The photographs making up the combination photographic plate At the Catskills | On Emery Brook were taken in 1886 or earlier by Ernest Edwards. Embellished with hand work including a remarque of lily pads as well as one of cat tails sprouting from the corner margins and intertwined with the title of At the Catsk-ills., it was first published as the photogravure (plate paper) frontispiece for the 1887 edition of The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac. Edward’s firm, The New York Photogravure Company, of which he was the founder of in 1885 as well as its president, made the photogravure plate for it.  The almanac’s editor, C.W. Canfield, commented:

“to Mr. Ernest Edwards, for the negatives, “In the Catskills;” and the Photogravure Co., for their reproductions therefrom, rivaling in beauty any European work that has been seen in this country;” 1.

1. Preface to the First Edition: in: The American Annual of Photography and Photographic Times Almanac for 1887: Edited by C.W. Canfield: New York: Scovill Manufacturing Company: New York: 1886: unpaginated