One hundred and fifty-six miles west of Cincinnati, and thirty-two years after Francis Trollope settled there, David Broderick Walcott’s Hocking Valley Picnic (1854) makes picnicking ordinary. Twenty years of picnic progress made a substantial difference in style and substance. The scene is probably a commemorative view of a local summer picnic, but of who is unknown (at least by me). The group is genteel and likely linked to the substantial coal mining businesses of the area around Athens. It’s a well-organized social gathering in an open clearing beside a lake.
David Broderick Walcutt. Hocking Valley Picnic (1854)
Featured Image: David Broderick Walcutt. Hocking Valley Picnic (1854), oil on canvas. Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. This picnic is what Trollope might have wanted.