James Madison Alden

James Madison Alden was an American artist and surveyor who recorded the Pacific coast in hundreds of precise watercolours in the 1850s. His views of forts, bays, rivers and islands were made for survey work, but they are also attractive pictures of a coast before modern development.

Born in New England, he went to California in 1854 at the invitation of his uncle, James Alden, who commanded a U.S. Coast Survey ship. Serving as artist and topographer aboard the USS Active from 1854 to 1860, he painted the coast from California to the Puget Sound and the boundary region with British Columbia. His 1855 view of Santa Cruz Island is the first known picture of it.

Around 670 of his artworks are known, with many held at Yale’s Beinecke Library. Look for his careful coastlines and small details of ships and buildings.