Snapshots of the Past

[Cathedral Rocks, with lake and trees in foreground, Yosemite Valley, Calif.] – Historic Print

[Cathedral Rocks, with lake and trees in foreground, Yosemite Valley, Calif.], [ca. 1865] — historic photograph
[Cathedral Rocks, with lake and trees in foreground, 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

Step back in time with [Cathedral Rocks, with lake and trees in foreground, Yosemite Valley, Calif.], a historic photograph rich in period detail. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[Cathedral Rocks, with lake and trees in foreground, Yosemite Valley, Calif.]

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Cathedral Rocks, the granite spires rising above the Merced River near the eastern end of Yosemite Valley, is the focus here, with a still lake and a screen of trees filling the foreground. The albumen print dates from around 1865, a few years after Congress set Yosemite aside in 1864 as a protected grant to California, the first such reservation of scenic land by the federal government. Photographers working in the valley at that time used large glass-plate cameras that demanded long exposures, which is why the scene shows such crisp detail in its rock faces and foliage. The Library of Congress holds the print, and it was reproduced in a 1997 survey of American visual history.

Created / published[ca. 1865]
Medium1 photographic print : albumen.
GenreLandscape photographs 1860-1870.Mammoth plates 1860-1870.Albumen prints 1860-1870.
NotesPublished in: Eyes of the nation : a visual history of the United States / Vincent Virga and curators of the Library of Congress ; historical commentary by Alan Brinkley. New York : Knopf, 1997.
SubjectsLakes & ponds--California--1860-1870. Mountains--California--1860-1870. Trees--California--1860-1870. Yosemite National Park (Calif.)--1860-1870.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan9,565 × 7,583 px · prints to 32 × 25 in at 300 dpi
Referencetif09992_CathedralRockswithlakeandtrees

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