Washington was still a territory in the late 1870s, when artist Eli Glover arrived. His famous depiction of Olympia and Tumwater captured the hopes and dreams of these growing communities on the eve of statehood.
Bird’s-Eye Views Popular after Civil War
Bird’s-eye – or panoramic – views show scenes from the air. They date back to the Middle Ages. American demand for them exploded after the Civil War. Hundreds of communities, both large and small, across the nation were depicted by traveling artists.
One of these artists was Eli Sheldon Glover. Born August 14, 1844, to Charles and Jane Glover in Michigan, he left the family farm at age 15 to work for the Seventh Day Printing House in Battle Creek. Glover later attended the State Normal School in Ypsilanti and became a teacher.
But art was his calling. Glover studied art in Detroit before being hired as a sales agent and assistant to another artist. He founded the Merchant’s Lithography Company in Chicago, drawing and printing images of communities in the Midwest.
After his business burned down in 1871, Glover hit the road, working as an artist in Kansas and Missouri. He married Sarah Latta (1849-1937) in 1872. They would have four children: Grace, Edyth, Arthur and Sheldon. The family moved frequently, following Glover’s work.
Looking for work, Glover turned his attention to the West. With hundreds of new communities eager to promote themselves, it was a promising market. Glover drew communities in Nebraska, Colorado and Utah, before ending up in Montana, even visiting Yellowstone on a sketching trip.
In 1875, Glover made his way into Washington Territory on horseback over the Mullen Trail. He stopped in Walla Walla to draw a bird’s-eye view before heading down to California.
From 1877 to 1879, Glover made Portland his base. During these years he created bird’s-eye views of a number of communities in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.
Drawing Olympia and Tumwater
One of these images was of Olympia and Tumwater. On August 24, 1878, the Washington Standard newspaper announced this “New Picture.” “An opportunity,” the paper explained, “is offered our citizens for obtaining a beautiful picture of Olympia. The agent is now canvassing the town for subscribers. When sufficient number of sales are made, the picture will be issued as a lithograph.”
It took far longer to produce the print than outspoken Washington Standard editor John Miller Murphy would have liked. “We have been shown,” he complained on January 11, 1879, nearly six months later, “the new bird’s-eye lithographs of Seattle, New Tacoma, and Port Townsend, but where is Olympia? The preliminary drawing was made months ago.”
Murphy was right that it was a long process. The copyright date listed on the print is 1878 while the year 1879 is part of the title. Glover’s image was printed by A.L. Bancroft & Company of San Franscico, a lithography company.
Whatever Murphy thought of the delay then, Glover’s finished image has become one of the most famous depictions of early Olympia and Tumwater. Capturing a scene that no photograph of the era could have, the bird’s-eye view has been reproduced and displayed countless times. In the public domain, high-quality digital copies are available for free from many sources, including the Library of Congress and Washington State Library.
Drawing Shows Importance of Olympia’s Waterfront
Glover entitled his masterpiece “Bird’s-Eye View of the City of Olympia, East Olympia, and Tumwater, Puget Sound, Washington Territory, 1879.” The drawing is oriented with west at the top, with Budd Inlet to the right and Tumwater, with its water-driven industry clustered around Tumwater Falls, to the left.
Glover, who included a self-portrait in the foreground, did not have the aid of a hot air ballon or drone to make his image. By studying existing maps and drawing prominent buildings, he used his imagination to transfer this grid to an aerial view.
From first glance, the viewer is struck at the importance of the waterfront, pictured at high tide. The shoreline has yet to be reshaped by infilling. Ships of all types dot the busy harbor. With roads rough and unpaved, Puget Sound provided both transportation and trade. The Olympia & Tenino Railroad is also shown. It was completed in 1878, the year the drawing was made.
Glover’s image is highly detailed. Homes surrounded by gardens and orchards reach far into what is now downtown Olympia. Important buildings are identified by number. Besides churches and fraternal society halls, the courthouse, townhall, public school and capitol building are listed.
Overall, Olympia and Tumwater are depicted as small but growing, nestled among wooded hills. East Olympia is starting to form. Aside from a few scattered buildings, West Olympia is woods.
Glover Remained in Washington
Glover eventually settled near Lake Steilacoom, but his plans to plat the town of Lake Steilacoom Park were derailed by the economic Panic of 1893. He and his family later moved to Tacoma, where he continued to work as an artist. Glover died in Seattle on May 27, 1920.
Besides St. James Anglican Church on Tumwater Hill, the Bigelow house, and street names, little survives from the time of Glover’s bird’s-eye view. This makes the drawing all the more precious, a window to a lost world. As John W. Repps wrote in “Panoramas of Promise,” through bird’s-eye views we can visit old Olympia and Tumwater and “in our imagination approach their outskirts, visit their neighborhoods, walk their streets, admire their buildings, and appreciate the richness and variety of the urban scene in this region a century or more ago.”
