38 Nebraskaland • July 2021
magine sitting in a darkened theater
watching a giant canvas on stage.
The canvas is spooled at either end
and advances like a giant scroll.
Painted on the canvas are scenes of the
Oregon Trail. A narrator describes the
great journey that thousands of your
fellow citizens are making.
The giant scroll was called the
Pantoscope, and it was big hit in
Eastern theaters in the 1850s. Designed
and promoted by entrepreneur J.
Wesley Jones, it was based on sketches
and photographs made along the trail
by several artists and photographers
that Jones hired for the project.
The Pantoscope and most of the
original images are lost, except for
those of one of the artists, William
Quesenbury (CUSH-en-berry). The
Omaha World-Herald purchased his
sketchbook and donated it to History
Nebraska.
David Murphy of History
Nebraska co-authored a book about
Quesenbury titled Scenery, Curiosities
and Stupendous Rocks. He visited
places "Cush" had sketched and was
impressed with the artist's accuracy.
Some of the sketches were labeled, but
most were not.
The one shown here was not, but
its placement in the sketchbook led
Murphy to believe it portrayed Ash
Hollow, an important stop along the
trail and now a state historical park.
A drawing made in 1851 would be one
of the earliest views of the site and
would show the area during the peak of
westward migration.
To be sure, Murphy studied
topographic maps and then visited
Ash Hollow. He carried a copy of the
sketch to help identify the place where
his view matched the lines on the
paper. When he found the spot, he was
looking northeast toward the Platte
Valley.
One big diff erence was all the trees
that now obscure the 1850s view of the
valley. Fire suppression allows them to
grow thick, and present-day travelers
aren't cutting them down for fi rewood.
Here's how Jo nes described the scene
for the Pantoscope: "Winding over
precipitous crags, we descend through
Ash Hollow, to the north branch of the
Platte River in the distance. It takes its
name from the fi ne groves of ash trees
which … have nearly succumbed to the
necessities of the traveller, who here
lays in a supply of fuel to boil his coff ee,
for the next 200 miles aff ords not even
a schrub large enough for a walking
stick."
N
Visit History Nebraska's website at
history.nebraska.gov.
Sketching Ash Hollow
in 1851
By David L. Bristow,
History Nebraska
I
Arkansas artist
William Minor
Quesenbury, circa
1870s.
COURTESY OF THE SHILOH MUSEUM
OF OZARK HISTORY (S-96-69)
