David Hunter Strother
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
and writer, popularly known by his pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
, "Porte Crayon" (French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Porteur crayon: "Pencil Carrier").
Early life
Strother was born in MartinsburgMartinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in the Eastern Panhandle region of West Virginia, United States. The city's population was 14,972 at the 2000 census; according to a 2009 Census Bureau estimate, Martinsburg's population was 17,117, making it the largest city in the Eastern Panhandle and the eighth largest...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
(now West Virginia). He studied drawing under Pietro Aneora in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, from 1829 to 1836 when he became a student of Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American contributor to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system based on European telegraphs, co-inventor of the Morse code, and an accomplished painter.-Birth and education:...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He went west in 1838, travelling through the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and in 1840 visited Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, remaining five years. On his return he settled in New York, where, under the direction of John G. Chapman, he acquired the art of drawing on wood for the engravers. In 1848 he returned to his native place, and four years later published, under the pen-name of “Porte Crayon”, the first of his series of papers in Harper's Monthly. Strother was an artist for The Crayon, the leading art journal of the United States at the time, and a frequent contributor to Harper's Monthly. Most of his early work was landscapes and other outdoor scenes. His art pertained mostly to Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and the Southern United States. Prior to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, his art was published in books titled The Blackwater Chronicle (1853) and Virginia Illustrated (1857).
Civil War
Despite his Virginia upbringing, Strother supported the Union during the Civil War. Upon the war's outbreak, Strother was commissioned by the U.S. ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and assigned as a topographer due to his detailed knowledge of the Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
. During this time, Strother recorded his experiences in the war, which he would later publish in Harper's Monthly as "Personal Recollections of the War." His accounts are considered to be unique and are highly praised for their objective viewpoint. On June 12th, 1864, Col. Strother was chief of staff to his cousin General David Hunter
David Hunter
David Hunter was a Union general in the American Civil War. He achieved fame by his unauthorized 1862 order emancipating slaves in three Southern states and as the president of the military commission trying the conspirators involved with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.-Early...
, and was involved in the shelling and burning of the Virginia Military Institute
Virginia Military Institute
The Virginia Military Institute , located in Lexington, Virginia, is the oldest state-supported military college and one of six senior military colleges in the United States. Unlike any other military college in the United States—and in keeping with its founding principles—all VMI students are...
(VMI). He was promoted colonel of the 3rd West Virginia Cavalry and involved in 30 battles, though never wounded, and was appointed a brevet
Brevet (military)
In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...
brigadier general
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
in 1865. Following the war, he was Adjutant General of the Virginia Militia and a member of the VMI Board of Visitors; in that capacity he actively promoted the reconstruction of VMI.
Postbellum career
After the war, topics of Strother's pieces covered a wider range of subjects. He began to make works that commented on politics and race relations, including a sketched portrait of Chief Sitting BullSitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
. Some of his drawings were merely of individuals and groups going about their daily lives.
Strother ended his career as an artist when he was appointed by President Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
to be the General Consul to Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
in 1879. He returned to West Virginia in 1885 and died there three years later. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
published an obituary in which it is stated that his name was a household one during his career. Strother is buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Martinsburg, West Virginia.
Works
- Kennedy, Philip Pendleton (1853), The Blackwater Chronicle, A Narrative of an Expedition into the Land of Canaan in Randolph County, Virginia, Redfield, New YorkRedfield, New YorkRedfield is a town in Oswego County, New York, USA. The population was 607 at the 2000 census.The Town of Redfield was incorporated from part of the Town of Mexico in 1800...
; Illustrated by David Hunter Strother. - Strother, David Hunter (1853), "The Virginia Canaan", Harper's MagazineHarper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, 8:18-36. - Strother, David Hunter (1857), Virginia Illustrated, containing "A Visit to the Virginian Canaan" and "The Adventures of Porte Crayon and his Cousins"; New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers
- Strother, David Hunter (1872-73), "The Mountains", Harper's New Monthly Magazine, v. 44-51. A fictionalized travelogueTravel journalA travel journal, also called road journal or travelogue, is a record made by a voyager. Generally in diary form, a travel journal contains descriptions of the traveler's experiences, is normally written during the course of the journey, intended on updating friends or family on the journey...
based on actual experiences in the mountains of West Virginia. - Strother, David Hunter (18??), "The Old South Illustrated", edited with introduction by Cecil B. Eby, Jr, University of North Carolina Press, 1959.
- Strother, David Hunter (1961), Virginia Yankee in the Civil War: The Diaries of David Hunter Strother; Edited by Cecil D. Eby, University of North Carolina PressUniversity of North Carolina PressThe University of North Carolina Press , founded in 1922, is a university press that is part of the University of North Carolina....
. - Strother, David Hunter (2006), Porte Crayon's Mexico: David Hunter Strother's Diaries in the Early Porfirian Era, 1879-1885, Edited by John E. Stealey III, Kent State University Press.
Legacy
- Mount Porte CrayonMount Porte CrayonMount Porte Crayon is a mountain in the Roaring Plains Wilderness of the Monongahela National Forest. It is situated in the extreme northeastern corner of Randolph County, West Virginia, USA, and rises to an elevation of , the elevational climax of the Allegheny Front...
, in eastern West Virginia, is named from Strother's pseudonym. - A noted folk painting, Meditation by the SeaMeditation by the SeaMeditation by the Sea is an American folk art oil painting by an unknown artist from the early 1860s.The painting is derived from a wood engraving of Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard by David H...
(ca. 1862), is based on a Strother engraving.