Panorama of the Hudson River

The original photographic panoramas were sold as souvenirs aboard Hudson River Day Liners, grand steamships that plied the river between 1863 and 1948. According to the text in the 1910 edition, Shear's east- and west-bank panoramas are comprised of 800 photographs. Despite strides in technology since then, Greg Miller took considerably more shots--as many as 2,500--for this updated edition, and even with the aid of a computer he probably spent more time matching up his prints than Shear did in constructing the original panoramas. Blame for that can be laid, in part, on the plethora and size of new buildings along the shore, primarily in and around Manhattan, which play havoc with angles while shooting from the deck of a moving boat. But Shear also had the benefit of the Day Liners, which maintained a regular schedule and a more or less constant speed, while Miller was at the mercy, not to mention generosity, of boat owners who were intrigued with the project. In the end, the variety of craft on which he made the 140-mile journey--the 80-foot schooner Adirondack; Launch 5, a former New York City Police Department harbor patrol boat; and the Serenity, an electric-powered vessel--says much about the Hudson's continued vitality.

Wallace Bruce, the poet, diplomat, and Hudson Valley native who spearheaded the earlier panorama projects, wrote that "the Hudson, more than any other river, has a distinct personality--an absolute soul-quality." Above all, Greg Miller's panorama proves that nothing has diminished the Hudson River's power to cast a mighty spell.