[Colorado:] The Homes of Our Favorite Poets.

High culture in the high Rockies: Colorado advertising booklet with 12 chromolithographic plates

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Advertising booklet for Pueblo, Colorado dry goods merchants Wilson & Barnard. While the booklet touts the Wilson and Barnard’s new building and their store’s amenities, its appeal as a keepsake rests wholly upon its 12 chromolithographic plates depicting the homes of celebrated American and British poets.

Each plate leaf shows the author’s home, a facsimile of his autograph, and selected verses of poetry. The American poets are Emerson, Longfellow, O.W. Holmes, Hawthorne, Whittier, and W.C. Bryant. The British poets are: Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Tennyson, Byron, Shakespeare, and Thomas Moore.

The dry goods store of Wilson & Barnard was located on Santa Fe Avenue in Pueblo. There they built a new store with modern amenities. Substituting for a proper title page is a leaf of advertising copy which precedes the chromolithographic plates:

Their new building, 44 x 120 feet, is three stories high, with a basement, and is without a doubt one of the finest Dry Goods Buildings in the West. It is fitted up with every modern convenience, including steam heat, passenger elevator, etc. A well of light, 9 x 16 feet in the center, will insure an abundance of light in every part of the store. A Ladies’ Waiting Room with Lavitory [sic] and Closet connected, where all are welcome whether they come to buy goods or not, is an attractive feature of their store. (f[1])

The back cover shows the front elevation of the store with its plate glass display windows. On the inside back cover is a directory of the two-story mercantile establishment.

A beautiful chromolithographic literary keepsake, emblematic of the civilizing of the American West; high culture in the high Rockies.

Price: $75.00