Capturing the fashionable Gilded Age resort town of Weirs, New Hampshire, on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, this image is typical of early twentieth-century photographs of lakeside resorts that can be classified as both landscapes and examples of documentary photography, as they allude to the emerging culture of leisure of that period.

The arrival of the railroad to Lake Winnipesaukee in the late 1840s transformed the region into a tourist destination, with numerous resort towns forming on its shores. Soon thereafter, passenger steamboats such as the side-wheeler Mount Washington—seen in this photograph—appeared, making leisure travel even more appealing. Launched in 1872, Mount Washington was dubbed "the most picturesque and possibly the most enchanting feature of the Winnipesaukee scene." Yet, by the time this photograph was taken, roads had begun to improve, the Model T Ford had begun to gain popularity, and steamboat transportation was gradually becoming a thing of the past. Built in 1885, the fashionable Weirs Café, seen at the center of the composition, remained a popular attraction of the area well into the 1920s.

Working in virtually every photographic process, Henry Greenwood Peabody produced thousands of photographs, slides, and films documenting the American landscape. Throughout his long career as a commercial photographer working on both coasts of the United States, Peabody captured landscape views in New England, Canada, California and other parts of the western United States, and Mexico, as well as Great Britain, France, and Switzerland. While he also carried out portrait commissions, architectural renderings, and other assignments, Peabody is widely known for his penchant toward landscape photography.

Kelley Tialiou
Charles H. Sawyer Curatorial Assistant | Librarian | Archivist