Publishing the 'sealed book': James Mason Hutchings and the landscapes of California print culture, 1853--1886

James Mason Hutchings emigrated from England to California in 1849 and spent nearly his entire lifetime publishing and promoting California scenery. Environmental transformation and the proliferation of printed matter were two prominent features of the Anglo-American society which dominated California after midcentury, and for this reason nineteenth-century California offers a striking opportunity to explore the interrelationships between print and the cultural images of environment which constitute landscape. Because Hutchings so consistently used print culture to publicize landscapes, and because he did so in different forms over an extended period of time, his career offers a perfect case study for exploring the relationships between print culture and landscape in the latter half of the nineteenth century.; This dissertation focuses on the thirty-three years in which Hutchings published most actively: from 1853 to 1886. Each chapter encompasses a period of Hutchings' life as defined by his changing publishing activities. In each chapter, I explore the relationship between Hutchings' printed versions of California landscapes and the social, economic, and ideological contexts in which he produced them. I explore these relationships by closely analyzing some of Hutchings' key texts within their historic contexts. In doing so, I seek to discover what those texts can reveal about Hutchings' perceived audience, about the messages he hoped to convey to them, about Hutchings' personal aspirations and his social visions. Ultimately, I hope to show how the texts linked Californians and Hutchings to economic, cultural, and social change over time in California and in California's relationship to the nation.