Trapping in the Adirondacks (from "Every Saturday," Vol. I, New Series)

Trapping in the Adirondacks (from "Every Saturday," Vol. I, New Series) is a wood engraving created by Winslow Homer in 1870. This important print was produced for the illustrated weekly magazine Every Saturday, highlighting Homer’s critical role as a leading journalistic illustrator during the period immediately following the American Civil War. Wood engraving was the primary medium for mass reproduction at the time, allowing this image to reach a wide national audience.

The scene vividly captures the difficult reality of survival and commerce in the remote wilderness of the Adirondacks. Homer focuses on two men navigating a narrow, shadowed waterway in a small boat, likely setting or collecting materials from traps used for furs. The composition utilizes the strong, defined lines characteristic of the engraving technique, effectively conveying the texture of the dense forest surrounding the figures and the reflectivity of the still water.

This work contributes to Homer’s larger body of illustrations dedicated to representing various aspects of contemporary American life, from leisure pursuits to demanding labor. The men are portrayed as integral components of the vast, isolated landscape. As a piece of widely circulated visual journalism, the work helped shape the 19th-century public imagination regarding the American frontier and its inhabitants. This enduring print is housed in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Given its origin and circulation in periodicals, many similar illustrations by Homer are now frequently accessible via public domain repositories.