About this Image
This illustration appeared in John Warner Barber's "Historical Collections, being a General Collection of Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes &c.", which was published in 1839. The book contained information on every town in the state of Massachusetts. Barber was the author and artist and for this ambitious project. In describing the town of South Hadley, he writes: "Mount Holyoke, on the northern borders of this town, rises 830 feet above the level of the Connecticut at its base, and from its summit presents probably the richest view in America in point of cultivation and fertile beauty, and is quite a place of fashionable resort....The following view is from Mt. Holyoke, showing the appearance of the curve of the Connecticut, sometimes called the Ox-bow, which gracefully sweeps round a circuit of three miles without advancing its ocean course a hundred rods....In the view from Holyoke we have the grand and beautiful united; the latter, however, greatly predominating."
