Snapshots of the Past

[Cathedral Spires, Yosemite National Park, Calif.] – Historic Print

[Cathedral Spires, Yosemite National Park, Calif.], [ca. 1860] — historic photograph
[Cathedral Spires, Yosemite National Park, Calif.], [ca. 1860]. Historic photograph from the Yosemite collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Few images capture their era like this historic photograph of [Cathedral Spires, Yosemite National Park, Calif.]. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[Cathedral Spires, Yosemite National Park, Calif.]

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Cathedral Spires, the rock formation the title names, is one of the granite pinnacles that rise along the southern wall of Yosemite Valley, and its name reflects the spire-like shapes that struck early visitors as church architecture. The print dates to about 1860, a few years after the valley and the Mariposa Grove were set aside by Congress in 1864 and when few Americans had seen the region firsthand. Photographs like this one helped introduce the valley's sheer cliffs and waterfalls to eastern audiences, many of whom had only heard accounts of the landscape. Look closely at the scale of the rock against the trees and the sky to see why the pictures of that era so often emphasized it.

Created / published[ca. 1860]
Medium1 photographic print.
GenreLandscape photographs 1860.Photographic prints 1860.
SubjectsMountains--California--1860. Yosemite National Park (Calif.)--1860.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,280 × 1,016 px · prints to 4 × 3 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-124038

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