Washington Irving Memorial Park and Arboretum (32.5 acres) is a public park and arboretum located just north of the Arkansas River Bridge at 13700 S. Memorial Drive, Bixby, Oklahoma. The park is named in honor of American writer Washington Irving, who camped in the area in October 1832 while participating in a federal expedition to the American West led by Judge Henry L. Ellsworth of Connecticut. The expedition included a 31-day, 350-mile (560 km) circular tour of central Oklahoma.
The park contains a wooded walking trail, the Laci Dawn Griffin Hill butterfly garden, and memorials to the children of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing and to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It also contains a statue of Irving seated on an amphitheatre stage modeled after the facade of his home, Sunnyside in Tarrytown, New York.
Ellsworth arrived at Fort Gibson in Oklahoma on October 8, 1832, along with Irving, naturalist Charles La Trobe, and Swiss nobleman Albert de Pourtalès. He promised the trio would have ample adventures in what was then Indian Territory. [1] Irving had been absent from the United States for seventeen years before returning to New York only a few months earlier. Upon his return, he became interested in the country's efforts for westward expansion. [2] Irving's experience in Oklahoma included scouting for prairie hens, hunting wolves, and trading with members of the Osage Nation. [3] He also met Sam Houston, who Irving described as a "well formed fresh looking man". [4]
Irving wrote of his experiences in Tour of the Prairies, published in 1835. The North American Review called the book "a sort of sentimental journey". [5] The book was a popular success, and it was the author's first book written and initially published in the United States since A History of New York in 1809. [6]
Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He wrote the short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain that deal with subjects such as the Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as American ambassador to Spain in the 1840s.
Bixby is a city in Tulsa and Wagoner counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is a suburb of Tulsa. The population was 28,609 at the 2020 census and 20,884 in the 2010 census, an increase of 13.70 percent In 2010, Bixby became the 19th largest city in Oklahoma. It is nicknamed "The Garden Spot of Oklahoma" for its rich agrarian heritage. Though one of the fastest-growing communities in Oklahoma, it remains a sod-growing center and a popular location for purchasing fresh vegetables. The per capita income of $36,257 is the highest in the Tulsa Metropolitan area and is more than 50 percent higher than the state average.
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their strong liquor and falls deeply asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.
James Kirke Paulding was an American writer and, for a time, the United States Secretary of the Navy. Paulding's early writings were satirical and violently anti-British, as shown in The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812). He wrote numerous long poems and serious histories. Among his novels are Konigsmarke, the Long Finne (1823) and The Dutchman's Fireside (1831). He is best known for creating the inimitable Nimrod Wildfire, the "half horse, half alligator" in The Lion of the West (1831), and as collaborator with William Irving and Washington Irving in Salmagundi. (1807–08). Paulding was also, by the mid-1830s, an ardent and outspoken defender of slavery, and he later endorsed southern secession from the union.
Felix Octavius Carr Darley, often credited as F. O. C. Darley, was an American illustrator, known for his illustrations in works by well-known 19th-century authors, including James Fenimore Cooper, Charles Dickens, Mary Mapes Dodge, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, George Lippard, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Donald Grant Mitchell, Clement Clarke Moore, Francis Parkman, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Parker Willis.
Donald Grant Mitchell was an American essayist and novelist who usually wrote under the pen name Ik Marvel.
Sunnyside (1835) is an historic house on 10 acres along the Hudson River, in Tarrytown, New York. It was the home of the American author Washington Irving, best known for his short stories, such as "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820).
"Peter Klaus" is a German folk tale. The story was written as "Der Ziegenhirt" by Johann Karl Christoph Nachtigal, who published it in 1800 under the alias Otmar.
The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, was a literary magazine of New York City, founded by Charles Fenno Hoffman in 1833, and published until 1865. Its long-term editor and publisher was Lewis Gaylord Clark, whose "Editor's Table" column was a staple of the magazine.
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., commonly referred to as The Sketch Book, is a collection of 34 essays and short stories written by the American author Washington Irving. It was published serially throughout 1819 and 1820. The collection includes two of Irving's best-known stories, attributed to the fictional Dutch historian Diedrich Knickerbocker: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". It also marks Irving's first use of the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon, which he would continue to employ throughout his literary career.
Irving Park may refer to several places:
Martin Van Buren National Historic Site is a unit of the United States National Park Service in Columbia County, New York, 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Kinderhook, 125 miles (201 km) north of New York City and 20 miles (32 km) south of Albany. The National Historic Site preserves the Lindenwald estate owned by Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States. Van Buren purchased the 36-room mansion during his presidency in 1839, and it became his home and farm from his leaving office in 1841 until his death in 1862.
William Irving was an American politician who served three terms as a United States representative from New York from 1814 to 1819.
Diedrich Knickerbocker is an American literary character who originated from Washington Irving's first novel, A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809). He is a Dutch-American historian who is dressed in a specific type of baggy-kneed trousers referred to as knickerbockers, later shortened to knickers. The word knickerbocker is also used to refer to people who live in Manhattan, and was adopted in a shortened form as the Knicks by the city's NBA professional basketball team.
Tales of the Alhambra (1832) is a collection of essays, verbal sketches and stories by American author Washington Irving (1783–1859) inspired by, and partly written during, his 1828 visit to the palace/fortress complex known as the Alhambra in Granada, Andalusia, Spain.
Salmagundi; or The Whim-whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. & Others, commonly referred to as Salmagundi, was a 19th-century satirical periodical created and written by American writer Washington Irving, his oldest brother William, and James Kirke Paulding. The collaborators produced twenty issues at irregular intervals between January 24, 1807 and January 15, 1808.
The Knickerbocker Group was a somewhat indistinct group of 19th-century American writers. Its most prominent members included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant. Each was a pioneer in general literature—novels, poetry and journalism.
Peter Irving was an American physician, author, and politician who was the brother of Washington Irving, William Irving and John T. Irving.
Mahomet and His Successors is a book written by American author Washington Irving, and published in 1850 and a follow-up to his previous book Life of Mahomet.
A History of New York, subtitled From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, is an 1809 literary parody on the early history of New York City by Washington Irving. Originally published under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, later editions that acknowledged Irving's authorship were printed as Knickerbocker's History of New York.