Visions of Ringwood Manor

            Ringwood Manor, located in northern New Jersey, is the site of a 19th century estate that was home to early developers of the iron industry in America.  Several nearby furnaces pioneered the extraction of iron from locally mined ore.  They provided iron for American weapons manufacture as early as the 18th century Revolutionary War, as well as for the Union Army during the Civil War.  The manor and surrounding grounds served as home to families of the owners of these industries.  Today it is a National Historic Landmark district administered by the NJ State Park Service.

            So why are these images "visions" of Ringwood Manor?  The attraction of visiting this historic site, or any historic site for that matter, is to try to imagine, in the mind's eye, what the remaining structures and facilities looked like in the relevant historical period.  For full appreciation a special skill is required of the visitor which involves the suspension of disbelief, a process much like that enjoyed during a stage performance in the theater.  My photographs and the way in which they were captured and processed aim to facilitate this experience.  They were all taken with a pinhole camera "lens" and further enhanced to look like prints from the 19th century's early days of photography.  

Technical Details: My Sony a7rII digital mirrorless camera was fitted with a body-cap with a thin copper insert in which a perfectly round hole exactly 0.2mm in diameter has been created using a laser.  All light rays cross at the pinhole and are not bent by any glass thus the focal length of this "lens" is 18mm, and the f-stop is f/90 (0.2=18/90).  This highly constricted aperture results in an almost infinite depth of field such that everything is brought close to focus. Unfortunately, the small size of the aperture also produces strong diffraction, so perfect sharpness is impossible.  Files were processed with Nik Silver Efex Pro to achieve the antique yellowed and faded look of old prints.

To see more “visions” check out my “Ringwood Manor” gallery.

For more about Ringwood Manor, visit ringwoodmanor.org

Paterson Locomotives

You can go home again!

LocoPano2Grn1NIKHDRExEd.jpg

            Between  1826 and 1923 Paterson NJ, at different times, was home to no less than six locomotive builders.  Thousands of steam engines were built during that time and placed into service all over the globe.  However, two of these were able to accomplish what the rest could not… they were able to return home again.

Rogers_Posters.jpg

            The most successful of Paterson builders was Rogers Locomotive Works which started production in 1832.  The original building was destroyed by fire and replaced with a new one that still stands today on the corner on Spruce and Market streets and now houses the Paterson Museum.  Rogers did well through the Civil War and the 1880's, building over 6,000 locomotives by the time they closed in 1904.  The company was bought by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and continued production until 1913.

 

ALCO-COOKE 2-6-0 #299

No. 299 photographed on a winter afternoon in December 2020.

No. 299 photographed on a winter afternoon in December 2020.

            This Mogul type (2-6-0) locomotive was built in 1907 at Alco’s Cooke Locomotive Works in Paterson, NJ, at a cost of $11,307 to work on the 5’ gauge railroad used in constructing the Panama Canal. Outshopped as a coal burner, at some point, it was converted to burn oil and the tender was adapted accordingly.

            #299 has Stephenson valve gear and 19” x 24” cylinders. With a 21’ 3” engine wheelbase and 13’ 4” driver wheelbase, it weighs 138,400 lbs, 120,500 lbs on its 54” drivers. It has a 27.6 sq ft grate and 125 sq ft firebox.  With a total heating surface of 1,560 sq ft, #229 operated at a boiler pressure of 180 psi delivering 24,548 lbs tractive effort.

            After being removed from active service, #299 was refurbished and placed on display at the Balboa Railroad Station in Panama in 1955. In 1970, it was donated to the Great Falls Development Corporation, transported by ship to New Orleans, moved on heavy duty flat cars and placed on display at the Paterson Museum as an example of the many locomotives built over the years at the Alco-Cooke (formerly Rogers) Locomotive Works in the city

No. 299 in front of the shop where it was built in 1907

No. 299 in front of the shop where it was built in 1907

ALCO-COOKE 0-4-0 ST #1

ABS&F Co. No.1 in front of the Paterson Museum

ABS&F Co. No.1 in front of the Paterson Museum

            The 0-4-0 saddle tank design is the simplest possible configuration of a steam locomotive.  They were most often employed as shop switchers where overall length was a concern. Consequently, although early models came with a tender to carry coal, later models like this one were converted to oil and carried their fuel in the tank atop the boiler. 

            This little engine was built in 1910 at the Cooke Works of the American Locomotive Company in Paterson. Initially it was employed at the American Brake Shoe and Foundry Company in Mahwah NJ.  It passed through various hands as an industrial engine up until 1964.  Finally it was acquired by the Great Falls Development Corporation in 1978 from a small tourist railroad in Allentown PA.  Today it sits next to #299 outside the Paterson Museum.

