Churches, Blacksmith Shop and College: A View of Salem of Virginia in 1855
Edward Beyer
Oil on canvas
29 X 48 in.
Virginia Historical Society, gift of Lora Robins, E. Claiborne Robins, Jr., Bruce C. Gottwald,
Paul Mellon, D. Tennant Bryan,
Henry F. Stern, Mrs. E. Schneider, and Thomas Towers
Edward Beyer was commissioned to paint a panorama of Salem by some twenty gentlemen of the town. He called it "Churches,
Blacksmith Shop and College: A View of Salem of Virginia in 1855." In it we see the buildings and their positions in the landscape,
and how people dressed, worked, and traveled in this setting. A comparison of Beyer's view of Salem with nineteenth-century maps,
photographs, and written accounts that describe the town is revealing about the artist's methods. Typically with such towns,
he positioned himself at a high vantage point where he could take in the breadth of the town and most of the key buildings,
which he plotted on his canvas with the accuracy of a geographer. Some near and far buildings inevitably were juxtaposed
by his line of sight, so Beyer varied the value of his colors to suggest their spatial relationships. Near buildings are more
intensely colored than distant ones. Then the artist proceeded to paint microscopic details that, in the field, cannot be
perceived at such a distance by the human eye. He must have had a telescope for distant details and may have used
a camera obscura for nearer ones.
Both before and after visiting Virginia, Beyer was involved in producing large narrative panoramas, turned on revolving
drums, which viewers paid to watch. Although the Salem view is static, Beyer approaches it in much the same way as a
moving panorama.
 We enter the town on Main Street, like the
foreground couple on horseback, and then we proceed to tour Salem, at least visually. We have passed F. Johnston's
terraced garden on the right. We approach the brown sheds that are Mr. Daly's blacksmith shop. Two doors down
is Joshua Brown's brick house. We encounter townspeople as we proceed. At the other end of Main Street is the
white steeple of the Presbyterian church. Halfway there—where two wagons have driven—is the Lutheran church,
recognizable by its cupola. Turning right at that church, we proceed up a hill, past the porticoed courthouse to the
white-steepled Methodist church, near the center of the picture. Beyond and distant is the classical main building of Roanoke
College, dedicated seven years earlier.
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