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Yosemite's Structure and Textures: Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton Watkins, Ansel Adams, and Others

July 25 - October 28, 2007

 

The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University announces the exhibition "Yosemite's Structure and Textures: Photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, Carleton Watkins, Ansel Adams, and Others," on view from July 25 through October 28, 2007. Fifty photographs plus maps, guidebooks, and stereo prints present the geological wonders of Yosemite Valley and its surrounding High Sierra peaks.

The views range from Watkins's mammoth-plate prints with their stunning detail to Adams's equally detailed, but also atmospheric, images in which Yosemite's granite faces are masked by storm clouds or revealed by moonlight. The rapidly flowing Merced River, the plunging waterfalls and mists of Bridal Veil and Yosemite Falls, and the seemingly unchanging granite face of El Capitan are among the memorable images in this exhibition.

The inaccessible valley was home to six Indian tribes, including the Ahwahneechee and the Yosemetes. In the early 1850s the Indians were relocated and miners and prospectors began to arrive. As word spread of the Valley's wonders, photographers soon arrived; during the 1860s and 1870s, Watkins, Muybridge, and the lesser-known George Fiske, each burdened with cumbersome equipment, explored the terrain.

Watkins's photographs, made on 15 x 20 inch mammoth glass plates, were sent to Washington, where their extraordinary beauty helped convince President Abraham Lincoln and Congress to undertake efforts to protect the unique landscape. In 1890, Yosemite Valley was formally declared a National Park, two years before the Sierra Club was formed. Muir's 1912 book, The Yosemite, introduced the Valley's extraordinary character to a wide audience.

The 19th-century photographs by Watkins, Muybridge, and Fiske, whose works are also presented in the exhibition, and the 20th-century images by Adams remain unrivalled as testimony to Yosemite's geological character. These photographers, who knew the Valley well, recorded it through many seasons and in all kinds of weather.

The exhibition includes early maps and guidebooks, plus many stereo views, which add another dimension to the iconic images of Yosemite's grandeur. The small stereo views offer variants of the larger scenes and also portray visitors exploring the great Sequoias.

The exhibition has been organized by Betsy G. Fryberger, Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator of Prints and Drawings, with the assistance of Judy Dennis and Nancy Ferguson, and with Lauren Silver, associate curator for education. In addition, Luise Richter, from The Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West, contributed research.

Related programming includes documentary films, August 8, 15, 22, and October 18 at 7 pm, for details visit museum.stanford.edu. Stanford Continuing Studies offers a related course, beginning June 27.

 

Yosemite films

Free admission, presented in Annenberg Auditorium, Cummings Art Building

Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film (2002, 100 minutes) 
Directed by Ric Burns
Wednesday, August 8, 7 pm
 
The Wilderness Idea: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot and the First Great Battle for Wilderness (1989, 58 minutes)
Directed by Diane Garey and Lawrence R. Hott.
Wednesday, August 15, 7 pm
 
Vertical Frontier: A History of the Art, Sport, and Philosophy of Rock Climbing in Yosemite (2002, 90 minutes)
Directed by Kristi Denton Cohen, narrated by Tom Brokaw.
Wednesday, August 22, 7 pm
 
Yosemite, The Fate of Heaven (1989, 58 minutes)
Directed by Jon Else, narrated by Robert Redford
Thursday, October 18, at 7 pm
Lecture by director Jon Else, followed by film

 

Gallery labels for the exhibition

In the 1850s Yosemite was virtually inaccessible and known to only a few. In 1851, the Governor of California had authorized the Mariposa Battalion of volunteers to drive the Native American tribes out of the region around Yosemite. Within a few months, peace treaties were concluded with the Indians who had resettled elsewhere. By 1864, the United States Congress authorized the State of California to set the area aside for "public use, resort and recreation."

The fact that Yosemite rapidly became so widely recognized was due to the work of a few photographers, as well as such painters as Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith. This exhibition focuses on the geological features of Yosemite, comparing the 19th-century photographs of Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and George Fiske with those of a century later by Ansel Adams.

In 1861 and 1865-66, Carleton Watkins pioneered a photographic format, appropriate to Yosemite's scale, creating more than 130 mammoth glass plate negatives (18 x 22 inches). His carefully composed images with their stunning clarity of detail expose Yosemite's geological formations as seemingly timeless and unchangeable. In 1867, Eadweard Muybridge arrived; his images reveal a more daring personality who sometimes found vantage points in treacherous locations. Both Watkins and Muybridge also used a stereo camera to make numerous small views, which were enormously popular, undoubtedly helping persuade some to experience Yosemite's wonders firsthand. George Fiske found his life work in Yosemite, settling there in 1880 and remaining for almost four decades. In addition to photographing its famous landmarks, Fiske included ordinary people-something his predecessors had rarely done.

With improved access to Yosemite Valley for wagons and stagecoaches and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, it rapidly became a tourist destination. In 1890 it was designated a National Park and by 1900 some 1500 photographers had recorded its landmark domes and waterfalls.

Ansel Adams first visited Yosemite in 1916. During the late 1920s, he made prints from Fiske's negatives, preferring the changing sunlight and flowing water of his images to the static ones by Watkins and Muybridge, whose earlier equipment could not capture such transitory effects. Many today see Yosemite as defined by Adams's classic images.

The exhibition guides the viewer into the Valley, along the Merced River, stopping at Bridalveil, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, and other sites, and then up into the High Sierra. The photographs by Watkins, Muybridge, and Fiske, and those by Adams of a century later illuminate Yosemite's structure and textures in memorable ways.

Betsy G. Fryberger
Burton and Deedee McMurtry
Curator of Prints and Drawings

 

The works in the exhibition have been drawn from the collections of the Cantor Arts Center and of Stanford University Libraries. Thanks go to Curatorial Assistants Judy Dennis and Nancy Ferguson, Associate Curator for Education Lauren Silver, and Luise Richter, a Yosemite Intern from The Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West at Stanford. Additional material was prepared by students in John Tinker's undergraduate class "Objects of Argument: Arrangement and Design of Museum Displays."

