2-752-408 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Old Elm, Boston Common', 1874. Elm tree in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. '...the still proud "Great Elm", a wonder of Nature, and a landmark of history. For more than two centuries its immense trunk and wide-spreading limbs have been the admiration and the shelter of Bostonians. An iron railing preserves it from rude abuse; an inscription tells of its venerable but unknown age, its historic significance, and perils by wind and storm. It is jagged and sear, but still stands vigorous and hale, with its circumference of nearly twenty-two feet, and its more than seventy feet of height; while the spread of its branches extends across eighty-six feet'. A major storm and heavy winds toppled the Great Elm in 1876. From "Picturesque America; or, The Land We Live In, A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes...with Illustrations on Steel and Wood by Eminent American Artists" Vol. II, edited by William Cullen Bryant. [D. Appleton and Company, New York, 1874]