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Echo Lake
Samuel L. Gerry (1813–91)
Signed, lower right: “S L Gerry.”; undated, 1875–80
Oil on canvas (14 x 20 in.)
Collection of the New Hampshire Historical Society, gift of Gertrude M. Rea
1921.011
Franconia Notch’s Echo Lake was a favorite tourist sight in the White Mountains. The author Thomas Starr King wrote of visiting it in his popular guidebook, The White Hills, “It is towards evening that visitors are usually drawn to the lake to sail upon it, and hear the echoes from which it derives its name. It is better worth visiting then, however, for its echoes of color than of sound.” Starr King often used words that evoked art in his descriptions of New Hampshire locations, using analogies of color, shading, and perspective.