The exhibition is made possible by the Halperin Exhibitions Fund, Ambassador and Mrs. "Bill" Lane, and Bill and Carolyn Reller, with additional support from L. Jay and Marjorie Rossi. Supplementary programs are supported by the Mark and Betsy Gates Fund.

 


 

A CENTURY AT YOSEMITE (1851-1960)

1851The volunteer Mariposa Battalion entered Yosemite Valley driving out the Native American tribes

1855 J. M. Hutchings brought the first visitors to Yosemite

1855-56 First southern trail entered from near Wawona, through the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

1856 The Coulterville Trail established a western access along Bull Creek and Tamarack Flat

1857 Galen Clark explored Mariposa Grove

1859 Charles Weed took first photographs of Yosemite

1861 Carleton Watkins entered through the Mariposa Grove

1862-63 William Brewer and Josiah Whitney began their work for the Geological Survey of California; Watkins's photographs exhibited in New York and seen by Albert Bierstadt who traveled to Yosemite that year as did fellow artists Thomas Hill and William Keith

1864 Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and Yosemite Valley entrusted to the State of California by U. S. Congress to be reserved for "public use, resort and recreation"

1865-66 Watkins returned with more extensive equipment; worked with Geological Survey of California

1866-79 Galen Clark appointed Yosemite's first guardian; his Wawona ranch became an important point of entry on the Mariposa Trail

1867 Bierstadt returned to paint; Eadweard Muybridge arrived to photograph; Yosemite's fame reached Europe; Lawrence & Houseworth of San Francisco awarded the highest photographic medal at the Paris Exposition for Yosemite views (actually taken by Weed)

1868 Scottish-born John Muir walked from San Francisco across the Central Valley to Yosemite; J.D. Whitney's The Yosemite Book, published with 24 of Watkins's photographs

1870s Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad improved access toYosemite; East Coast visitors included artist Thomas Moran and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson

1872 Third trail opened, leading to Glacier Point; Harvard botanist Asa Gray visited; geologist Clarence King guided Bierstadt; Muir guided artist William Keith; Watkins and Muybridge photographed independently

1874-75 Improved and widened roads allowed wagons into the Valley

1879-80 George Fiske first photographer to winter in the Valley

1883 Artist Thomas Hill built studio near Wawona

1892 Sierra Club organized

1899 Camp Curry area for tent cabins established by Mr. and Mrs. David Curry (now Curry Village)

1890 Congress declared Yosemite a National Park (but the Valley remained a state park until 1906)

1900 More than 150 photographers had visited since Weed's arrival

1902 H. C. Best established art studio in the Valley (his daughter Virginia later married Ansel Adams)

1903 President Theodore Roosevelt met Muir in Yosemite

1905 Boundaries of Yosemite National Park changed; survey by geologist François Matthes undertaken

1907 Yosemite Valley Railroad opened (discontinued in 1945)

1912 Muir's The Yosemite published

1913 Automobiles admitted; Hetch Hetchy Valley authorized for use as a reservoir

1915 Tioga Road purchased from successors of the mining company; 30,000 visitors (more than double the previous year)

1917 National Park Service organized as bureau of the Department of the Interior; Wawona and Glacier Point Roads acquired by U.S. government, tolls abolished

1922 Visitors exceeded 100,000

1925 Yosemite Park & Curry Co. formed with Donald Tresidder as President

1926 All-year highway from Merced opened

1927 Ahwahnee Hotel opened

1930 Boundaries extended to include over 7,700 acres; Matthes's Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley published

1932 Wawona area added to the Park (14 square miles)

1933 Wawona tunnel opened; almost 10,000 campers by early July

1936 New Glacier Point Road completed

1940 New Big Oak Flat Road and tunnels opened

1949 Largest fire in history of Yosemite

1950 Flooding caused great damage in the Valley

1952 Lodgepole needleminer (moth) epidemic damaged 47,000 acres in Tuolumne Meadows

1953 Worst fire season in the Park's records, 79 forest fires

1956 New Yosemite Lodge completed

1959-60 Tioga Road widened and rerouted, causing damage to meadowlands and glacial polished granite along Lake Tenaya

 


 

CARLETON WATKINS

1829 Born in Oneonta, New York

1851 Arrived in California, with Collis P. Huntington; worked in Sacramento

1853 Moved to San Francisco

1859-60 Commissioned by John Charles Frémont to photograph his property, south of Yosemite, Las Mariposas, for purposes of mining documentation

1861 Entered Yosemite from the south, through the Mariposa Grove

1862 Met William Brewer and Josiah Whitney of the California State Geological Survey; Watkins's Yosemite views shown to acclaim at Goupil's New York Gallery

1864 His Yosemite photographs shown to President Abraham Lincoln; Congress authorized State of California to reserve Mariposa Grove and Yosemite for public use

1865-66 Returned to Yosemite with Geological Survey of California

1875 Financial troubles led to bankruptcy; lost all negatives and prints to Isaiah W. Taber who published Watkins's photographs as his own

1880-90 Traveled widely on the Southern Pacific Railroad; rephotographed Yosemite, Mts. Shasta and Lassen, resorts such as the Hotel del Monte, Monterey, and mining properties as far away as Montana

1891 Eyesight and health failing

1906 Earthquake and fire of April 18 destroyed his San Francisco studio; in discussion with the Leland Stanford Jr. Museum to acquire its contents

1909 Declared mentally incompetent

1916 Died in Napa State Hospital

 


 

WATKINS AND YOSEMITE

Carleton Watkins pioneered the use of mammoth-size glass plates (18 x 22 inch) in his views of Yosemite that proved to be instrumental in introducing its splendors to the outside world.

The photographic equipment that Watkins carried to Yosemite's high waterfalls and sheer cliffs was cumbersome and heavy. In 1861, he brought some 30 mammoth plates; in 1865-66, 100 sheets. On these trips he also carried two cameras (one for the larger views, another for stereo subjects), as well as the chemicals necessary to fix images on location. Watkins mastered the logistics of marshalling his supply of heavy equipment hauled in wagons by donkeys to precipitous heights.

