Sequoia: The Heralded Tree in American Art and Culture

Abstract

In an old joke told by park rangers of Sequoia National Park, a tourist drives up in a large recreational vehicle and asks the ranger, “Where is that dang tree you can drive through?” and the ranger, looking at the vehicle, responds, “You can drive through any of them if you get going fast enough” Knowing what the sequoia has meant to Americans requires more than a quick drive through, and in this carefully produced, painstakingly illustrated volume, Lori Vermaas provides a thickly described historical survey of the art elicited by America's most famous species of tree. Vermaas works through an interesting counterpoint between photographic treatments of sequoias, etchings, and paintings, and the trees' appearance in print culture. She compares multiple images of picturesque and scenic trees, trees rendered regular and eccentric, trees photographed being cut by humans, “trees you can drive through,” trees driven upon, and architectural integrations of trees in interior landscapes. The result is fascinating.