[Ads-l] Remarkable antedating of "cloudscape"

[George Thompson]

A shower came on which help'd to moderate the great heat of the weather --
before sun set it clear'd off & the clouds exhibited the most beautiful
colours, accompanied with a Rain-bow -- I took a walk along Broadway and
enjoy'd the delightful Cloudscape
            Alexander Anderson's New York City Diary, vol. 2, p. 324, entry
for May 8, 1795
New Castle, Del: Oak Knoll Press; Worcester, Mass: American Antiquarian
Society, 2014.

I certainly expected to find this from the late 18th C, but the OED has
only from 1868!
An Englishman named Luke Howard began publishing studies of clouds in 1803,
-- the categories of "cumulus" and so forth are his doing -- and artists
like Turner had begun to create cloud studies.  This passage from Anderson's
diary predates the interest that Howard stirred up.  He was a teenager
living in NYC, and went on to be a noted engraver.

The OED:
A scene composed of clouds, whether actually or in a painting.

   1. 1868

   Some of these cloud-scapes are extremely grand.

   Daily News 3 September[image: Citation details for Daily News]
   2. 1880

   In the various branches to which photography is now [applied]..in
   portraiture, landscape, seascape, cloudscape.

   Times 5 October 6/6[image: Citation details for Times]
   3. 1886

   Affording the most glorious sea-scapes and cloud-scapes.

   J. J. Hissey, On Box Seat 186[image: Citation details for J. J. Hissey,
   On Box Seat]

GAT

-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)

https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/HOP_WOA_3851

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