Returning to Yosemite in later decades, Watkins rephotographed some of the earlier sites, under easier conditions. His early photographs, however, remain his most memorable accomplishment and continue to astonish viewers with their classic composition and stunning clarity.

 


 

MILTON S. LATHAM, PATRON OF CARLETON WATKINS

Although Watkins's most famous photographs are of geological wonders such as Yosemite, he earned commissions photographing less spectacular sites for the Southern Pacific Railroad, as well as for mining properties and private estates.

In 1871-72, the lawyer and banker Milton S. Latham commissioned Watkins to photograph Thurlow Lodge in Menlo Park, his magnificent new estate. Latham also acquired three series of Watkins's mammoth-plate photographs in 1874 (just before the Depression of 1875 when both patron and photographer went through bankruptcy). The three magnificent series, each of about 50 views, included Yosemite, the Columbia River Gorge, and Pacific Coast Views. From Latham, these series passed eventually to Timothy Hopkins, who donated them to Stanford University Libraries.

Each albumen print in the Yosemite series is mounted on a heavy sheet that is elegantly inscribed with a caption giving the site and often the elevation, executed in the style of the San Francisco calligrapher Fulgencio Seregni.

 


 

EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE

1830 Born in Kingston-on-Thames, England, as Edward James Muggeridge

1856 Established a bookstore in San Francisco; changed his name to Eadweard Muygridge

1860 Suffered brain damage from a stage coach accident

1867 Returned to San Francisco as Eadweard Muybridge; first visit to Yosemite where he photographed 72 (6 x 8 inch) views and 114 stereo views

1871 Married Flora Stone

1872 Second visit to Yosemite; photographed 51 mammoth plates and hundreds of stereo views; photographed Leland Stanford's horse, Occident, proving that a trotting horse lifts all four hooves off the ground

1873 International Gold Medal for Landscape Photography, Vienna

1875 Tried and acquitted for murdering his wife's lover; photographed ruins and coffee plantations in Central America

1878 Began to photograph animals in motion at the Stanford family Palo Alto farm

1879 Invented the Zoopraxiscope, a precursor of motion picture projectors

1883 Photographed motion studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; invented a clockwork mechanism to control his camera and enable photographs to represent speed as well as movement

1887 Publication of Animal Locomotion, 781 studies of animals and people in motion

1893 Lectured and projected moving pictures at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

1904 Died in Kingston-on-Thames, England

 


 

MUYBRIDGE AND YOSEMITE

Muybridge was an extremely innovative and intrepid photographer whose images of Yosemite reflect both his aesthetic and technical creativity. Due to the lengthy exposure time required to produce a negative, clouds rarely appeared in mid-19th century photographs. Muybridge made a series of cloud negatives and added them to the print process. By 1869 he had invented the "sky shade," an adjustable curtain briefly removed from the upper part of the lens so that clouds would appear on the negative.

In 1872 the San Francisco newspaper Alta California described Muybridge's unique approach to photographing Yosemite:

. . . he has cut down trees by the score that interfered with . . . the best point of sight; he had himself lowered down by ropes down precipices to establish his instrument in places where the full beauty of the object . . . could be transferred to the negative; he has gone to points where his packers refused to follow him, and he has carried the apparatus himself rather than to forego the pictur on which he has set his mind

From 1867 through 1872 Muybridge signed his negatives with the name of the Greek sun god, "Helios," reflecting an early description of photography as "sun drawing." His mobile darkroom, labeled "Helios's Flying Studio," transported his heavy equipment.

After photographing many regions in the West, including San Francisco and Alaska, Muybridge pursued his passion for motion in photography that eventually led to moving pictures.

Helen Hunt Jackson, best known for her novel Ramona, praised Muybridge in a travel article:

I am not sure, after all, that there is anything so good to do in San Francisco as to spend a forenoon in Mr. Muybridge's little upper chamber, looking over those marvelous pictures.
 


 

ANSEL ADAMS

1902 Born in San Francisco

1916 First trip to Yosemite with parents; received first camera

1920 Began 50-plus years' association with the Sierra Club; was summer caretaker of its Yosemite headquarters

1927 Met Albert Bender, art patron; Adams issued his first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras

1928 Married Virginia Best (later had two children, Michael and Anne)

1927-31 Employed making postcards and prints from George Fiske's negatives

1932 First show at De Young Museum, San Francisco; founded "Group f/64" dedicated to straight photography, with Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and others

1936 One-man show at Alfred Stieglitz's New York gallery, An American Place

1937 Moved to Yosemite Valley; Virginia inherited Best's Studio concession

1938 Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail published; effective in campaign to establish Kings Canyon National Park

1940 Co-founded photography department at Museum of Modern Art, New York

1941 Appointed photomuralist to U.S. Department of Interior

1946 Received his first Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph national parks

1946 Founded photography department at California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco

1950 Portfolio Two: The National Parks & Monuments published

1955 Began holding workshops in Yosemite

1960 Portfolio Three: Yosemite Valley published

1962 Moved to Carmel

1963 Portfolio Four: What Majestic Word, In memory of Russell Varian published

1980 Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

1984 Died in Carmel

 


 

ADAMS AND YOSEMITE

Ansel Adams created some of the most influential photographs ever made of the American landscape. His lyrical images of Yosemite have attracted thousands to visit the park. His work has been credited with helping to launch the modern environmental movement, and has contributed to public acceptance of photography as a fine art.

Adams was raised in San Francisco. As a boy, he was restless and hyperactive, but found peace in the outdoors. Initially self-taught, he began formal study of the piano in 1915. Through music, he became disciplined, learning to express his emotions by producing beautiful and precise sounds.

In 1916, Adams first visited Yosemite. He was profoundly affected and returned every year thereafter. In 1920, Adams began his long association with the Sierra Club, initially working as summer caretaker of its Yosemite headquarters. Later, he joined group outings, wrote and took photographs for the Club's publications, and served on its Board of Directors.

