Creator
John Muir
Recipient
Louie [Strentzel Muir]
Transcription
At Sellers, 3420 Michigan Ave.
Chicago, May 29. 1893. 9 A.M.
Dear Louie. I leave for New York this evening at 5 o clock, & arrive there tomorrow evening at 7. Where I expect to find letters from you [c/o?] of Johnson at the Century Editorial rooms. The Sellers beautiful home has been made heartily my own, & they have left nothing undone they could think of that would in any way add to my enjoyment. Under their [guidance?] I have been at the fair every day, & have seen the best of it though months would be required to see it all. You know I called it a cosmopolitan rats nest containing much rubbish & common place stuff as well as things novel & precious. Well, now that I have seen it, it seems just such a rats nest still, & what do you think was one of the first things I saw when I entered the nearest of the – huge buildings. – A huge rats nest in a glass case about 8 feet square, with stuffed wood rates looking out from the mass of sticks & leaves etc natural as life. so you see as usual I am [always?] right I most enjoyed the art galleries There are about eighteen acres of paintings by every nation under the sun. & I wandered & gazed until I was ready to fall down with utter exhaustion. The art gallery of the California building is quite small & of little [significance?] not more than a dozen or two of paintings all told – 4 by Keith, not his best, & 4 by Hill not his best.
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& a few others of no special character by others except a good small one by Yelland. But the national galleries are perfectly overwhelming in grandeur & bulk & [variety?] - & years would be required to make even the most [illegible] curiosity of a criticism The outside view of the buildings is grand & also beautiful. For the best architects have done their best in building them while Fred [Lou?] Olmstead laid out the grounds. Last night the buildings & terraces & fountains along the canals were illuminated by tens of thousands of electric lights arranged along miles of lines of gables [domes?] & cornices with glorious effect. it was all fairyland on a [illegible] scale & would have made the Queen of Sheba & poor Solomon in all their glory feel sick with helpless envy. I wished a hundred times that you & the children & grandma could have seen it all & only the feeling that [illegible] would have been made sick with excitement prevented me from sending for you. I hope Helen is well & then all will be well. I have worked [at?] my article odd times now & then but it still remains to be finished at the Century rooms. Good bye tell the children I’ll write them from New York tomorrow or next day. Love to all goodbye. Ever yours John Muir
01668
[in margin: I saw allen Saturday Also [illegible] the artist]
Location
…Chicago, [Illinois]
Date Original
1893 May 29
Source
Original letter dimensions: 30.5 x 21 cm.
Recommended Citation
Muir, John, "Letter from John Muir to Louie [Strentzel Muir], 1893 May 29." (1893). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 912.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/912
Resource Identifier
muir07_1000-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 07, Image 1000
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyrighted
Copyright Statement
The unpublished works of John Muir are copyrighted by the Muir-Hanna Trust. To purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish or exhibit them, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Copyright Holder
Muir-Hanna Trust
Copyright Date
1984
Pages
3 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
