated for comfort. Illnesses purported to be treatable included gout, sciatica, hepatitis, dyspepsia, joint injuries, and diseases of the kidneys, bladder, and spleen.

European immigrants to Virginia began to visit the springs on a regular basis in the mid-eighteenth century, a time when conflict with the Indians was still common. The easternmost springs, located closer to the built-up areas of Colonial habitation were the first to attract increasing numbers of visitors. Berkeley Springs in northern Virginia (now West Virginia) was noted by Thomas Jefferson to be “…always safe from the Indians, and nearest to the more populous States.” In these early years the springs were reached by foot or horseback over difficult trails and undeveloped roads.

From the 1830s through the 1850s the resorts enjoyed their heyday. During this time good roads were built, regular stagecoach service was established, and railroads reached the region. It is no surprise that spring owners actively promoted improved transportation. Health-seekers from New England to Texas visited regularly. Some frequented the same resorts each year, while others toured numerous spas during a season’s rounds. In addition to the hoped-for curative effects of the mineral waters, the upland locations and clean mountain air provided a healthy respite from the crowded, polluted cities and hot, humid, diseased coastal regions.

Grand resorts were made even more grand with building programs and the less grand made improvements, as well. Some of the earliest travel guides were written and published about the spas, although the objectivity of some of the guide writers can be questioned due to the admitted influence of the spa owners promoting their resorts in this very competitive business. Spas made their money during a short season, with that seasonal income having to be spread out over the whole year in order to maintain the operation.

While invalids continued to seek out the springs for reasons of health, the springs came to be known as social destinations- places to see and be seen. Parents brought their daughters to scout prospective husbands; hopefully those with money and position. Young men reconnoitered the resorts, looking for eligible wives; hopefully with money. As the nineteenth century progressed and people began to doubt the efficacy of mineral waters for health, the springs continued to prosper due to the social life, the scenery, and added activities. If one did not care for a glass of sulphur water or to sit in a bath-house of bubbling minerals, one could fish, hunt, hike, bowl, play billiards, dance, eat, drink, and be merry.

The decline of the spas began with the Civil War when many resorts were occupied, damaged, or destroyed by warring armies, and transportation was interrupted. Some never reopened after the war while others rebuilt in grander style. But things had changed by this time. The resorts were no longer the exclusive haunts of the rich and famous; more than before average citizens were able to find the time and money to visit these playgrounds of the social elite. Which is not to say that the springs did not earlier attract those from more mundane social strata; indeed, some early observers had noted a scruffy, unwashed, tobacco-spitting element at the resorts. It is just that the springs had developed a general clientele from the upper classes who strove to maintain an aspect of exclusivity, even when the classes mixed at the springs. This exclusivity became harder to continue as a more egalitarian society evolved in the second half of the nineteenth century. Also, it was increasingly believed that the medicinal waters really weren’t effective in the prevention and cure of ailments. A hot mineral soak was certainly comforting, but it did not cure or prevent the many ailments that originally brought people to the springs. The great strides in modern medicine during the last half of the century held greater promise.

Financial downturns of the late nineteenth century contributed to dwindling attendance and even new building programs could not prevent the closure of a number of spas. Fire and flood also took a toll. Those that survived did so due to diverse offerings and activities, convenient transportation, long-time reputation, and an already large share of the market. Of the 15 resorts portrayed by Beyer in his Album only Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, Hot Springs (The Homestead), and Salt Sulphur Springs survive as full-service resorts. Warm Springs (Jefferson Pools) is still open for bathing and Red Sweet Springs (Sweet Chalybeate) opens its pool during the summer for swimming.

The Album of Virginia

In May 1856, Beyer was preparing to print his Album of Virginia. While in Richmond that month he sought subscriptions at $5.00 each to finance the printing of the Album. Pay now, pick up your prints later. During the following year he traveled to Germany to have his sketches turned into lithographic prints.

Lithography had been developed in Germany in 1798. An image was drawn on the smooth, polished surface of a limestone block with a crayon that attracted printing ink while the non-color areas were prepared to resist the ink. Paper was placed on the block and the block then run through a press. The image had to be drawn in reverse so that the finished print appeared correct. This process of going from the artists original to the drawing on stone in reverse often resulted in a print that was not as loose as the original art; a certain stiffness was apparent.

Artisans working for Rau and Son in Dresden and for W. Loeillot in Berlin transferred Beyer's sketches to lithographic stones, or plates, using a different stone for each color. Printed in black, blue, and yellow, the transparent inks would show through subsequently-printed layers, with two combined colors resulting in a third. For example, yellow overprinted on blue results in green. The Virginia Museum’s collection of Beyer's work represents the three-color prints. The two prints on this web site from the Library of Virginia’s published facsimile folio were hand colored at a later time, as it was common to hand color prints, before the full development of color lithography, in order to achieve a wider range of distinctive colors.

By May, 1858 Beyer had returned to Richmond with copies of his 40 prints which were then bound and copyrighted. The folios were issued in 1857 and 1858.

The prints themselves contain titles only; there is no descriptive text on the lithographs. However, the original folios were accompanied by a booklet describing each of the 39 scenes in detail (the fortieth is the cover plate). This Description of the Album of Virginia: Or The Old Dominion, Illustrated might have been the work of Richmonder Samuel Mordecai, who had previously written , also known as Virginia, Especially Richmond, in By-Gone Days, but was simply signed “A Virginian.”

[No longer valid: On this web site each print’s description from the booklet appears to the immediate right of the print, near the top of each page. Follow this link to the full text from the booklet.]

After the Album

Following the publication of the Album of Virginia Beyer returned to Germany. There he created another large panorama of 126 American scenes, including views of Virginia, which he exhibited in Meissen, Munich, and Berlin. This painting chronicled Beyer's travels from Germany to New York, Cincinnati, Virginia, and back to Germany. As with his earlier Wars for Liberty panorama, it is not known what became of this last one. Edward Beyer died in 1865 and his work has remained obscure since then.

Sources

Much of the information above came from this 2006 website of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, VA), which is no longer valid: http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/beyer/blue.html

The VMFA gave particular credit to

• Whitwell, W. L. "Edward Beyer (1820-1865)." Sotheby's: Important Americana: The Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Henry P. Deyerle. May 26 and 27, 1995.

• Wright, R. Lewis. "Edward Beyer and the Album of Virginia." Virginia Cavalcade. Spring 1973: 36-47.

• Wright, R. Lewis. "Edward Beyer in America: A German painter looks at Virginia." Art and Antiques. November-December 1980:72-77.

The web site was developed by the Division of Education and Outreach, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, USA. Copyright © 2002 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. All rights reserved. Commercial use or publication of text and graphic images is prohibited.

http://www.vmfa.state.va.us/beyer/beyer_intro.html The url above is no longer valid (pph20151207). 20060408pph