Around 1930, Adams decided to pursue photography as a career. The next two decades were his most productive and creative. By bringing out subtle nuances of tone in his photographs, he captured the evanescent quality of the landscape. He once compared the tones from blackest black to whitest white to the piano's eighty-eight keys, asserting that a photographer must be able to play every key.

 


 

Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Fresh Snow, Yosemite Valley, 1947/1948
Gelatin-silver print, three-part screen
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Steil, Mr. C. Russell Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Carey O. Cook, Mr. George Mayer, Mr. and Mrs. W. Carter McClelland, Mr. and Mrs. Bowen H. McCoy, and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas C. Melzer. Conservation supported by Buzz McCoy and others, 1992.231
 
Extremely special and rare, Fresh Snow is one of only thirteen screens made by Adams during his lifetime. It was a personal favorite; Adams used its negative for two screens and also included it in Portfolio Six, 1974.
 
Adams was interested in the technical and creative problems of photomurals, noting that "the size of the photograph has an expressive relationship with the subject" and a three-panel screen "produces effects not only of altered perspective and scale, but on account of reflective properties of the panels, of light intensity as well." In his opinion, a subject with "an all-over pattern, or a semi-abstract arrangement" such as Fresh Snow is most effective when displayed in this manner.
 
This screen was exhibited in The Eloquent Light at the De Young Museum in 1963 and subsequently circulated by the Smithsonian Institution. It was also shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1979, in a 1982 traveling retrospective of Adams's work, and at the National Gallery in 1985.
Purchased in 1981 by a group of Stanford alumni as a gift to Stanford University, Fresh Snow was first displayed at Hoover House, the campus residence of Stanford's president. In 1992, it entered the museum's collection.

 


 
Top:
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Don Tresidder and Skiers on Mt. Watkins, Yosemite High Sierra, 1929-30
Gelatin-silver print
Gift of Thomas W. Weisel, 1986.366.14
 
Bottom:
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Camping for Lunch, Fletcher Creek Canyon, Yosemite High Sierra, 1929-30
Gelatin-silver print
Gift of Thomas W. Weisel, 1986.366.2
 
 
 
Left top to bottom:
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Skiing on Mt. Watkins, Half Dome in Background, Yosemite High Sierra, 1929-30
Skiing on Mt. Watkins, Yosemite High Sierra, 1929-30
Gelatin-silver prints
Gift of Thomas W. Weisel, 1986.366.8, .40
 
 
Right top to bottom:
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Skiing Down from Tenaya Peak, Clouds Rest in Distance, Yosemite High Sierra
1929-30
Skiing on Lembert Dome, Yosemite High Sierra, 1929-30
Gelatin-silver prints
Gift of Thomas W. Weisel, 1986.366.25, .13

 

 


 

MERCED RIVER

 
Historic Names:
 
El Rio de Nuestra Señora de la Merced
[The River of Our Lady of Mercy]
 
Geology:
 
Yosemite Valley is the product of weathering and erosion along jointed igneous rocks. Initial erosion was caused by rivers and falling rocks, modified by glacial scour and deposition, and the subsequent sedimentation in Glacial Lake Yosemite. The present Merced River meanders atop almost 2000 feet of sediment deposited in that lake.
 
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Bridge over the Merced at Clarks, 1865­66
View Up the Yosemite Valley, 1865­66
Albumen prints
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.13.2007, L1.3.2007
 

 


EL CAPITAN

 
Historic Names:
 
TOTE-ACK-AH-NOO-LAH [ROCK CHIEF]
Tó-to-kon oo-lah [Sand Hill Crane]
Tul-tok-a-nu-la [a legendary inchworm who saved two children by leading them down from the top of the cliff]
 
El Capitan, by the Mariposa Battalion, 1851
 
Geology:
 
El Capitan is a granite monolith with an intrusion of diorite on its East wall. The appearance of this darker stone has been interpreted as a crude map of North America. At the base of the steep rock are gentler talus slopes, the accumulation of rock fall debris.
 
 
 
Above:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Tutokanula, (The Great Chief), 1872
Reflection of Tutokanula in the Merced 1872
Stereo views, albumen prints
Committee for Art Acquisitions Fund, 1971.14.9 1971.14.13
 
From left to right:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Tu-loch-ah-nu-lah (Great Chief of the Valley), 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19743
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Mirror View of El Capitan, 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.16.2007
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
El Capitan During a Storm, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.5
 

 


 

THREE BROTHERS

 
Historic Names:
 
Kom-po-pai-zes; Pom-pom-pa-sus
[Mountains Playing Leap Frog, perhaps with a sexual reference]
Eleacha [an edible plant]
Wawhawke [Falling Rocks]
 
Three Brothers refers to the three sons of the native chief Tenaya, who were captured at the foot of these rocks by the Mariposa Battalion in 1851. One son was killed while trying to escape.
 
Geology:
 
Similar to domes, the Three Brothers were shaped by a variety of weathering processes, including the exfoliation of thin rock layers. Stable cracks, known as joints, controlled the erosion of these rocks, and maintained their distinctive three­part form.
 
 
From left to right:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Pom-pom-pa-sus (Mountains Playing Leap Frog), 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19740
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Pompompasos, The Three Brothers, 4480 ft.
1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.5.20

 


 

YOSEMITE FALLS

 
As the 'High Fall' near which we were encamped, appeared to be the principal one of the Sierras, and was the fall par excellence, I gave that the name of 'Yosemite Falls.'
-- Lafayette Bunnell
 
Geology:
 
Upper Yosemite Fall flows in a hanging valley, while the Lower Fall flows over a ledge that is either joint-controlled or composed of rocks of a different composition. It may also be the result of distinct periods of erosive activity during two separate glacial stages. Together the two falls descend nearly half a mile, about nine times the height of Niagara Falls.
 
