Yachting's Golden Age: 1880-1905
The early commercial yachting photographers, such as Nathaniel L. Stebbins and Henry G. Peabody out of Boston and James Burton and Charles E. Bolles out of New York, knew just how to catch the great sail and steam yachts of the 1880s to the early 1900s: in action, raking the water under vast fields of canvas if powered by wind, or low and slick, menacing and predatory, if tricked out with a boiler. These pioneering photographers, along with a number of others, took advantage of the then-new dry-plate technique, and an impressive collection of their work has been gathered by naval historian Holm. Here are the boats, caught in their glory, that the Astors and Vanderbilts, Gould and Morgan and Hearst spent colossal sums upon in an effort to outdo one another. There are also glimpses into the palatial interiors of the boats, a good and striking handful of port photographs, even an unexpected nod to the workingman's sailing canoes. Holm's text covers the yacht clubs, the frenzy attending the America's Cup, and the changes in boat architecture by designers Edward Burgess and Nathaniel Herreshoff. A unique and worthy contribution to yachting literature, though it is a mystery why Holm neglected the peerless ice yachts of the time. (102 photos)  --Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.