 

Rogers Locomotive Company in 1897.  The building on the corner of Spruce and Market Streets (lower right) still stands today (see photos above).

Rogers Locomotive Company in 1897.  The building on the corner of Spruce and Market Streets (lower right) still stands today (see photos above).

Turner, Ruined Abbeys, and Romanticism

Left : Bolton Abbey, JMW Turner (1775-1851) Right : Bolton Abbey, Jacek Kowalski, 2018

            In 2018 I made a two-week trip to Yorkshire with the specific aim of photographing ruined abbeys.  Why abbeys and why ruined ones? I will attempt answers to these questions shortly, but first a detour into art history.  The idea for the trip originated with an out-of-print book that I found at a public library sell-off.  "The Ruined Abbeys of England Wales and Scotland" by Henry Thorold is a thorough description of the almost 300 sites in the UK that feature remains of medieval abbeys. What I did not realize is that I would return with a set of photographs that frequently mirror the work of English romantic-era landscape painters. 

            J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) was a major figure in the history of Western art and is credited with initiating a revolution in landscape painting.  He was part of the Romantic era in landscape painting, whose foremost exponents, together with Turner, included John Constable and the German painter Caspar David Friedrich.   Romanticism extended not just to painting but to literature, music and architecture of the late 18th century.  It was a reaction to the birth of the modern era with its industrialization, urbanization, and secularization.  It put the emphasis on emotion and on glorification of the past and of Nature and was also a reaction to the preceding Enlightenment style which emphasized reason and balance. A survey of landscape paintings from this era reveals many artworks depicting church buildings in a state of ruin and in the process of reclamation by Nature and contemporary rural life.   In addition to the examples from Turner displayed here, similar themes appear in the work of other artists such as Caspar David Friedrich ( 1774-1840 ), John Constable (1776-1837), Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), J.S. Cottman (1782-1842), Richard Wilson (1714-1782), and J.C. Ibbetson (1759-1817) among many others. 

Left : Fountains Abbey, JMW Turner (1775-1851) Right : Fountains Abbey, Jacek Kowalski, 2018

            So what is it about abbeys, and specifically ruined abbeys that drew these artists to choose them as their subjects?  They could have painted other things, and indeed most did.  However, the sheer numbers of ruined-abbey paintings by Romantic era painters points to this being an especially favored subject.  With regard to British artists one reason could be that travel in Europe was restricted somewhat by the several Napoleonic wars that occurred between 1803 and 1815.  This resulted in a boom of domestic tourism.  Britain is quite unique in that it has almost 300 of these sites, many quite spectacular, resulting from the the Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536-1541. Also, there emerged in this time a growing sense of pride in pastoral poetry and picturesque subjects evocative of the drama of national history.  Finally, there was a new culture of antiquarianism and preservation of historical artefacts that accompanied this nationalism.

Left : Bolton Abbey, JMW Turner (1775-1851) Right : Bolton Abbey, Jacek Kowalski, 2018

            However, all of these factors contributing to the prevalence of ruined abbeys in British landscape art are rather straight forward and mundane.  Obviously, artists sought out these subjects because they were plentiful, easily accessible, nationally popular, and of antiquarian interest.  The nature of the Romantic aesthetic however suggests a deeper reason. 

            Romanticism, in hindsight, was predominantly a way of feeling.  Emotions that one may have had about religion were now placed in Nature.  Nature is permanent, man-made architecture is temporary.  Consequently, images of Nature reclaiming man-made religious architecture had aesthetic appeal.  Note that a frequent feature of these paintings is integration of the sites into pastoral country surroundings, overgrowth of the ruins by trees and ivy, and placement of grazing or relaxing farm animals in the scene.  The architecture was melting back into Nature and the pastoral way of life of a previous time.  The artists were experiencing what today we could call anemoia, nostalgia for a time one has not personally experienced.

            Romanticism did not die out with the 19th century.  It can and does serve as an inspiration to present day artists as well.  I invite you to look at the photographic images in my gallery, Abbeys.

Further Reading:

 Dillon, B.- Ruin Lust: Our Love Affair with Decaying Buildings - The Guardian - 17-Feb-2012

Matheson C.S. - Romanticism and Ruins - "Deep Blue" Repository, University of Michigan Library - 2007

Ivanov, B. - The Ruined Eldena Abbey in Germany: A frequent subject in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich - Abandoned Spaces - January 2019

Left : Whitby, JMW Turner (17715-1851) Right : Whitby, Jacek Kowalski, 2018