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Yosemite Falls, 2630 ft., 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.19.2007
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Yosemite Falls, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.3
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Yo-sem-i-te Falls (Large Grizzly Bear), 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19749
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Yosemite Falls from Yosemite Valley Hotel c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.9

 


 

UPPER YOSEMITE FALL

From left to right:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
The First Fall, 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19736
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Upper Yosemite Fall, 1865-66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries
L1.20.2007

 

LOWER YOSEMITE FALL

From left to right:
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Base of Lower Yo-semite Fall, 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19746
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Lower Yosemite Fall, 1865-66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries
L1.21.2007
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Summit of the Lower Yo-semite Fall, 1867
Albumen prints
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19747
 

 


 

MIRROR LAKE AND MT. WATKINS

 
Historic Names:
 
Ah-wi-yah; Waiya [Quiet Water]
Wai-ack [Rock Water]
Ke-ko-too-yem [Sleeping Water]
 
Mirror Lake, by C. H. Spencer of the Mariposa Battalion, 1851
 
Waijau [Pine Mountain]
Wei­yow [Juniper Mountain]
 
Mt. Watkins, in honor of Carleton Watkins 1868
. . . a noble overhanging mass of rock, to which the name . . . has been given as a compliment to the photographer who has done so much to attract attention to this region.
 
-- Josiah D. Whitney
California Geological Survey
 
 
Geology:
 
Mirror Lake is a glacial lake being filled in by sedimentation from Tenaya Creek, a tributary to the Merced River.
 
 
Above:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Reflection of Mount Waiya in Mirror Lake 1872
Stereo view, albumen print
Committee for Art Acquisitions Fund, 1971.14.15
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Lake Bank, 1861
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries
L1.6.2007
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Mt. Watkins and Mirror Lake, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.7
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Mirror Lake, 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.22.2007
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Mirror Lake, Yosemite, 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19735

 


 

HALF DOME

 
Historic Names:
 
Tis-se-yak; Tissaack; Tasayac [the name of a woman who was said to be transformed into the mountain]
 
Half Dome, by C. H. Spencer in the Mariposa Battalion, 1851:
I concluded he might name it what he liked, if he would leave it and go to camp; for I was getting tired and hungry and said so.
 
-- Lafayette Bunnell
Surgeon, Mariposa Battalion
 
Geology:
 
Domes are formed when concentric, spheroidal shells, like the layers of an onion, exfoliate. This is facilitated by unloading, a process in which the reduction in pressure on underlying rocks occurs as the surface bedrock is eroded away. Even jagged rocks become rounded as a result of this process.
 
The face of Half Dome is shaped by frost wedging and rock fall along a jointed surface, with the debris removed by glacial and river action.
 
 
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Tasayac, The Half Dome, 5000 ft., 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.4.2007
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, 1927/1979
Gelatin-silver print, Museum Set Edition
Gift of Peter Steil, 1984.428.2
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley 1960/1981
Gelatin-silver print, Museum Set Edition
Gift of Peter Steil, 1984.428.17
 
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Half Dome, Merced River, Winter
c. 1938/1981
Gelatin-silver print, Museum Set Edition
Gift of Peter Steil, 1984.428.9

 


 

BRIDAL VEIL FALL

 
Historic Names:
 
Pohono [Daily Puffing Wind; Blighting Wind; Evil Wind]
 
Bridal Veil Fall, by James Hutchings, 1855:
Is it not as graceful, and as beautiful, as the veil of a bride?
 
Geology:
 
Bridal Veil Fall flows through a hanging valley, the result of river drainage catapulting over the rim of the glacially scoured valley.
 
 
Above:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Pohono (Spirit of the Wind), 1872
Stereo view, albumen print
Committee for Art Acquisitions Fund, 1971.14.8
 
From left to right:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Pohono (Spirit of the Wind), 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19748
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Pohono, The Bridal Veil, 900 ft., 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.15.2007
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Bridal Veil Fall, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.6

 


 

SENTINEL ROCK

 
Historic Names:
 
Loya [corruption of "Olla," Spanish for an earthen water pot]
 
Sentinel Rock, by Josiah D. Whitney, 1869 [from its likeness to a gigantic watch-tower]
 
Geology:
 
Sentinel Rock is composed of granodiorite, a mineral that is darker than granite and includes less quartz. Its form is being weathered and eroded along joint-controlled surfaces.
 
 
Above:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Loya (Sentinel Rock), 1867
Stereo view, albumen print
Stanford Family Collections, 1973.45.18
 
From left to right:
 
GEORGE FISKE
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Profile of Sentinel Rock, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.1
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Sentinel, 3270 ft., 1865­66
The Sentinel, 3270 ft., 1865­66
Albumen prints
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.17.2007, L.1.18.2007
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Loya (Sentinel Rock), 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19744

 


 

VERNAL FALL

 
Historic Names:
 
Yan-o-pah [Little Cloud]
Pi-wy-ack [Shower of Sparkling Crystals; actually the name of Tenaya Lake]
 
Vernal Fall, [Spring] by Lafayette Bunnell, 1851
 
Geology:
 
Vernal Fall is the lowest and broadest step of a grand staircase, formed by jointed rocks.
 
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Piwyac, The Vernal Fall, 300 ft., 1861
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.7.2007
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Piwyack, Vernal Fall, 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19737
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Vernal Fall, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.2
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Vernal Falls, Yosemite Valley, 1963
Gelatin-silver print from What Majestic Word, in memory of Russell Varian, Portfolio Four, published by the Sierra Club
Gift of Dr. L. Bruce and Margery F. Meyer, 1981.294.6
 


 

MARIPOSA GROVE

 
Historic Names:
 
Llamose este sitio de las mariposas
[Called Place of the Butterflies]
 
Mariposa Grove, by Galen Clark, 1857
 
 
Above:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Grizzly Giant, 261 Feet High, 94 Feet in Circumference, 1872
Stereo view, albumen print
Committee for Art Acquisitions Fund, 1971.14.25
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Clarks, Near Big Tree Grove, 1865­66
Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, 1861
Section of the Grizzly Giant, 1865­66
Albumen prints
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.14.2007, L1.25.2007, L1.26.2007
 

 


 

WILD CAT FALL

 
Historic Names:
 
Kahchoomah Flume [Wild Cat Fall, currently the name of a different fall in the western end of the Valley]
 
Geology:
 
Originally known as a fall, this cascade is a series of continuous rapids running between Nevada and Vernal Falls.
 
