More information - the pieces fit post Civil War

Harper's Journal of Civilization, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, New York Daily Graphic, and Appletons' Journal which published Picturesque America all brought the images of America's potential to people who only knew of far away places by word of mouth. Wood and steel engravings produced by traveling artists included "The Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Forest, Water-falls, Shores, Canyons, Valleys, Cities and other Picturesque Features of our Country." Many people subscribed, the publishers made money, and the wounds of war were forgotten.

From Sue Rainey's bookcover- "...Picturesque America laid the foundation for a resurgence of nationalism rooted in the homeland itself, rather than in institutions of decomcracy as would have been the case earlier in the century." A fruitful strategy. 

Part Three of her book is entitled "Reassuring Messages in Words and Pictures" and that totally sums up a key purpose of the series - to reunite a country recovering from war. We can see the "aspirations and denials" clearly.  

Image of Sue Rainey's book Creating Picturesque America, published 1994.