In 1889 most printing presses were not able to print photographs. Printing photos was very expensive, so only books contained photographs. Newspapers and magazines used drawings to illustrate their stories. Artists engraved the drawings on plates. The plates held ink on the printing press.
Sometimes magazines and newspapers sent their artists to a news story, just like they sent reporters. Other times the artists worked from photographs. Everyone was too busy running away from the Flood to take pictures! Artists illustrating the Flood listened to eyewitness stories, then imagined how it must have looked. Below are what some artist-reporters imagined.
Click on the images below to view a larger image. To help you see as much as possible from these photographs, use the tool “Reading a Photograph.”
Artist illustration of the flood
Harper’s Weekly illustration
Kurz-Allison print illustrating the flood
Illustration of the ruined dam.
Artist illustration from “The Johnstown Horror”
Artist illustration of the flood
Artist engraving.
From “The Johnstown Horror”
Illustration of the Morrell House