 
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Cascades between the Vernal and Nevada 1861
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.8.2007
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Kah-choo-mah (Wild Cat Fall), 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19742
 

 


 

NEVADA FALL

 
Historic Names:
 
Yo-wi-ye [Squirming or Worm]
 
Nevada Fall, by Lafayette Bunnell, 1851 based on its proximity to the Sierra Nevada [Snowy Range of Mountains] and its connection to Vernal [Spring] Fall
 
Geology:
 
From Nevada Fall, the Merced River flows into the Valley over jointed granite rocks characterized as a "grand staircase."
 
 
Above:
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Base of Yowiye Fall, 1872
Stereo view, albumen print
Stanford Family Collections, 1994.40
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
Yowiye, The Nevada Fall, 700ft., 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.23.2007
 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
Yo-wi-ye, 1867
Summit of Piwyack, 1867
Albumen prints
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19745, 19739
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Nevada Fall from Clouds Rest Trail, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.8
 
 

 


 

THE HIGH SIERRA

 
Historic Names:
 
Una gran sierra nevada [Great Snowy Range] by Franciscan missionary Fray Pedro Font, 1776
 
High Sierra, by Josiah D. Whitney, 1868, to describe the higher region of the Sierra, mostly above the timberline.
 
 
From left to right:
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Domes from the Sentinel Dome
The Lyell Group from the Sentinel Dome
The Merced Group from the Sentinel Dome, 1865-66
Albumen prints
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.10.2007, L1.11.2007, L1.12.2007

 


 

TUOLUMNE MEADOWS

 
Historic Names:
 
Taulámne; Tahualamne
[Name of a native tribe]
 
 
From left to right:
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Thunder Clouds Over Unicorn Peak, 1969
Waterwheel Falls, c. 1940
Gelatin-silver prints
Gifts from the Alinder Collection, 1985.243, 1988.149
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Cathedral Peak and Lake, 1963
Tuolumne Meadows, 1963
Gelatin-silver prints from What Majestic Word, in memory of Russell Varian, Portfolio Four, published by the Sierra Club
Gifts of Dr. L. Bruce and Margery F. Meyer, 1981.294.5 1981.294.14
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Siesta Lake, 1963
Gelatin-silver print from What Majestic Word, in memory of Russell Varian, Portfolio Four, published by the Sierra Club
Gift of Dr. L. Bruce and Margery F. Meyer, 1981.294.12
 
 
Portfolio Four, 1963
What Majestic Word,
In memory of Russell Varian
 
Russell Varian, a Stanford alumnus and a founder of Varian Associates, was co-inventor of the klystron radio tube, a powerful microwave generator. The technology was subsequently used in aircraft radar, satellite communications, airplane and missile guidance systems, and telephone and television transmission. Varian was also a member of the Sierra Club, and worked actively to preserve land in Alaska and what is now known as Castle Rock State Park in California.
 
In his dedication, Adams wrote of his close friend:
 
To him, nature was a fundamental spiritual reality His Irish forebears, his poet father, his exposure to the subtle beauty of dunes and forests as a youth, and his life-long love affair with the rocks, trees, clouds, lights and storms comprising the vast Divine Performance in which we live, accumulated in him a grandeur of spirit and a magnificence of mind and heart unique in our time.
 
Excerpts from Varian's writings and the poetry of his father, John O. Varian, appear on the folders that enclose each photograph. The portfolio of 15 photographs was issued in 250 copies and ten presentation copies.
 
 


 

GEORGE FISKE

1835 Born in Amherst, New Hampshire

1858 Moved to Sacramento

1864 Active as a photographer in San Francisco

1868 Worked for Carleton Watkins's gallery, printing from Watkins's Yosemite negatives

1869-74 Took stereo views for San Francisco firm of Thomas Houseworth

1872 Photographed in Yosemite

1873 Married Elmira F. Morrill

1874 Returned to work for Watkins

1875 Accompanied Watkins on trip to Yosemite

1879-81 First to remain all year in the Valley

1882 Took up permanent residence in Yosemite; built house and studio

1883 on silver medal at San Francisco Mechanics' Institute exhibition

1884-85 Won award at the winter New Orleans World's Fair

1896 His wife Myra died

1897 Married Caroline Paull

1901-03 Sold works at the Sierra Club Cottage in Yosemite

1904 Yosemite house and studio destroyed by fire

1917 His second wife Caroline died

1918 Committed suicide

 


 

GEORGE FISKE AND YOSEMITE

Fiske is a minor luminary in the history of Yosemite photography. Early in his career he made prints from Watkins's negatives, and in admiration, even named a son after him. Fiske did not merely visit Yosemite, he became a resident and formed a friendship with Galen Clark, Yosemite's first guardian.

During the 1880s, as photographic processes became less cumbersome with a shorter exposure time and paper negatives, Fiske was able to capture fleeting effects in the sky and water. Calling his handcart of photographic equipment a "Cloud Chasing Chariot," he made the first winter and storm views of Yosemite. In later years, with greater competition from ever more photographers, Fiske increasingly relied on novelty views for tourists, such as dancing girls on overhanging rocks. Where Watkins and Muybridge rarely showed any human activity, Fiske left a rich record of Yosemite's simple buildings and its inhabitants. Although he had printed many of Watkins's mammoth-plate views, Fiske preferred smaller images; his speciality was "boudoir size" (4 x 7 inches). He never marketed mammoth-plate or stereo views under his name.

In 1918 after Fiske died, the surviving negatives were sold to Mrs. David A. Curry, who with her husband had founded Camp Curry, and continued to run concessions in the Valley. From 1927 to 1931, the young Ansel Adams made prints from these negatives. A fire in 1943 destroyed the negatives, which were stored in the attic of a sawmill in the Valley.

