Nice view titled View of Meredith (New Hampshire), from steel engraving with fine detail and clear impression, nice hand coloring, page size approx. 27 x 21 cm, image size approx. 18 x 12 cm. From: N. P. Willis, American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature, publisher George Virtue, London.

Meredith, New Hampshire

Meredith is a town in Belknap County, New Hampshire, USA. The population was 5,943 at the 2000 census. Meredith is situated beside Lake Winnipesaukee. It is home to Stonedam Island Natural Area and the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad.

History

Meredith was first known as Palmer's Town in honor of Samuel Palmer, a teacher of surveying and navigation who laid out much of the land surrounding Lake Winnipesaukee. In 1748, it was one of the first towns to have a charter granted by the Masonian Proprietors. Many grantees were from Salem, Massachusetts, so Palmer's Town was renamed New Salem. It was settled in 1766 by Jacob Eaton and Colonel Ebenezer Smith, then regranted in 1768 by Governor John Wentworth and named after Sir William Meredith, 3rd Baronet, a member of Parliament who opposed taxation on the colonies.

Farmers grew corn, wheat, rye and potatoes, but the area became noted for apple orchards. The outlet of Lake Waukewan provided water power sites, and by 1859 Meredith village had a sawmill, gristmill, shingle mill, blacksmith shop, harness-maker's shop and tannery. Situated at the outlet of Wickwas Lake, Meredith Center had a sawmill, gristmill and blacksmith shop. Connected by the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad in March 1849, the town became a summer resort. Passengers also arrived from the Alton Bay depot aboard steamboats, the most famous of which was the original SS Mount Washington, launched in 1872. Meredith remains a popular tourist destination.

William Henry Bartlett

William Henry Bartlett (March 26, 1809 – September 13, 1854) was a British  artist, best known for his numerous drawings rendered into steel engravings.

Bartlett was born in Kentish Town, London in 1809. He was apprenticed to John  Britton (1771–1857), and became one of the foremost illustrators of topography  of his generation. He travelled throughout Britain, and in the mid and late  1840s he travelled extensively in the Balkans and the Middle East. He made four  visits to North America between 1836 and 1852.

In 1835, Bartlett first visited the United States to draw the buildings, towns  and scenery of the northeastern states. The finely detailed steel engravings  Bartlett produced were published uncolored with a text by Nathaniel Parker  Willis as American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of  Transatlantic Nature. American Scenery was published by George Virtue in London  in 30 monthly installments from 1837 to 1839. Bound editions of the work were  published from 1840 onward. In 1838 Bartlett was in the Canadas producing  sketches for Willis' Canadian scenery illustrated, published in 1842. Following  a trip to the Middle East, he published Walks about the city and environs of  Jerusalem in 1840.

Bartlett made sepia wash drawings the exact size to be engraved. His engraved  views were widely copied by artists, but no signed oil painting by his hand is  known. Engravings based on Bartlett's views were later used in his posthumous  History of the United States of North America, continued by Bernard Bolingbroke  Woodward and published around 1856.

Bartlett’s primary concern was to render "lively impressions of actual sights",  as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat (London, 1849). Many views contain  some ruin or element of the past including many scenes of churches, abbeys,  cathedrals and castles, and Nathaniel Parker Willis described Bartlett's talent  thus: "Bartlett could select his point of view so as to bring prominently into  his sketch the castle or the cathedral, which history or antiquity had allowed".

Bartlett returning from his last trip to the Near East suddenly took ill and  died of fever on board the French steamer Egyptus off the coast of Malta in  1854. His widow Susanna lived for almost 50 years after his death, and died in  London on 25 October 1902, aged 91.