The Illustrated Mississippi Valley
Perhaps, the principle reason that the Piasa has remained an enigma for centuries is that it was believed that no reliable image of it has survived. An 1825 sketch done by William Dennis, entitled Flying Dragon, has apparently been lost to history. An obscure 1854 lithograph of the Piasa does exist, but in the past, it was judged wildly imaginative and inaccurate. We disagree. We believe it is accurate and revealing, but misinterpreted. We reached this conclusion after examining a copy of the rare German first edition, kept at Washington University, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Das Illustrirte Mississipithal (trans. The Illustrated Mississippi Valley) was first published in parts in Düsseldorf, Germany beginning in 1854, and then in full in 1857. It was richly illustrated by its author — Henry Lewis, a noted painter of the American frontier. Included among the book’s lithographic prints is “Der Piasa Felsen”, a rendering of the Piasa, done in 1845 when Lewis saw it firsthand.