 


 

JOHN MUIR (1838-1914)

A Scottish­born naturalist and conservationist, John Muir is Yosemite's most famous advocate. Muir first visited Yosemite in 1868 and quickly settled in the area, working a variety of menial jobs in order to support his exploration of the surrounding wilderness. Muir's fame grew after publishing several articles about the region, and he soon became one of Yosemite's most sought after guides, accompanying many prominent visitors, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and President Theodore Roosevelt.

As his notoriety grew, so did the controversy surrounding him. He persistently countered existing theories regarding the geological formation of Yosemite, claiming that glaciers alone had formed the Valley. State Geologist Josiah D. Whitney openly criticized Muir, pointing to his lack of geological training. However, Muir's theories were finally substantiated in the 1930s by State Geologist François Matthes.

One of Muir's greatest battles was for the preservation of the Yosemite wilderness. In 1889, after more than a decade of travels throughout Alaska and the Sierra Nevada, Muir returned to Yosemite. He was distraught to discover that sheep farming had nearly destroyed his favorite High Sierra meadows, and quickly began campaigning for government protection of the entirety of Yosemite. His dreams were realized only one year later when Yosemite was finally designated a National Park.

 


 

GALEN CLARK (1814-1910)

Clark arrived in California prepared to strike gold in 1853, but while working in the Mariposa mines, he contracted a severe case of tuberculosis. As a man who liked "nothing in the world better than climbing to the top of a high ridge or mountain and looking off," Clark was determined to spend his last days in the woods of the area now known as Wawona. Once settled, Clark discovered the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. While exploring the Grove, his health greatly improved, and he committed himself to saving these massive trees from logging.

Clark's letters to Congress, as well as Carleton Watkins's photographs, convinced President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Yosemite Grant in 1864, during the height of the Civil War. The grant deeded both the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to the people of California, marking the first time in American history that the government had set apart land with the specific purpose of its preservation for the public. President Lincoln honored Clark's dedication to the area by making him one of the first Park guardians, a position Clark held proudly until 1880.

A humble man, Clark spent the last years of his life writing several books about Yosemite's Native American tribes, Giant Sequoia groves, and the Valley, without mentioning his own involvement in the preservation and formation of the Park.

 


 

NATIVE AMERICANS IN YOSEMITE

Indigenous groups had inhabited Yosemite as long as 10,000 years before white settlers discovered the Valley in the 1850s.

When the first settlers entered the Valley, they encountered a diverse group of Native Americans who called themselves the Ahwahneechee and their Valley home Ahwahnee. Made up of a mixed group that included Northern Paiute and Southern Sierra Miwok, the Ahwahneechee had strong ties to many groups outside the valley. They were hunter-gatherers who depended on acorns as the staple of their diet, supplementing it with wild crops, small fish and game, as well as the occasional deer or grizzly bear. They had a highly developed sense of both religion and politics, and were skilled at song, dance, and basket weaving.

After the 1850s, the Ahwahneechee, as well as many other small tribes living in the Yosemite area, were overrun by encroaching American civilization. After the Mariposa Indian Wars, a brief series of battles in 1851 between indigenous and American forces, most of Yosemite's Native American tribes were relocated to reservations near Fresno. Although many found ways to return to Yosemite, relocation effectively destroyed any remaining sense of tribal unity, and the Ahwahneechee split up into disparate groups.

 


 

EARLY GUIDEBOOKS

Tourism in Yosemite began long before its recognition as protected public land. In late 1855, publisher J. M. Hutchings visited Yosemite after hearing rumors about its beauty. A shrewd businessman and Yosemite's earliest promoter, Hutchings brought along artist Thomas Ayres in order to capture views of the Valley for publication in Hutchings's California Magazine. This account anticipated a slew of early guidebooks that attempted to describe Yosemite, attract visitors, and prepare them for the rough trip into the Valley. Hutchings sold the first official guidebook, Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity, in 1860. Although the book contained descriptions of many sites throughout California, Hutchings paid special attention to Yosemite, offering suggestions on places to see and the right routes to take.

Hutchings' book was later eclipsed by San Francisco journalist John S. Hittell's 1868 guidebook, Yosemite, its Wonders and its Beauties. Hittell's book included 20 of Edweard Muybridge's views accompanying the text.

Josiah D. Whitney, California State Geologist, published The Yosemite Book in 1868. This book provided comprehensive geological and botanical information gathered during the California Geological Survey.

 


 

GIANT SEQUOIAS (SEQUOIADENDROM GIGANTEA)

 

Found only on a 250-mile section of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, Giant Sequoias number among the world's largest living organisms. These massive trees can grow to over 250 feet tall and have a diameter as large as 30 feet. Although these trees grow quickly and can have a lifespan as long as 3000 years, they require thousands of gallons of water per day, and have shallow roots that are easily damaged. Without the right conditions, it is extremely difficult for the Giant Sequoia to reproduce. Their cones contain over 200 seeds each, which are only released after the cone dries out from extreme heat, insect damage, or fire. Even then, they can only germinate in soil rich in minerals and devoid of other vegetation. Although all of these conditions are best established by wildfires, fire prevention played a large part in Yosemite's history. For many years, the Park Service struggled to maintain its dwindling Giant Sequoia population before adopting controlled burns of the Yosemite Giant Sequoia groves in 1970.

Yosemite's three groves of Giant Sequoias-Tuolumne, Merced, and Mariposa-are easily accessible. The Mariposa Grove is by far the most popular, seeing a steady stream of visitors throughout the summer and fall season.

 


 

GEOLOGY OF YOSEMITE

Yosemite Valley may be viewed as the product of almost every geologic process active on our planet today. What John Muir saw as "the grandest of all the special temples of nature," we have now come to understand as a magnificent geologic work in progress. As solid and formidable as El Capitan and Half Dome appear, they are but momentary snapshots in the evolution of this part of the Sierra. Its history includes long periods of sedimentation and tectonics, episodes of volcanism and the intrusion of molten rock, uplift and tilting of the landscape, weathering, erosion by rivers and rockslides, periods of glacial erosion and deposition, the development and infilling of lakes, and the formation of the spectacular domes and waterfalls evident everywhere in and around the Valley.

