The artist Edward Beyer came to the U.S. from Germany after the Revolution of 1848. For several years Beyer, a graduate of the Düsseldorf Academy, traveled around the northeast U.S. and Ohio, sketching, painting oil landscapes, and exhibiting a moving panorama. In the mid-1850s he traveled to Virginia where he made panoramic oils in the western part of the state. For a number of towns Beyer’s view remains the best single historical representation. In 1857-58 he produced Album of Virginia, a portfolio of 41 lithographic views. In the Album, especially, Beyer’s vision was that of a European liberal who saw the world as a Jeffersonian idealist.
