America’s premier tourist destination

During the early 1860s, an unexpected location ranked as the second most visited tourist spot in the United States: Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Trailing only Niagara Falls in popularity, the vast burial ground welcomed roughly 500,000 visitors every year. Families routinely spent their afternoons strolling through the peaceful grounds. They took horse-drawn carriage rides and admiring the elaborate grand monuments across the landscape.

When Green-Wood first opened its gates in 1838, New York City had virtually no public parks, as Central Park had not yet been conceived. By the time the early 1860s arrived, Central Park was only beginning to open its initial sections to the public. As a result, rural cemeteries like Green-Wood filled a massive void for city dwellers seeking fresh air, natural beauty, and a quiet escape from urban density.

The unique charm and sweeping vistas of the cemetery caught the attention of Rudolf Cronau, a German-born illustrator and artist. Born in Solingen in 1855, Cronau trained at the prestigious Düsseldorf Art Academy under Andreas Müller before establishing his own studio. In 1881, he ventured across the Atlantic on an assignment for Die Gartenlaube, a popular German illustrated magazine. His mission was to document the landscapes, bustling cities, and diverse people of the United States, bringing the American experience to life for European readers through a mix of written reports and detailed artwork.

While visiting Brooklyn in 1881, Cronau captured the cemetery’s famous skyline view in a artwork titled View from Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Rendered in delicate watercolor and black ink, the piece now resides in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Cronau arranged his view in three distinct planes: an elaborate mausoleum anchored the foreground, Green-Wood’s iconic Gothic main entrance gates framed the middle ground, and the vast expanse of New York Harbor and the New Jersey coastline stretched out in the background.

The mausoleum highlighted in the foreground of Cronau’s illustration belonged to John Anderson, a prominent NYC figure who amassed a massive fortune in the tobacco trade. Anderson, born in 1812, ran a well-known shop near Manhattan’s City Hall before eventually passing away in Paris in 1881.

Beyond serving as his final resting place, Anderson’s tomb was built as a bold political statement. Commissioned during the heights of the American Civil War, the Greek Revival-style structure was purposefully designed to symbolize a commitment to republican governance over monarchical rule, while serving as an unmistakable declaration of pro-Union support. Through art and architecture, a single cemetery hilltop managed to weave together personal wealth, national ideology, and one of the finest views of 19th-century New York.