And while the landscape continues to be lowered and worn down by the action of wind, water, and ice, the tectonic forces responsible for its initial uplift are still active, slowly but inexorably raising the mountains and accentuating the forces of erosion. The evolution of this dramatic landscape can be seen as a constant battle between these opposing forces, with the eventual winners being those of us fortunate enough, and wise enough, to pay attention to the results. Never has a conflict produced such beauty.

Ray Pestrong
Professor of Geology
San Francisco State University

 


 

WHAT DOES "YOSEMITE" MEAN?

Yosemite place names have a very complicated history. Several institutions and over 75 individuals, including Leland Stanford, named the cliffs, creeks, falls and meadows in Yosemite National Park. Many of the native Miwok and Paiute names have been misinterpreted due to their subtlety or the fanciful notions of their translators.

Lafayette Bunnell, a surgeon with the Mariposa Battalion, wrote Discovery of the Yosemite, where he credits himself with proposing many of the current names, including Yosemite Valley. His colleague, Major James Savage, who was familiar with the Miwok language, incorrectly based the name Yosemite on ïsümat i [grizzly bear]. In the 20th century, researchers determined that the word yosé-meti means "those who kill." Yosemite natives were members of multiple tribes, including Mono and Paiute, and they were considered enemies by the neighboring Miwok tribe.

Yosemite natives called their homeland Ahwahnee [gaping mouth] reflecting the shape of the deep valley flanked by sheer walls.

We have based our definitions on the following sources:

Peter Browning, Yosemite Place Names, Great West Books, 2005
Francis Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra, 1926
www.yosemite.ca.us - a website with over 100 books and articles about Yosemite

 


 
Eadweard Muybridge
England, 1830-1904
The Valley From Komah, 1867
Albumen print
Elizabeth K. Raymond Fund, 19738
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Yosemite Valley from the Mariposa Trail, 1865-66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.01.2007
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Vernal and Nevada Fall, 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.9.2007
 
Carleton Watkins
U.S.A., 1829-1916
The Yosemite Valley from the Best General View, 1865­66
Albumen print
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries L1.2.2007
 
George Fiske
U.S.A., 1835-1918
Yosemite Valley during a Storm, c. 1880
Albumen print
Museum Purchase Fund, 1972.41.4
 
 
Ansel Adams
U.S.A., 1902-1984
Clearing Winter Storm, c. 1944/1980
Gelatin-silver print, Museum Set Edition
Gift of Peter Steil, 1984.428.6
 
 
Top:
 
Clarence King and J.T. Gardner
Map of the Yosemite Valley, 1865
Reprinted in 1989 by Great West Books from an original in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
 
Bottom:
 
Charles F. Hoffman and J.T. Gardner
Map of a Portion of the Sierra Nevada adjacent to the Yosemite Valley, 1863­67
Reprinted in 1989 by Great West Books from an original in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

 


 
Josiah D. Whitney
U.S.A., 1819-1896
The Yosemite Book: A Description of the Yosemite Valley and the Adjacent Region of the Sierra Nevada, and of the Big Trees of California
Book with 28 albumen prints by Carleton Watkins and W. Harris
Published by Julius Bien, New York, 1868
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries
L.11.2.2007
 
Samuel Kneeland
U.S.A., 1821-1888
The Wonders of the Yosemite Valley, and of California
Book with 10 albumen prints by
John P. Soulé
Published by A. Moore, Boston; Lee & Shepherd, New York, 1872
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries
L.11.1.2007
 
John S. Hittell
U.S.A., 1826-1901
Yosemite, its Wonders and its Beauties: with the Information Adapted to the Wants of Tourists about to Visit the Valley
Book with 20 albumen prints by Eadweard Muybridge
Published by H. H. Bancroft & Co., San Francisco, 1868
Lent by Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries
L.11.3.2007
 
Samuel Kneeland
U.S.A., 1821-1888
The Wonders of the Yosemite Valley, and of California
Book with 10 albumen prints by
John P. Soulé
Published by A. Moore, Boston; Lee & Shepherd, New York, 1872
Museum Purchase Fund, 1976.36
 
 
Josiah D. Whitney
U.S.A., 1819-1896
The Yosemite Guide-Book
Published by University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge, 1871
Anonymous Loan
 
Galen Clark
U.S.A., 1814-1910
The Big Trees of California
Book with 20 albumen prints by George Fiske and others
Published by Reflex Publishing Company, Redondo, California, 1907
Stanford University Libraries
 
John Muir
Scotland, 1838-1914
The Yosemite
Book with 35 gelatin­silver prints
Published by The Century Company
New York, 1912
Stanford University Libraries
 

 


 

STEREOSCOPES AND STEREO VIEWS

Stereo views are paired images photographed through two lenses, spaced about 2 _ inches apart, like human eyes. Each image is slightly different; when looking through a stereoscope, the eyes blend them into one, creating a nearly realistic vision with an illusion of depth.

The stereoscope was invented in 1833 to create three-dimensional views of drawings. It was only a technical curiosity until photography became a more common medium. The popularity of stereo views expanded when Queen Victoria received a stereoscope at the London Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851.

From the 1850s until the 1930s stereoscopic views were a typical source of entertainment in middle class homes. Like television in the 20th century, they introduced viewers to exotic foreign countries, famous people, natural disasters, and splendid landscapes.

Watkins and Muybridge photographed stereo views along with their larger images of Yosemite, and they were very profitable. In the 1870s and 1880s nearly 100 photographers made stereo views of Yosemite.

 


 

(above: Eadweard Muybridge, Mirror Lake, Yosemite, 1867)

 

(above: Eadweard Muybridge, The First Fall, 1867)

 

(above: Eadweard Muybridge, Pom-pom-pa-sus (Mountains Playing Leap Frog), 1867)

 

(above: Eadweard Muybridge, Pohono (Spririt of the Wind), 1867)

 

(above: Eadweard Muybridge, Yo-sem-i-te Falls (Large Grizzly Bear), 1867)

 

Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy:

 

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