Views on the Mississippi

As mapmaker and photographer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Henry Peter Bosse (1844-1903) took more than three hundred photographs of the Upper Mississippi River from 1883 to 1893. His work was almost unknown until five separate volumes of his photographs were discovered during the past few years. Since then, Bosse's work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian and sold by leading auction houses to private collectors around the world. Views on the Mississippi brings together for the first time almost one hundred of Bosse's most stunning images. These cyanotype photographs trace the river from Minneapolis to St. Louis, capturing the Mississippi as it was transformed from an untamed natural wonder to a modern commercial highway. A detailed reproduction of Bosse's rare landmark map of the river, first published in 1887-88, is a fascinating guide to the historic Upper Mississippi.

Mark Neuzil is associate professor of journalism and mass communications and of environmental studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.