Snapshots of the Past

[Stream and trees with Half Dome in background, Yosemite Valley, Calif.] – Historic Print

[Stream and trees with Half Dome in background, Yosemite Valley, Calif.], [ca. 1865] — historic photograph
[Stream and trees with Half Dome in background, Yosemite Valley, Calif.], [ca. 1865]. 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 [Stream and trees with Half Dome in background, Yosemite Valley, Calif.]. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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[Stream and trees with Half Dome in background, Yosemite Valley, Calif.]

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Half Dome rises at the back of this view, with a stream and a stand of trees filling the foreground, a composition that made Yosemite Valley legible to eastern audiences in the 1860s. The print is an albumen print from a mammoth plate, a large-format glass negative that gave photographers of the period unusually fine detail. Yosemite was granted to California by Congress in 1864 as a protected valley, and photographers who worked there, such as Carleton Watkins, sold views like this one to a public eager to see the new wonder of the West. The Library of Congress holds the print, which was shown in its 2007 exhibition American Treasures.

Created / published[ca. 1865]
Medium1 photographic print : albumen.
GenreLandscape photographs 1860-1870.Mammoth plates 1860-1870.Albumen prints 1860-1870.
NotesExhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2007.
SubjectsMountains--California--1860-1870. Streams--California--1860-1870. Trees--California--1860-1870. Yosemite Valley (Calif.)--1860-1870.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan9,573 × 7,642 px · prints to 32 × 25 in at 300 dpi
Referencetif09991_StreamandtreeswithHalfDomeinba

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